Despite fractured politics in the US (and elsewhere) around foreign aid, Congress recently reauthorised plans to fund PEPFAR – the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief – even though the programme itself has not been formally reauthorised.

Since being established in 2003, PEPFAR funding for prevention, care and treatment programmes is estimated to have saved over 26 million lives. It's one of the most successful global health initiatives, and against all odds it remains a symbol of bipartisan cooperation.

But this moment raises bigger questions about what comes next. How sustainable is a model that depends so heavily on political will in the Global North? How can countries in the Global South set their own agendas? And how will increasingly polarised US politics shape PEPFAR's future, especially on issues around sexual and reproductive health and rights?

Guests dissect these questions and examine how PEPFAR and the wider global health architecture must evolve to meet today’s urgent challenges.

Guests

• Sara Pantuliano (host), Chief Executive
• Elizabeth Campbell, Executive Director, ODI Global Washington
• Doris Macharia, President, Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation
• Fionnuala Murphy, Head of Global Advocacy, Frontline AIDS

Related resources

• PEPFAR Latest Global Results & Projections Factsheet (Dec. 2024) (US Department of State)
• Frontline AIDS welcomes the news that PEPFAR will be spared from US cuts to aid (Frontline AIDS statement)
• How do US policy changes target transgender rights and undermine democracy? (Insight, ODI Global)