Achieving the Fast-Track milestones by 2020 will put the world on a trajectory to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030. The gains will be massive. UNAIDS calculations show that reaching the 2020 milestones will produce multiple major benefits compared to maintaining the current approach.

Within the pages of this World AIDS Day report, Focus on location and population, are more than 50 examples of how countries are getting on the Fast-Track. It shows how governments are working with community groups and international partners to scale up health and social services that put people at the centre and located where they can do more people more good. 

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• Part 1 (Foreword - Conclusions)
• Part 2a (Where services are needed - Lesotho)
• Part 2b (Malawi - References)

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• Part 1 (Foreword - Conclusions) (PDF, 27MB)
• Part 2a (Where services are needed - Lesotho) (PDF, 87MB)
• Part 2b (Malawi - References) (PDF, 72MB)
• Full report (PDF, 186MB)

Urban areas are also home to millions of people who have fallen through the cracks of social, political and economic life. People who lack access to education, health services and prevention measures face significantly higher health risks. Under these social conditions, many diseases including HIV spread more quickly. Additionally, poor sanitation and crowding foster the spread of tuberculosis, which is the leading cause of death among people living with HIV. Cities need to address their significant disparities in access to basic services, social justice and economic opportunities. Using a Fast-Track AIDS response, cities can improve social equality for people affected by HIV and those living with the disease, while also addressing related public health challenges in new and innovative ways to prevent disease. Methodology Additional resources

The human rights response to HIV, largely implemented by civil society, has been crucial to the HIV response, but it appears that the funding for this work is insufficient and may be threatened further. Based on these concerns—and with the support of the Ford Foundation—UNAIDS commissioned research to better understand the current and future funding landscape as experienced by the civil society groups that are implementing key human rights programmes in the HIV response. This paper presents the results of this research and makes recommendations in an effort to ensure sufficient and sustainable funding for that crucial work until the end of the AIDS epidemic.

Global goals inspire action. They forge new pathways towards a better future and they demonstrate just how inextricably linked we are in this world. Early on in the AIDS response we learned that responding to AIDS could not be done in isolation. We would need a people-centred approach that left no one behind. And the response became an example of what a holistic development agenda could look like when evidence and human rights meet hope and resilience. By reaching and exceeding Millennium Development Goal 6, we halted and reversed the AIDS epidemic and ensured more than 15 million people had access to life-saving HIV treatment. When goals are reached we reach even higher.

Cities gave rise to the first cases of HIV infection ever recognized, and the role of urban areas in the global AIDS response has only intensified over time. Globally, 200 cities account for roughly 25% of all people living with HIV. In many countries, a single city accounts for 40% or more of all people living with HIV.

Ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 is feasible if the world’s major cities act immediately and decisively to Fast-Track their AIDS responses by 2020. Success will rely upon cities frontloading investments and stepping up the pace of delivering HIV services, especially the roll-out of antiretroviral therapy.

UNAIDS welcomes additional evidence released in May 2015 that early initiation of antiretroviral therapy has a positive effect on the health and well-being of people living with HIV. The United States National Institutes of Health-funded international randomized clinical trial START (Strategic Timing of Antiretroviral Treatment) has found compelling evidence that the benefits of starting antiretroviral therapy as soon as someone is diagnosed outweigh the risks of delaying until their CD4 count has fallen to 350 cells/mm³.