Assessing the Impact of the PEPFAR Stop Work Order
A new analysis shows that the HIV funding freeze is reversing hard-won progress toward ending AIDS
A January 20th Trump Administration stop work order on most foreign assistance has put the lives of millions of people living with HIV worldwide at grave risk, according to a survey of PEPFAR (the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) funding recipients conducted by amfAR and other advocacy groups.
A waiver was granted to PEPFAR on February 1. HIV diagnostics, treatment, and other resources may be resumed, but HIV prevention services, except for those targeting mother-to-child transmission, are still paused. PEPFAR funding recipients, however, have been hindered by communication breakdowns effected by gag orders on U.S. agencies. As a result, only a few know about the waiver and treatment and all other activities are still paused. Importantly, with PEPFAR data systems shut down, the impacts of the pause on the program’s services cannot be tracked.
In response, amfAR and other advocates distributed a web-based survey to 153 eligible PEPFAR funding recipients from 27 countries to catalogue the impact of the stop work order on service delivery, staffing, and the ability to continue operations during the funding freeze. The results indicate that the funding freeze is already having devastating effects on the global HIV response.
Read the full analysis in the Journal of the International AIDS Society.
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