Deputy Secretary-General, Addressing UNAIDS Programme Coordination Board, Highlights Transition Strategy, Legacy as United Nations Success Story

Following are Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed's remarks, as prepared for delivery, at the fifty-seventh session of the UNAIDS Programme Coordination Board, in Brasilia today:

Let me begin by thanking the Executive Director of UNAIDS, and Brazil as Chair of the [Programme Coordination Board] PCB for the invitation to be with you today. I am here to share my perspectives, but - above all - to listen to yours. The inclusive nature of this group is one of its strengths which is demonstrated so clearly here today.

I was encouraged by the conversation this morning on the Global AIDS Strategy.

To realize its ambitious goals, ensuring the means of implementation will be essential. This means leveraging domestic resources at a time when many developing countries face significant financial pressures and competing priorities.

Even where there is a strong willingness to invest more in their HIV/AIDS response, high debt levels and fiscal constraints often force Governments to divert scarce resources from essential sectors such as health and education to meet urgent demands.

This reality points to a broader point: The need to reform the international financial architecture.

In recent years, we have witnessed the international community stepping back from both development and humanitarian responses. One of our key tasks - through the Global AIDS Strategy, the transition of UNAIDS, and UN80 more broadly - is to better understand how we can effectively encourage the international community to re-engage.

We need to listen to donors and acknowledge the genuine constraints that they are facing. At the same time, financing and implementation must be a central part of our conversation.

We meet at a pivotal moment in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

For more than four decades, UNAIDS played a vital role in the global response. It stands as one of the United Nations major success stories, with countless lives saved. Our pride - which we fully share with all our partners worldwide - is well-supported by the statistics.

AIDS-related deaths have been reduced by 70 per cent since their peak in 2004 and by 54 per cent since 2010. HIV prevention and treatment services have reduced new infections by 40 per cent between 2010 and 2024.

It is important to remember that these achievements go far beyond health.

Our response is critical to giving people a fair chance at life - and protecting the most vulnerable everywhere.

As we celebrate these successes, we must focus on how we continue strengthening the ability of the UN system to deliver support for the key populations most in need.

In the Secretary-General's UN80 report, he sets out a vision for further integration of UNAIDS' capacity and expertise across the system - through the co-sponsors and partners. This is not about diluting UNAIDS' impact - but further strengthening it and build on its remarkable success.

It is in a spirit of renewal that the Secretary-General has proposed to Member States that they take a decision to sunset UNAIDS by 2026. This is about a constructive and robust transition.

These changes are about ensuring we keep the UNAIDS mission alive.

This builds upon the discussions that the PCB has been having about safeguarding the enduring legacy of UNAIDS. And allow me to reassure everyone that the Secretary-General and I are guided by the same principle of preserving that legacy.

The Secretary-General has asked that I work with you - the board, the programme - to help guide this progress.

In the past few weeks, I have met with many of you, including the Member States, the UNAIDS, co-sponsors and the NGO delegation. Your lived experience, expertise and analysis continue to shape our thinking and our response. Through these discussions, I grow increasingly reassured of the transition vision.

Let me be very clear: The mission must continue, and it must be responsive in the face of a rapid changing environment. I have my marching orders to deliver this mission.

First, we will safeguard the uninterrupted delivery of HIV and AIDS services. We will carefully transition its capacities and expertise into the parts of the UN system best positioned to carry this mission forward effectively and sustainably. The UN's collective expertise and programming from across our entities and agencies will be brought into a re-imagined structure to support governments and civil society.

Second, Governments and civil society remain at the centre of the HIV response. The United Nations will continue to support national leadership, helping countries sustain and integrate HIV services within their broader health and social systems. Civil society will remain at the heart of this response.

Third, the UN system must collaborate more cohesively drawing on comparative strengths of our entities. This will require us to change the way we are working and become more responsive.

Fourth, sustained financing and funding underpins all our efforts. Without adequate and predictable financing, even the strongest strategies and partnerships cannot succeed. HIV must remain visible and prioritized in national budgets and global financing discussions. Ending AIDS remains achievable, but only if resources match our ambition. We must ensure we not only safeguard the resources but also mobilize more.

Finally, advocacy will remain a key tenet of this process - your voices continue to be essential. A successful transition can only be achieved in full partnership with all UNAIDS stakeholders.

Throughout our engagement with you, we have carefully noted your ideas and your legitimate concerns.

The Secretary-General's timeline for a decision by June 2026 is ambitious but achievable.

[The Economic and Social Council] ECOSOC and the relevant specialized agencies cosponsoring UNAIDS hold the formal decision-making authority for the sunsetting of UNAIDS. The PCB will continue to play a critical role in ensuring a smooth and responsible transition that is well thought out, safe and inclusive.

To align with these timeframes, final PCB guidance would need to be provided on a more progressive timeline than the end of December 2026. It is critical that we bring this timeline forward to mid-2026, as I have discussed with the Executive Director and the Chair.

This would mean that the final report of the transition team should be issued well in advance of presented to the PCB meeting in June 2026, allowing enough time for or decisions from ECOSOC and for the relevant specialized agencies to consider the matter.

The transition will be sequenced, allowing milestones to guide this.

The UN will always standby our mandate on HIV/AIDS. This is not a retreat, it is about preserving and enforcing the mission whilst facing down unprecedented pressures.

Throughout, we are drawing immense inspiration from the many important signs of country and community resilience that are emerging around the world. Brazil - our host - is one such example, for requesting the certification for the elimination of mother to child transmission of HIV.

Inspired by your leadership, we remain certain that we can protect and build on the extraordinary success of UNAIDS through a careful and substantive transition.

You have my full commitment - not only to work closely with you throughout this transition and address your legitimate concerns - but also on UN80 more broadly. There are cross-cutting workstreams such as country configurations and the regional reset, which will have important implications for this constituency. We are also advancing the humanitarian reset, guided by our shared commitment to leaving no one behind. I thank you.