What is PEPFAR?
The U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is the U.S. government’s response to the global HIV/AIDS epidemic and represents the largest commitment by any nation to address a single disease in history. Thanks to American leadership and generosity, alongside the work of many partners, PEPFAR has saved millions of lives, averted millions of infections, and changed the course of the epidemic.
Since its inception in 2003, PEPFAR has received strong bipartisan support in Congress and through administrations, including two reauthorizations with significant majorities. The United States is unquestionably the world’s leader in responding to the global HIV/AIDS crisis.
Through PEPFAR, the U.S. has supported a world safer and more secure from infectious disease threats. PEPFAR has demonstrably strengthened the global capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to new and existing risks – which ultimately enhances global health security and protects America’s borders.
Originally conceived as a compassionate effort to deliver lifesaving services in countries hardest hit by HIV/AIDS, PEPFAR is now also undertaking the challenge of controlling the pandemic. It is the iconic brand of U.S. government engagement in health, development, security, and diplomacy, unparalleled in its capacity to deliver clear, measurable, and transformative results and impact.
PEPFAR is led and managed by the U.S. Department of State's Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and Health Diplomacy and implemented by seven U.S. government departments and agencies, leveraging the power of a whole-of-government approach to controlling the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
What Has Been PEPFAR’s Impact?
Working in over 50 countries, PEPFAR has transformed the global HIV/AIDS response. PEPFAR supports more than 14.6 million people with lifesaving antiretroviral treatment. This is compared with the only 50,000 people who were on treatment in sub-Saharan Africa when PEPFAR began.
As a result, up to 13 high-HIV-burden countries are now on pace to control their HIV epidemic by 2020 through the support of the U.S. government and the contributions of other partners. In addition, according to the latest data many more of the 53 countries globally that are supported by PEPFAR could achieve epidemic control by 2020 by focusing their resources and policies to ensure access to HIV prevention and treatment services for those most in need.
Progress among Adolescent Girls and Young Women
In the past year, HIV diagnoses among adolescent girls and young women continued to decline in 85 percent of the highest HIV burden communities/districts that are implementing the program’s DREAMS (Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored, and Safe) public-private partnership. In addition, eight of the DREAMS-supported districts that had less than a 25 percent decline of new HIV diagnoses among adolescent girls and young women in 2017 had a greater than 25 percent decline in 2018 – showing marked success. These reductions are particularly critical as, in 2017, three in four new HIV infections in sub-Sarah Africa occurred among girls ages 15-19. The program expanded in 2017 from the original 10 countries to 15 in the region.
Progress among Babies, Mothers and Orphans
With PEPFAR support, more than 2.4 million babies have been born HIV-free to pregnant women living with HIV and their mothers have been kept healthy and alive to protect and nurture them. PEPFAR also provides assistance to more than 6.8 million orphans, vulnerable children, and their caregivers.
PEPFAR continues to expand its impact by using data to drive accountability, find efficiencies, increase transparency, and leverage partnerships, including with the private sector. These efforts have made PEPFAR a model for development programs everywhere.
For more information, read about PEPFAR’s latest results.
What Is PEPFAR’s Strategy?
Led by its strategic vision, PEPFAR 3.0 – Controlling the Epidemic: Delivering on the Promise of an AIDS-free Generation, PEPFAR is collecting and using data in the most granular manner (disaggregated by sex, age, and at the site level) to do the right things, in the right places, and right now within the highest HIV-burdened populations and geographic locations.
PEPFAR 3.0 outlines the PEPFAR strategy for reaching sustainable control of the HIV/AIDS epidemic through the pillars of transparency, accountability, and impact. To deliver on this broad vision, PEPFAR is focused on the following five core priorities:
- Adolescent Girls and Women: Creating Gender Equity
- Children: Delivering on Our Commitment
- Key Populations: Ensuring Human Rights and Leaving No One Behind
- Data for Impact: Accelerating Toward Achieving 90-90-90 and Epidemic Control
- Sustainability and Partnerships: Strengthening Transparency and Accountability
The PEPFAR Strategy for Accelerating HIV/AIDS Epidemic Control (2017-2020), reaffirms the U.S. government’s leadership and commitment, through PEPFAR, to support HIV/AIDS efforts in more than 50 countries, ensuring access to services by all populations, including the most vulnerable and at-risk groups.
It outlines plans to accelerate implementation in a subset of 13 high-burden countries that have the potential to achieve epidemic control by 2020, working in collaboration with host governments; the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS; and other partners. Through this international effort, PEPFAR expects not only that the epidemic will be controlled, but also that future costs required to sustain the HIV/AIDS response will decline.
Countries
View country-specific information about PEPFAR-supported efforts.
PEPFAR’s Program Results
PEPFAR regularly reports on results achieved by its programs.
- Read about the latest global results from PEPFAR-supported activities
- For more detailed information, visit the PEPFAR Dashboards.