AIDS 2026: Priorities for the International AIDS Conference

While scientific progress has offered unprecedented possibilities for preventing, diagnosing and treating HIV, the advances achieved over the past few decades are being threatened by unequal access, constraints on international global health financing and a growing number of crises.

Ending the HIV pandemic as a public health threat calls for a continuous and renewed collective commitment.

HIV/AIDS in 2024 :

Four priorities for the 2026 International AIDS Conference in Rio de Janeiro

A founding member of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in 2002, as well as Unitaid in 2006, France is one of the first countries to have advocated for international action based on the values of solidarity and universal access to treatment.

In Rio, the French Ambassador for Global Health, Anne-Claire Amprou, will promote four priorities, illustrated in the programme for her stand:

1. Supporting communities and civil society
   France recognizes the active role of communities and civil society in health systems. Community organizations are at the heart of the HIV response: they reach the groups most exposed, support people living with HIV, and fight against discrimination and unequal access to care. Their contribution is vital, and their resources must be maintained and strengthened.
2. Ensuring equal access to healthcare products and innovations
   Long-acting treatments, new prevention and diagnosis strategies and research breakthroughs must benefit everyone. Local and regional manufacturing as well as the diversification of supply sources are key levers to sustainably strengthen access to healthcare products and innovation. France supports an approach based on equity and access to affordable, high-quality innovations.
3. Strengthening scientific cooperation
   The cooperation initiative between France and Brazil illustrates the importance of scientific partnerships to develop knowledge, strengthen research capacities, foster exchange between researchers, develop inter-regional cooperation projects and accelerate the spread of innovations to benefit populations.
4. Promoting a sovereign, long-term response to combat HIV
   Investing in national capacities for research, data collection and analysis, prevention, healthcare human resources training and access to innovation is essential to strengthen the resilience of primary healthcare systems. Health sovereignty in the fight against HIV relies on sustained financing for health, political will and balanced partnerships, including with community actors and civil society.

Innovation, cooperation, commitment: the French response to HIV

As HIV knows no borders, our response must be collective and inclusive. France is fully mobilized alongside researchers, health professionals, communities and all of its partners to secure the gains achieved, improve access to innovations, promote prevention, support research, including operations research, and safeguard the human rights- and gender-based approach that is key to ending HIV.