Uganda's commitment to ending AIDS: Turning global promises into action
Uganda must turn renewed global HIV commitments into urgent domestic action
Jacqueline Makokha, UNAIDS Country Director, and Dr Nelson Musoba, Director General, Uganda AIDS Commission.
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OPINION
By Jacqueline Makokha, UNAIDS Country Director, and Dr Nelson Musoba, Director General, Uganda AIDS Commission
On June 22-23, 2026, Member States gathered in New York for the United Nations High-Level Meeting (HLM) on HIV/AIDS. This meeting was a critical moment for the global HIV response. Uganda voted in favour of the 2026 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS, reaffirming its commitment to global cooperation, shared responsibility, and ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
Importantly, the Political Declaration is closely aligned with Uganda’s Presidential Fast Track Initiative on Ending AIDS which provides a national framework for accelerating progress through stronger political leadership, engaging men in prevention, closing the tap on new infections especially among adolescent girls and young women, expanding access to testing and treatment, sustaining progress on eliminating mother-to-child transmission, strengthening domestic financing, and ensuring a coordinated multi-sectoral response.
This is the final Political Declaration before the 2030 deadline to end AIDS as a public health threat. Globally, the overarching targets include reaching 40 million people with antiretroviral treatment by 2030, ensuring 20 million people have access to medicine to prevent HIV and ensuring that all people receive services free of stigma and discrimination.
Notwithstanding the above, progress remains highly uneven. Some regions are improving, while others are seeing rising infections (eastern Europe and central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa and Latin America have seen rising new HIV infections since 2010). Adolescent girls and young women (aged 15–24 years) remain at high risk, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where they represented about 160 000 [130 000–270 000] new acquisitions in 2025, which is 3000 new HIV acquisitions per week making up 77% of new infections among this age group globally. Incidence among adolescent girls and young women is three to four times higher compared to their male counterparts in this region and in Uganda.
These challenges are made worse by decreasing global funding. For Uganda, this emphasizes the urgent need for increased domestic investment, efficient and effective health systems, strengthened community health systems and continued international solidarity.
The HLM concluded with Member States adopting a new Political Declaration that provides a five-year roadmap aligned with the Global AIDS Strategy 2026-2031. The goal remains to end AIDS by 2030. This Declaration renewed commitments to expand equitable access to HIV testing, treatment, and prevention, close funding gaps, protect human rights and gender equality, improve access to medicines and technologies, and strengthen the role of communities and civil society.
What we need to do
For Uganda, turning these commitments into results requires urgency, fairness, and unity.
Close prevention gaps: The data on adolescent girls and young women show that
Remove barriers to services: No one should be marginalised because of their identity or location. Uganda must enhance a people-centred, rights-based approach that reduces stigma, protects dignity, and improves access for everyone, especially those at greatest risk.
Secure sustainable financing and stronger systems: Uganda's HIV response relies on global support, including from the United States Government, the Global Fund, and other development partners. With resources under strain, the country must boost domestic financing, integrate HIV services into primary healthcare, and continue to enhance local capabilities, including for local manufacturing of test kits, ARVs and medicines required to treat opportunistic infections.
Finally, we must recognise that communities are the backbone of this response. Peer educators, community health workers, civil society organisations, networks of people living with HIV and communities have propelled progress in Uganda. Their leadership must remain central to planning, implementation, and accountability.
The 2026 HLM was a pivotal moment, reminding us that ending AIDS is a health target and a measure of our collective commitment to equity, dignity, and shared responsibility.
For Uganda, the path ahead is clear. We need to sustain our achievements, close the gaps, and ensure that every policy, investment, and partnership benefits those who need them most.
With renewed political will, stronger domestic and international financing, community leadership, and accountability for results, Uganda can provide leadership in the region towards a future where AIDS is no longer a public health threat.