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The high-level meeting on HIV/AIDS will be convened from 22-23 June in the General Assembly Hall at the UN Headquarters in New York.
One of the panels during the hearing on 14 May focused on “Community Leadership, Accountability, and Inclusive Governance in a Changing HIV Response in the context of reduced funding and increased reliance on community systems to sustain the response.”
The panel highlighted the role of communities in shaping and delivering the HIV response, particularly in the context of transition to more country-owned responses. It identified what “country ownership” entails and explored how to strengthen and institutionalize community leadership across service delivery, decision-making, and accountability, including through enabling policy, governance structure, capacity, financing, and sustainable support systems. The discussion also examined the role of community-led organizations, especially community-led data and monitoring in strengthening accountability and advancing human rights, gender equality, and structural equity in HIV response.
“Discussions across the hearing reflected a shared concern about declining donor funding, shifting global priorities, and increasing pressure on community systems, which are central to sustaining the HIV response toward the 2030 targets,” said Ross.
Ross noted that community-led initiatives—including youth-led, women-led, and key population-led responses—are effective precisely because they are grounded in lived realities and evidence of what works.
“A key message that emerged clearly is that there is no true country ownership without communities,” she said. “Country ownership must not be understood as government ownership alone, but as inclusive governance that integrates community leadership.”
Speakers also highlighted that communities bring innovation and responsiveness, but these require long-term investment and collective responsibility. “This raises an important question on whether the political will exists to sustain these gains in the current financing climate,” said Ross. “At the same time, the current financial crisis has already led to the collapse of some community-led initiatives.”
Participants stressed that, rather than abandoning these interventions, there is an urgent need to protect and sustain them during this period of funding contraction.
“Ensuring the continuity of HIV services amidst the current crisis was identified as a priority concern,” said Ross.
The dialogues of the hearing were described as straight from the heart, reflecting the realities on the ground. They offered powerful perspectives to all those watching and listening, highlighting the indispensable leadership role of communities in the global response to HIV/AIDS.
The hearing produced a collection of “asks” (available in the link below) from civil society for Member States with the hope that they will be integrated in the text of the political declaration resulting from the high-level meeting.
https://unaidspcbngo.org/news/civil-society-priorities-2026-hlm-on-hiv-…
