Recent, dramatic shifts in global health funding include cuts to US and UK foreign aid. This has had a cascade of devastating consequences on treatment and prevention programmes, including for HIV and TB across the globe. Mitchell Warren provided updates on AVAC’s court challenge against the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID and offered his insights into what a more resilient global health funding infrastructure could look like.
Avac Event
Politics and Global Health: The Need for a New, Resilient Architecture
Avac Event
Self-Care in an Era of Misinformation and Disinformation
Join The Reunion Project on April 9 from 1-2:30pm ET for the next webinar in our Long-term Survivor Toolkit series where we will consider strategies to prioritize our own self-care and wellness and by doing so, support the community around us. We are living in trying times and it is important now more than ever to check in with ourselves and each other. Together we will make a plan and take action.
We will be joined by featured speaker Kenyon Farrow—American writer, activist, director, and educator focused on progressive racial and economic justice issues related to the LGBTQIA+ community. We will also be joined by a panel of community members who will share their own experiences and practices when considering their own self-care and wellness routines as people living with HIV. Let’s join together and lift each other up.
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WHO-Lancet Global Health Series: Shaping the Future of Clinical Trials
WHO and partners will convene to launch the Lancet Global health series: Shaping the Future of Clinical Trials. Details and registration link below.
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Advancing Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights: Moving forward post-the 2024 US Election
Held on March 12, you can view the event recording below.
Featuring:
- Sekai Chikowero, Vice President of Programs, EngenderHealth
- Francine Coeytaux, Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor, Plan C Pills
- Eszter Kismödi, Chief Executive, Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters
- Mitchell Warren, Executive Director, AVAC
Avac Event
State of PEPFAR
Join the Congressional Caucus on Black Women & Girls Co-Chairs Robin Kelly (IL-02), Yvette Clarke (NY-09), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12) and the Global AIDS Policy Partnership for a hybrid briefing discussing the current status of PEPFAR programming, the significant impact PEPFAR has on Black Women globally, and the consequences that follow terminated funding.
Avac Event
CROI 2025 Community Breakfast Meetings
The Community Breakfast Clubs are virtual webinars coordinated by the CROI Community Liaisons, the European AIDS Treatment Group, AVAC, and their global collaborators. They feature researchers and advocates discussing some of the most consequential science being presented at CROI.
Session Recordings
Breaking New Ground: The latest advances in HIV cure
March 10, 2025
AVAC, the CROI Community Liaison Subcommittee and European AIDS Treatment Group hosted the first virtual Community Breakfast Meeting (CBMs) for the 2025 CROI meeting. Speaker details and recording below:
Moderator: Michael Louell, University of Washington-Seattle, Fred Hutch Center for AIDS research
Speakers
- Dr. Katie Bar, University of Pennsylvania, CROI Scientific Program Committee
- Dr. Marina Caskey, Rockerfeller University
- Dr. Steven Deeks, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)
- Ms. Doreen Mora Moracha, HIV Cure Advocate- Kenya, CROI Community Educator Scholar
The End of AIDS — Near and Far? (40 Years of HIV)
March 11, 2025
AVAC, the CROI Community Liaison Subcommittee and European AIDS Treatment Group hosted the second virtual Community Breakfast Clubs (CBCs) for the 2025 CROI meeting. Speaker details and recording below:
Moderator: Grace Kumwenda, AVAC
Speakers:
- Dr. Chris Beyrer, Duke Global Health Institute
- Chilufya Kasanda, Treatment Advocacy and Literacy Campaign – Zambia, CROI Community Educator Scholar
- Dr. Mitch Matoga, UNC, Malawi
Still Here! Living with HIV Long-Term
March 12, 2025
AVAC, the CROI Community Liaison Subcommittee and European AIDS Treatment Group hosted the third and final virtual Community Breakfast Clubs (CBCs) for the 2025 CROI meeting. Speaker details and recording below:
Moderator: Sean Hosein, European AIDS Treatment Group – Canada
Speakers:
- Kennedy Mupeli, Center for Youth of Hope – Botswana, CROI Community Educator Scholar
- Dr. Peter Hunt, University of California San Francisco, CROI Scientific Program Committee
- Dr. Laura Waters, The Mortimer Market Centre – London
Avac Event
Can Africa Finance its Own Non-profit Sector?
The webinar will explore whether shifts in the US government’s funding is a setback or an opportunity to rethink Africa’s reliance on Western aid.
Featuring:
- Angelo Katumba — Senior Program Manager: AVAC
- Yvette Raphael — Executive Director of Advocates for the Prevention of HIV in Africa
- Dr. Michael Kiragu — AICS Associate & Grant Fundraising Expert
Avac Event
The Impact and Implications of Recent US Government Federal Funding Reductions on Health Programmes
The University of the Witwatersrand‘s Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics presented a webinar featuring:
- Mia Malan, founder and editor-in-chief of the Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism – an independent media organisation that specialises in narrative, solutions journalism focusing on health and social justice issues across Africa.
- Dr Ntombifikile Nokwethemba Mtshali, Chief Executive Officer of Shout-It-Now, an organisation focused on providing sexual and reproductive health and rights services
to youth in the Gauteng and North-West provinces.
- Mitchell Warren, Executive Director of AVAC – an advocacy organisation focused on accelerating access to effective HIV prevention options and ensuring access to everyone who needs them. Mitchell also worked with Population Services International (PSI) designing and implementing social marketing, communications and health promotion activities, including five years running PSI’s project in South Africa.
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The #SaveHIVFunding Campaign: An Urgent Need for Rapid Response
In the summer of 2023, PrEP4All, AVAC, and HIVMA launched the #SaveHIVFunding campaign in response to an unprecedented proposal in the US House of Representatives to cut $767M in federal HIV funding. Securing emergency funds from the Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF), Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BCEFA), and several national HIV partner organizations, the campaign generated millions of social media impressions through a press conference at the US Capitol, as well as online community mobilization and ad buys. Thousands of letters were sent to Congressional representatives asking that they do whatever they can to save HIV funding.
Ultimately, the defense of these critical programs was successful, and all $767M in proposed cuts were removed from the final FY24 spending bill. For FY25, new cuts were proposed in the House, and PrEP4All, AVAC, and HIVMA relaunched the #SaveHIVFunding campaign. Although we have yet to see the final outcome of our efforts as Congress is still debating funding issues, we have once again partnered with 120 organizations and generated thousands of petition signatures representing all fifty states. Far more of this sort of advocacy–with the capacity to rapidly plan, fund, and deploy responses to urgent threats–will be required in a new political environment that is rapidly changing and hard to predict.
Join Funders Concerned about AIDS for a discussion on the major threats being faced by the HIV field at the federal level, plans to expand the #SaveHIVFunding campaign, and how you can support this work to defend federal funding to end the HIV epidemic.
Facilitator:
Mitchell Warren, Executive Director, AVAC
Panel:
Jenny Collier, Collier Collective
Michael Chancley, Communications and Mobilization Manager, PrEP4All
Noelle Esquire, US Portfolio Lead, Elton John AIDS Foundation
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Updates to the PEPFAR Stop-Work Order and the Role of CCM
Join AVAC, COMPASS and other partners to update CCMs on the PEPFAR freeze.
