Our key priorities for 2025

We aim to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. We asked Frontline AIDS’ leaders what their top priorities were for 2025 to help us achieve our mission.

lois chingandu: director of external relations
2025 marks a pivotal year for the financing and future sustainability of the global HIV response. 2025 and Donald Trump’s return to the White House is likely to herald an expanded Global gag rule preventing US funds from supporting any organisations that provide abortion services, referrals, counselling or advocacy, as well as a new anti-trans gag. This is likely to have a detrimental impact on global HIV and sexual and reproductive health and rights programmes and will have serious implications for HIV and Sexual reproductive health (SRHR) funding.
This presents a significant challenge for us, as we seek to persuade bilateral donors and philanthropists to step up their funding for HIV, and to support the civil society and community organisations that are most likely to be affected by the negative impacts of the new gags. Yet it’s also an opportunity to look for ways to more sustainably finance the HIV response of the future, in a year when governments will already be developing national HIV sustainability plans. In the first half of the year, the high-level panel on a resilient and fit-for-purpose UNAIDS’ Joint Programme will also conclude, and it’s important for Frontline AIDS to ensure that the priorities and perspectives of communities and civil society are strongly reflected in its conclusions.
Donald Trump’s return to the White House is likely to herald an expanded Global gag rule which is likely to have a detrimental impact on global HIV and sexual and reproductive health and rights programmes. It will have serious implications for HIV and sexual reproductive health fundingLois Chingandu, Director of External Relations, Frontline AIDS
Internally at Frontline AIDS, strengthening our donor relationships and securing new funding sources will also be a major priority. Supporting the replenishment of the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria will of course be critical for us, as the largest global partnership of civil society and community-led implementers of Global Fund grants.

FIONNUALA MURPHY: HEAD OF GLOBAL ADVOCACY
2025 will be a year of seizing new chances, while also facing down threats. Long acting antiretrovirals, like Lenacapavir, represent a game-changing opportunity, but we know that game-changing technologies do not always reach the people who need them.
We’ll be supporting our partners to strengthen their advocacy for new HIV prevention technologies, helping to ensure that they reach the communities who need them most, in ways that work for them, alongside bringing our partnership’s voice to the global call for them to be affordable and accessible to all.
Building collective resistance to anti-rights attacks will be an important priority for us, working with communities on the frontline to fortify their defencesFionnuala Murphy, Head of Global Advocacy, Frontline AIDS
In terms of challenges, we are preparing for increased US-led attacks on human rights and access to care for trans people, in what is already a very hostile environment for LGBTQ+ people and for sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Building collective resistance to anti-rights attacks will be an important priority for us, working with communities on the frontline to fortify their defences, including through our Rapid Response Fund, which enables communities to quickly deal with these threats. We’ll also be supporting the growth of strong national, regional and global civil society movements and advocating for stronger international action to counter anti-rights mobilisation.
This year you’ll hear us speaking up for human rights, the global AIDS response and the leadership of communities affected by HIV at key events, including the Commission on the Status of Women and the World Health Assembly, as well as on the UNAIDS and Global Fund boards. We will also be convening our partnership around the development of a new Global AIDS strategy, led by UNAIDS.

revati chawla: interim head of programmes
Promoting the integration of the prevention and treatment for health challenges and medical conditions that increase the risk of contracting HIV will be a key area for Frontline AIDS in 2025. These conditions include hepatitis C and Female Genital Schistosomiasis (FGS), a neglected disease affecting up to 56 million women and girls, mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa. People affected by HIV may face risks related to Hepatitis C if, for example, they inject drugs.
We are working with inspiring partners in Kyrgyzstan, Egypt and Nigeria who are providing community-led models of care including treatment for hep C. We will discuss findings from the community-based research at the 13th International Conference on Health and Hepatitis in Substance Users in October 2025, Cape Town, South Africa. FGS causes serious sexual and reproductive health issues and significantly increases the risk of HIV and Human papillomavirus (HPV) infections.
We are pushing for integrated, person-centred health services – they reduce stigma, improve access to health services and optimise resourcesRevati Chawla, Interim Head of Programmes, Frontline AIDS
We are part of a coalition, called the FGS Integration Group, which is mobilising resources for operational research, programming and advocacy for integrating FGS into public and community health services programmes. Women and girls at risk of HIV and FGS should be at the heart of these health systems.
Overall, siloed approaches to delivering health services often lead to inefficiencies and gaps in care. That is why we are pushing for integrated, person-centred health services – they reduce stigma, improve access to health services and optimise resources. Our READY model, a portfolio of programmes designed to build Resilient and Empowered Adolescents and Young people (READY) will continue to grow this year expanding to Malawi and Mozambique. This means that we are now implementing the model in seven African countries.

david clark: interim director programmes & partnership
The world seems more likely to become less safe and more volatile in 2025 and this will affect communities across the world. For example, our partners in Ukraine and the Middle East will continue to provide HIV, health and humanitarian support to marginalised communities, such as trans people and people who use drugs, who are often ignored by governments and the wider humanitarian system.
Our 30-year long history of partnership has given us in-depth experience of how to reach and serve these marginalised communities, even in the midst of a humanitarian crisis.
We have a huge amount to offer the wider humanitarian sphere in terms of the methods and approaches we have used to reach deep into marginalised communities quicklyDavid Clark, Interim Head of Programmes and Partnership
Our partner Alliance for Public Health (APH), a Ukrainian NGO renowned for its dedication to combating HIV and tuberculosis, is using innovative approaches to provide crucial humanitarian support and healthcare to those on the frontline, including pioneering the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) programs to analyse client records in order to identify populations vulnerable to acquiring HIV. They have been so effective that every second person diagnosed with HIV during the war was tested within APH-supported programmes, and over 40% of all those who started taking ARTs were referred and linked to services by APH and its partners. This is just one example of the innovative work our partners are doing on the frontline.
We have a huge amount to offer the wider humanitarian sphere in terms of the methods and approaches we have used to reach deep into marginalised communities quickly. We also need to build partnerships to reduce the real risk that climate change poses to our mission to end AIDS. Climate change threatens to derail decades of progress on HIV and our movement needs to join forces with others to grow and to meet the moment.

john plastow: executive director
This year the Frontline AIDS partnership will build a shared strategy with civil society partners from across all regions of the world for 2026 to 2030. Frontline AIDS has a 30-year history of partnership and innovation. The partnership has incredible strength and depth, serving at least 7.8 million people last year, with a focus on reaching the most underserved and overlooked groups.
Partners and allies will feed into our new strategy. This will guide our work to achieve our mission to end AIDS for everyone, everywhereJohn Plastow, Executive Director, Frontline AIDS
The starting point will always be the lived reality of the partners and the communities they serve, and we will run regional conversations across the world to listen to that reality.
Partners and allies will feed into the strategy development and validate it, which is crucial as the strategy will guide our work to achieve our mission to end AIDS for everyone, everywhere. This is a crucial opportunity to mobilise our partnership to bring a strong shared voice and approach to end AIDS by 2030.
In 2025 we will likely see the funding and policy architecture that has underpinned the HIV response to date threatened and destabilised. How we respond will determined whether the 2030 goal becomes a lived reality or a lofty ambition.
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2025FGSglobal advocacyGlobal Partnershiphumanitarian supportREADYThe Global Fund