USAID Commemorates 20 years of PEPFAR
As USAID commemorates 20 years of PEPFAR, learn more about how Project HOPE and USAID have partnered to make remarkable strides in the fight against HIV/AIDS across Africa.
Since 1986, USAID’s HIV/AIDS program has been on the forefront of the global AIDS crisis, and since 2003 has been a leader in implementing the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which has helped over a dozen high disease burden countries stabilize or decrease their HIV epidemics.
In 2003, only 50,000 people in Africa, where the HIV epidemic hit the hardest, were on lifesaving HIV treatment. Over the past 20 years, the U.S. government, through PEPFAR, has helped not only save and improve millions of lives, but also transform the global HIV/AIDS response. Currently, USAID provides over 7 million people living with HIV with lifesaving HIV treatment. Ninety-five percent of the people who received a viral load test are virally suppressed, meaning that they can live longer, healthier lives and the virus can no longer be transmitted.
Project HOPE’s work with PEPFAR began in 2005 in Mozambique and Namibia. Since that time, we expanded our work with PEPFAR programs in Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, and Zambia.
In Namibia, we’ve witnessed remarkable strides over the last 20 years, including achieving the UNAIDS 90-90-90 treatment targets ahead of the 2020 goal and being on track to attain the 2030 UNAIDS goals ahead of schedule. In Ethiopia, we’ve witnessed significant improvement in minimizing stigma and discrimination, and we are on track to achieve epidemic control.
PEPFAR has allowed global, regional, and local experts to coalesce and make a difference in fighting the disease that almost took a generation from our parents, children, and communities. PEPFAR has allowed us to dream of something that previously seemed impossible to accomplish in global health.
Read more about how USAID is commemorating 20 years of PEPFAR >>
Copy excerpted with permission from USAID.gov.