5 Phases for the new Global AIDS Strategy.

 

Global Aids Strategy

Major milestones in the development of the Strategy.

▪ Developing the targets. Throughout 2024 and in early 2025, UNAIDS laid the foundation for the development of the next Global AIDS Strategy. This involved four streams of work: 

(a) the mid-term review of the 2021–2026 Global AIDS Strategy; 

(b) the development of 2030 global AIDS targets by an advisory Global Task Team on Targets for 2030; 70 

(c) support to countries to develop national HIV sustainability roadmaps; and 

(d) multi-stakeholder consultations. The work continued despite the mounting financial challenges in 2025. 

▪ Identifying what worked. The mid-term review highlighted major gains, especially in the expansion of access to HIV treatment, but also showed persistent inequalities in access to HIV prevention and insufficient progress in removing societal and structural barriers. It identified major opportunities to expand access to new prevention technologies, secure sustainable financing (particularly in lower-income, high-burden settings), integrate HIV treatment and prevention services in broader health and development agendas, and address inequalities. Those insights provided a basis for the wide-ranging consultations that have shaped the Global AIDS Strategy 2026–2031.

 ▪ Getting inputs from others. In addition to the mid-term review, the priorities and results areas for the next Strategy were informed by inputs from countries (e.g. through the development of the HIV sustainability roadmaps) and findings of a recent online survey, as well as national AIDS plans and assessments, which highlighted the main barriers and key priority areas for action.

▪ Responding to changing conditions. Since 2024, the landscape of the HIV response has changed significantly, marked by shifts in HIV-specific funding, the overall aid architecture and the emergence of innovations and technologies that offer exciting new opportunities. The HIV funding ecosystem was particularly affected by changing multilateral priorities in early 2025. The Global AIDS Update 2025 documents these changes along with the latest data on the HIV epidemic and response. 73 ▪ Gathering further inputs. Multi-stakeholder consultations took place in March, April and October 2025. Representatives from nearly 100 national governments and 379 civil society organizations participated in the meetings, and more than 3,000 stakeholders participated in an online survey. Participants were asked to identify priority actions. 

▪ Ensuring a sound scientific basis. Experts from academic and scientific institutions from across the world were engaged throughout the process as members of the Global Task Team on targets and through a dedicated consultation which was held during the International AIDS Conference in Kigali in July 2025, as well as through participation in thematic groups. The evidence base for the Strategy is also outlined in the mid-term review of the 2021–2026 Global AIDS Strategy (published in July 2024) and in the Global AIDS Update 2025, each of which is fully referenced. 

▪ Prioritization. To guide the consultations, a prioritization matrix was embedded in the official facilitation guide. This enabled participants to assess and rank potential areas of focus based on agreed criteria such as urgency, impact, feasibility and alignment with strategic goals. The use of the matrix supported structured dialogues and consensus-building across diverse stakeholder groups. The results of these exercises were then synthesized to identify the strategic priorities and results areas presented in this outline.

For more information on the work of the Global Task Team, see: Recommended 2030 targets for HIV |UNAIDS