2020 is a critical year for our Joint Programme as we collectively define the path to getting back on track to ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030. Our revised timelines for adoption of the next strategy are highly ambitious. We need the full support of all the tremendously dedicated people in UNAIDS-within our staff, our board and all our stakeholders to make this happen.

At a time when we should be entering the last mile in the decade of action for the SDGs, UNAIDS highlights with urgent concern that the HIV epidemic among people who use drugs is still increasing. Worldwide, 14% of the 12 million people who inject drugs are living with HIV. The risk of acquiring HIV for people who inject drugs is 22 times higher than for those who do not. In many countries, the quality, coverage and funding for HIV programmes among people who inject drugs is deteriorating. This is not just a worrying trend. This is a public health emergency.