HIV/AIDS Leadership Rooted in Development

Addressing the global AIDS crisis is a chief concern for USAID. Virtually unmatched in its scope and depth of work, USAID is the backbone of all U.S. foreign assistance efforts, providing economic and humanitarian aid worldwide. Even at the onset, USAID’s HIV/AIDS development program was cutting-edge – from inception in 1986, just two years after HIV – the virus that causes AIDS – was isolated and identified, to five years after the first few cases were reported in the United States. Now, 25 unprecedented years later, USAID works in partnership with the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a bold initiative announced in 2003 to stem the growing epidemic of HIV/AIDS. It is the largest AIDS program in the world, touching millions of lives through prevention, care, and treatment.

Drawing on its 50-year development history, USAID mobilizes its best resources and expertise across all sectors to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic, including a vast network of international and indigenous partners.  Rooted in sound development theory and practice, USAID’s work fighting AIDS can best be described in three words: dynamic, adaptive, responsive.

A Shared Responsibility for Smart Investments: USAID Engagement with the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief

	Source: USAID

In virtually every geographic region of the world, USAID is leading an HIV/AIDS program in partnership with PEPFAR and in line with the Global Health Initiative.  A cadre of skilled USAID practitioners – foreign service officers, physicians, epidemiologists, public health advisors, and health specialists – help bring to bear the largest and most diverse HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and treatment programs in the developing world.  The majority of these individuals work directly with host country governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), indigenous groups, and the private sector to provide training, expert technical assistance, and essential supplies, including pharmaceuticals, to prevent and reduce the transmission of HIV, and provide care and treatment to people living with and affected by the disease.

USAID works with HIV/AIDS partners in three primary ways: through traditional USAID funding mechanisms that support NGOs (such as grants and cooperative agreements); through contracts; and through public international organizations, such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and UNAIDS. Also, USAID enters into unique and robust public-private partnerships and distinct collaborative agreements with businesses and multinational corporations.  In many cases, USAID provides staff support to the Global Fund and works with the Fund’s local coordinating committees to improve implementation of programs. USAID staff are participants on the World Health Organization’s global task force dedicated to extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis. Furthermore, several USAID HIV/AIDS staff serve as co-chairs on PEPFAR technical working groups, which formulate technical guidance and support PEPFAR implementation in the field. 

Select USAID HIV/AIDS Milestones

• 1986: USAID officially begins HIV/AIDS programs in the developing world. This is only two years after HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, was isolated and identified.
• 1988: USAID’s Demographic and Health Survey begins collecting data on HIV.
• 1993: USAID is a founding member of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance.
• 1997:  USAID launches the AIDSMark program for broad-based social marketing on HIV.
• 1998: USAID launches the IMPACT program for HIV prevention and care.
• 1999:  USAID and the Japan International Cooperation Agency launch Zambia’s Cross Border Initiative, later called Corridors of Hope.
• 2000: USAID launched Regional HIV/AIDS Program for Southern Africa.
• 2001: USAID officially launches the Office of HIV/AIDS within the Bureau for Global Health.
• 2001: USAID begins partnership with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.
• 1998: USAID launches the IMPACT program for HIV prevention and care.
• 2000: USAID launched Regional HIV/AIDS Program for Southern Africa.
• 2001: USAID officially launches the Office of HIV/AIDS within the Bureau for Global Health.
• 2001: USAID begins partnership with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.
• 2002:  USAID assistance leads to debut of Kami, the first HIV-positive Muppet on South Africa’s “Sesame Street.”
• 2003: The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is announced.
• 2005: PEPFAR, in conjunction with USAID, launched the Supply Chain Management System Project.
• 2006: USAID begins management of PEPFAR’s New Partners Initiative grantees.
• 2007:  USAID releases first report to Congress on highly vulnerable children.
• 2008: The $48 billion Lantos-Hyde reauthorization bill on HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria is signed into law.
• 2009: The President’s Global Health Initiative is announced.
• 2010: the CAPRISA 004 trial provides the first ever proof of concept that a microbicide can prevent HIV transmission.