The board of UNAIDS — a joint program established in 1996 to better coordinate the AIDS response across the United Nations — has agreed to set up a working group to guide the organization’s transition and integration into the wider U.N. system, and address lingering questions about its future as 2025 concludes.
UNAIDS is currently composed of a secretariat headquartered in Geneva and a set of U.N. agencies that serve as cosponsors. In 2025, in response to calls for changes within the joint program and broader U.N. system, and facing a funding crisis amid significant reductions in donor funding, the secretariat launched a restructuring effort that reduces its staff by 55%, and relocates remaining staff outside of Geneva.
But that also prompted a discussion on the further transformation and integration of its work in the years ahead — and potentially the closing down of the secretariat by 2030, if the global HIV response “progresses well.”
About the author
Jenny Lei Ravelo@JennyLeiRavelo
Jenny Lei Ravelo is a Devex Senior Reporter based in Manila. She covers global health, with a particular focus on the World Health Organization, and other development and humanitarian aid trends in Asia Pacific. Prior to Devex, she wrote for ABS-CBN, one of the largest broadcasting networks in the Philippines, and was a copy editor for various international scientific journals. She received her journalism degree from the University of Santo Tomas.
