At AIDS 2026 in Rio de Janeiro, the UNAIDS Executive Director urged governments to protect decades of progress as declining international financing, unequal treatment access and rising infections in parts of the world threaten the global response.
At the 26th International AIDS Conference, Winnie Byanyima delivered a message of guarded optimism and growing urgency: the world has the tools needed to end AIDS as a public health threat, but the systems sustaining progress are under increasing pressure.
As Executive Director of UNAIDS and a United Nations Under-Secretary-General, Byanyima leads the UN’s coordinated response to HIV. At AIDS 2026, held in Rio de Janeiro and virtually from July 26 to 31, she called for renewed financing, stronger national health systems, protection of community-led services and equitable access to medical innovation.
The conference came just over a month after 149 UN Member States adopted a new Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS, establishing priorities for the final years before 2030.
Progress Under Pressure
UNAIDS estimates that 41 million people were living with HIV in 2025. Around 1.2 million people acquired HIV, while 570,000 died from AIDS-related illnesses.
Treatment access has expanded significantly, with 32.1 million people receiving antiretroviral therapy. Yet nearly nine million people living with HIV remained without treatment. The gap was especially pronounced among children, only 55% of whom had access to treatment, compared with 79% of adults.
Progress is also uneven. UNAIDS reported that new infections increased in three regions and 21 countries.
Financing has become another major concern. International resources for the HIV response fell by 18% in 2025, the largest decline in almost two decades. Total funding in low- and middle-income countries stood at $17.6 billion, about 20% below the amount UNAIDS estimates will be needed annually by 2030.
“Despite enormous challenges, ending AIDS is still within reach,” Winnie Byanyima said at the conference, calling for sustained financing, international solidarity and continued commitment to human rights.
From Engineering to Global Advocacy
Born in Uganda, Byanyima trained as an aeronautical engineer and later earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering.
Winnie Byanyima served three terms in Uganda’s parliament, helped establish the country’s first parliamentary women’s caucus and later held senior roles at the African Union Commission and the United Nations Development Programme. Before joining UNAIDS in 2019, she served as Executive Director of Oxfam International.
Her leadership has consistently connected public health with inequality, gender, economic exclusion and human rights. At UNAIDS, she has argued that HIV cannot be treated solely as a biomedical challenge because access to prevention and care is also shaped by poverty, discrimination and punitive laws.
Protecting Community-Led Services
Community organizations have long played a central role in reaching people who face stigma or barriers within traditional health systems.
UNAIDS has warned that these organizations are often among the first affected when international financing declines. Cuts can disrupt testing, prevention, treatment support and trusted services for marginalized communities.
Winnie Byanyima has therefore made community leadership central to her agenda. Her challenge is to support a transition toward stronger national financing and more integrated health systems without weakening the community infrastructure that helped drive earlier progress.
Making Innovation Accessible
Long-acting HIV prevention medicines could significantly reshape the global response.
Lenacapavir, administered by injection twice a year, offers an alternative for people who face difficulties accessing or consistently taking daily preventive medication.
Its impact, however, will depend on affordability, regulatory approval, manufacturing capacity and delivery at scale. Winnie Byanyima has emphasized that scientific breakthroughs must reach the countries and communities carrying the greatest burden of new infections.
Why It Matters
The HIV response has expanded treatment to tens of millions of people and contributed to major declines in AIDS-related deaths. But the final phase of the global effort may be the most difficult.
Governments are being asked to assume greater responsibility for national programs while international support remains essential in countries with high disease burdens and limited fiscal capacity.
Winnie Byanyima’s task is not only to defend existing programs, but to help build a response that is more sustainable, nationally owned and integrated without sacrificing community leadership, human rights or global solidarity.
Her message from Rio is clear: ending AIDS remains possible, but progress is neither automatic nor irreversible. Whether the world reaches the 2030 objective will depend on the decisions governments, donors and health systems make now.
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