UNAIDS, in collaboration with Avenir Health, has launched a new online tool to support countries to estimate the financial resources required to achieve the objectives set in their national AIDS plans. 

At a time of increasing pressure on global HIV financing, the tool provides countries with a practical, data-driven platform to inform strategic planning, funding applications, and to foster dialogue on domestic resource mobilization.

The Resource Needs estimation Tool enables users to estimate the financial resources required to reach coverage targets across key HIV programmes, including HIV prevention, testing, treatment, co-morbidities, health systems strengthening, and programme management. Covering 30 expenditure categories, the model draws on a database for 118 low- and middle-income countries, incorporating population data, current coverage levels, and unit costs.

By default, the model applies 2030 coverage targets, in line with the 2030 Global Targets to end AIDS, while allowing countries to fully customize inputs to reflect national strategies and priorities.". Outputs of the tool include annual estimates of people reached, financial needs by intervention and year, and requirements for 13 key HIV related health products/commodities.

The tool is already being used in several countries to support HIV costing exercises and Global Fund funding requests,including Mozambique, Eswatini, Viet Nam, Thailand, Kenya, and South Sudan.

Country ownership 

While the tool provides a robust analytical framework and curated datasets, countries are encouraged to validate all inputs and interpret results in line with local realities. This ensures that estimates remain grounded in national contexts and can be effectively used to inform policy and financing decisions. UNAIDS can provide targeted technical support, upon request and based on country context and needs, to facilitate use of the tool and interpretation of results.

By equipping countries with accessible and customizable tools, UNAIDS and Avenir Health aim to support stronger, evidence-based planning and more informed decision-making on HIV investments. 

“As countries face increasing financing pressures and the need to optimize limited HIV resources, country-led and adaptable approaches to resource needs estimation are becoming increasingly important to support evidence-based prioritization, sustainability planning, and progress towards ending AIDS,” noted Jaime Atienza, UNAIDS Director, Sustainability Practice.

The launch of the Resource Needs Estimation Tool complements UNAIDS’ broader work to strengthen HIV financing analytics, including the HIV Financial Dashboard, which offers detailed data on HIV spending and funding trends.

“The tool helps countries under constrained financing environments to generate strategic costing evidence to strengthen financing decisions. Planned enhancements will expand sub-national costing, customization of community-led service delivery modalities, and integration of societal enablers into costing analyses,” added Deepak Mattur, UNAIDS Senior Advisor on Resource Tracking and Health Products Monitoring and technical focal point for the Resource Needs Estimation Tool.

NEW YORK/GENEVA, 4 June 2026—UNAIDS welcomes the release of the United Nations Secretary-General’s report on HIV/AIDS, issued ahead of the UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS taking place in New York on 22–23 June 2026. In the report, UN Secretary-General António Guterres delivers a clear message that the world has made historic gains against HIV, but that the gains are increasingly at risk unless governments urgently recommit to the global AIDS response. 

“The global HIV response is at a critical juncture. Progress is real and measurable, but it is increasingly vulnerable to converging crises,” said Mr Guterres, citing declines in external funding, rising debt burdens, humanitarian emergencies and regression in human rights. 

The Secretary‑General highlights that 31.6 million of the 40.8 million people living with HIV were on treatment in 2024, the highest number ever recorded and that AIDS‑related deaths have fallen by 54% since 2010, reaching their lowest level since the early 1990s. 

The report outlines that countries in eastern and southern Africa—home to the majority of people living with HIV—have led the way. Seven countries in the region achieved the global 95‑95‑95 testing and treatment targets in 2024. 

“These achievements are a shining testament of the progress to end AIDS when political leadership, community action and sustained investment come together,” said UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima. 

However, the report underscores that the world is far off track from the 2025 targets set in the 2021 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS. Some 9.2 million people still lack access to HIV treatment, around 630,000 people died of AIDS-related illnesses in 2024—double the 2025 target of 250,000 and 1.3 million people became infected with HIV in 2024—3.5 times the 2025 target of 370,000 by 2025.  

The report outlines that progress remains uneven. New HIV infections have risen sharply in the Middle East and North Africa (up 94% since 2010) and have increased in Latin America as well as in eastern Europe and central Asia. 

The report also warns of the need to confront the structural inequities that undermine access to HIV services, close funding gaps and accelerate the expansion of HIV services in sustainable ways. Adolescent girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa continue to acquire HIV at three to four times the rate of their male peers.  

Key populations and their partners account for 74% of new infections outside sub-Saharan Africa. The Secretary-General warns in the report that declines in external financing for health are projected to drop by up to 40%, with HIV prevention and community-led services most at risk. In western and central Africa, 90% of treatment funding comes from external donors. Prevention programmes in sub-Saharan Africa rely on 80% external funding. 

“Without urgent action to close the funding gap, millions of lives are at stake,” said Ms Byanyima. “We cannot allow financial shocks, backlashes against human rights or political backsliding to reverse decades of progress.” 

The report lays out some of the major opportunities to accelerate progress. Long-acting HIV prevention tools, including injectable HIV prevention medicines, are becoming more accessible, with generic versions expected at US$ 40 per person per year, however progress on roll-out is slow.  

Community-led organizations, proven to improve testing, treatment adherence and viral suppression, must be protected, funded and integrated into country ownership plans. New national sustainability roadmaps, developed together with UNAIDS, in more than 30 countries are strengthening domestic ownership of HIV responses. 

The UN Secretary-General calls on Member States to endorse bold new 2030 HIV targets in the Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS due to be adopted at the upcoming High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS. The targets will build on the 2025 commitments and aim to ensure continued progress towards the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 and sustaining it into the future.  

“The pathway to end AIDS by 2030 exists and remains open,” concludes Mr Guterres. “But only if we act together.” 

UNAIDS urges all governments to use the upcoming High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS to recommit to ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030, to protect and expand funding for HIV prevention, treatment and community-led services particularly by increasing domestic resources for HIV, to remove punitive laws and policies that fuel stigma and block access to HIV services and to ensure equitable access to innovations, including long-acting HIV prevention and treatment.  

“Ending AIDS is a political choice,” said Ms Byanyima. “With courage, solidarity and investment, we can finish the job.” 

The report of the UN Secretary-General is an instrumental reference to inform negotiations by member states on the new Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS in the lead up to the High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS on 22-23 June 2026. More information including this report and the Civil Society Statement for the High-Level Meeting are available on the special UNAIDS web page United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS.

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.