HIV/AIDS Leadership Rooted in Development

Addressing the global AIDS crisis is a chief concern for USAID. Virtually unmatched in the field regarding its scope and depth of work, USAID is the backbone of U.S. foreign assistance efforts, providing economic and humanitarian aid worldwide.  Ever on the frontlines, USAID’s HIV/AIDS development program was cutting-edge from its inception in 1986, just two years after HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, was isolated and identified, and only five years after the first evidence of AIDS was reported in the United States.  More than 20 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 such program in the world, touching millions of lives through essential HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and treatment.

Drawing on its nearly 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.

Partnering for Success: 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.  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 implementing HIV/AIDS programs in the developing world.
• 1988:  USAID’s Demographic and Health Survey begins collecting HIV data.
• 1993:  USAID is a founding member of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance global partnership.
• 1997:  USAID launches the AIDSMark program for broad-based social marketing on HIV.
• 1999:  USAID and the Japan International Cooperation Agency launch Zambia’s Cross Border Initiative, later called Corridors of Hope.
• 2000:  USAID launches Regional HIV/AIDS Program for Southern Africa.
• 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.”
• 2004:  USAID and other partners begin implementation of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.
• 2005:  PEPFAR, in conjunction with USAID, launches the Supply Chain Management System project.
• 2007:  USAID releases first report to Congress on highly vulnerable children.