World AIDS Day : Aims to Overcome Funding Crisis

The world is observing the 38th World AIDS Day 2025 with the theme “Overcoming disruption, transforming the AIDS response”, focusing on challenges about fighting against HIV.

In 2025, stakeholders warn a historic funding crisis as HIV prevention services are severely disrupted.

According to multiple reports, community-led services, vital to reaching marginalized populations, are being deprioritized while the rise in punitive laws criminalizing same-sex relationships, gender identity, and drug use is amplifying the crisis, making HIV services are declined. 

Experts say that the global AIDS response has been upended in recent months but there is still much more to be done to achieve the SDG target of ending AIDS by 2030.

Being global concerns countries must make radical shifts to HIV programming and funding to fight the severity.

Activists urge that the international community must come together to bridge the financing gap, support countries to close the remaining gaps in HIV prevention and treatment services, remove legal and social barriers, and empower communities to lead the way forward.

According to them, transformative solutions are needed to improve access to HIV services, eliminate stigma and discrimination once and for all, and ensure the protection of rights for women, girls, and LGBTQ+ people, who continue to face disproportionate barriers in accessing healthcare.