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.
PEPFAR’s Impact
Working in over 50 countries, PEPFAR has transformed the global HIV/AIDS response. PEPFAR supports more than 14 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.
For the first time, the latest PEPFAR data also show significant declines in new HIV diagnoses among adolescent girls and young women. In the 10 African countries (63 districts) implementing PEPFAR’s pioneering DREAMS (Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored, and Safe) public-private partnership, the majority (65 percent) of the highest-HIV-burden communities or districts achieved greater than a 25-40 percent decline in new HIV diagnoses among young women. Importantly, new diagnoses declined in nearly all DREAMS intervention districts.
With PEPFAR support, more than 2.2 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 6.4 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.
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.