The government backing The Independent’s call to protect HIV funding and help end the Aids pandemic by 2030 could be an important success story for the UK, chief international correspondent Bel Trew has told parliament’s International Development Select Committee (IDC).
The UK is slashing its total foreign aid funding by 40 per cent across the next three years in order to spend more on defence, with an announcement expected imminently on where those cuts will fall. The UK decision comes after Donald Trump has already decimated US aid funding by essentially shuttering the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
In 2024, the world was on track to end the AIDS pandemic by 2030, but devastating cuts have thrown this prospect into doubt. Reporting from The Independent has shown that if current funding programmes are dismantled, millions more could die worldwide, with infections are set to reach levels not seen since the height of the crisis 25-years-ago. Medication-resistant strains could more than double.
A coalition of leading charities, advocates and MPs has signed a letter from the editor-in-chief of The Independent, Geordie Greig, urging Sir Keir Starmer to protect UK funding for the global HIV response – or risk missing “the incredible opportunity to end the Aids pandemic within the next few years”. Thousands more have signed a petition launched by The Independent backing this call.
"This could be a success story for the UK... we could end the Aids pandemic by 2030 and the UK could be the owner of that... this is the moment to do that right now," Trew told the committee.
Raising the example of the rollout of the lenacapavir, the closest thing we have to an HIV vaccine, which has just started to be distributed in Sub-Saharan Africa, Trew added: "The UK could step in [and help with], even with limited resources, in that efficient way, and that could be communicated to the public".
Trew, who has reported on the ground on the impact of Trump’s aid cuts on HIV treatment in Zimbabwe and Uganda, said lenacapavir is something the UK "can take ownership of, we can actually see positive results of, we can fill the gaps left by what used to be one of the biggest [aid] donors [the US] and we can do that in a way that can be a success. It is a win-win".
The Elton John Aids Foundation, the National Aids Trust, Medecins Sans Frontieres and the STOPAids coalition are among the groups backing The Independent’s call for funding to be protected.
The chair of the IDC, Labour MP Sarah Champion, praised The Independent’s work around aid cuts, HIV funding and global aid by saying: "If you haven't read the articles... they are really good. So thank you for all the work you are doing in this space".
Conservative MP David Mundell, another members of IDC, also praised The Independent’s work on the issue. "Congratulations to The Independent for the work you have done in highlighting the impact of cuts in relation to the support for HIV and AIDS funding and highlighting that publicly," he said.
It comes after Jennifer Chapman, the minister of state for international development and Africa, refused to say whether UK funding for the global HIV response will be protected in a separate IDC evidence hearing last week. Mr Mundell asked whether funding for organisations like the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) will be maintained in order for the UK to maintain its global "leadership" in the push to end the AIDS pandemic by 2030.
In response, Baroness Chapman said: "I cannot say that everything you have listed will be protected... However, whatever [the allocations] are, I think our commitment to working alongside those organisations that have proved themselves effective is not going to change.”
Mr Mundell, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on HIV, AIDS and Sexual Health, who also took part in a Westminster roundtable discussion on the cuts organised with The Independent, said to Baroness Chapman: "When the APPG met, we acknowledged that you had got what we perceived to be the best possible deal on the Global Fund in all the circumstances that you faced. However, in order for the UK to maintain that leadership, there are other organisations that we need to support, such as the Robert Carr Fund, Unitaid and UNAIDS. Can you give us some hope that, when you make your various announcements, support will be there for those organisations? It is essential to complement the Global Fund to achieve that objective."
As well as refusing to detail the funding for those organisations, Baroness Chapman said that there would likely need to be changes to the way groups work within the UK framework for supporting the UN. "The way we co-ordinate and work through UN organisations, the Robert Carr Fund and others needs to be brought together. We need to have conversations about what, in 2026," she said. "That is the right way to get the impact, given the changes in technology and some of the shifts we are seeing more widely. I think that is the moment where we have those conversations.”
This article has been produced as part of The Independent’s Rethinking Global Aid project
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