Among those gathered was Gracia Violeta Ross, WCC programme executive for HIV, Reproductive Health, and Pandemics. Others included Anton Basenko, International Network of People who use Drugs; Amanita Calderon-Cifuentes, Trans Europe and Central Asia, Berlin; Erika Castellanos, Global Alliance for Trans Equality; Keren Dunaway, Organización Llanto, Valor y Esfuerzo; Mariana Iacono, International Community of Women Living with HIV; Doreen Moracha, Yaoundé National Empowerment Network of People Living with HIV and AIDS in Kenya; and Ulrich Mvate Yemlet, Humanity First Cameroon. The community leaders were in Geneva for the 58th UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board meeting. Opening the conversation, Tedros emphasized that WHO wanted to listen first, recognizing that communities at the forefront of the HIV response bring invaluable knowledge, experience and leadership. Community leaders underscored the importance of protecting human rights, addressing stigma, discrimination, and criminalization, and strengthening collaboration on community-led monitoring to improve accountability and better reflect lived experiences. During the 58th UNAIDS Program Coordinating Board meeting, Ross also met delegates of the NGO Delegation and representatives of Member States, particularly Haiti. Addressing health inequities Participants of the 58th UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board heard community perspectives on the future of the global HIV response and the transition of the UNAIDS Joint Programme. They also discussed implications of declining financing, failure to achieve the 2025 HIV targets, and the challenging political environment surrounding implementation of the 2026 Political Declaration. Regarding country-level financing and domestic resource mobilization for HIV, Ross shared the example of Bolivia, where it took seven years to mobilize domestic resources for HIV treatment and testing of pregnant women. “However, even today, prevention activities for the most affected populations, such as transgender women and gay men, continue to rely largely on Global Fund financing,” she said. “My intervention was focused on the country level, particularly highlighting the impact on prevention programmes.” Ross stressed that mobilizing resources domestically is extremely difficult because it depends heavily on the political will of governments. “For example, some countries may not prioritize HIV, while others may even criminalize the organizations serving key populations,” she said. “I emphasized that we cannot leave countries on their own at this moment.” Ross reflected that the world needs a hybrid approach that combines domestic resource mobilization with continued international support from organizations such as UNAIDS and the Global Fund. “I also stressed that domestic resource mobilization should not be used as a justification to offload responsibility for the HIV response and leave countries to face these challenges alone,” she said. “In a second intervention, I noted that moving toward a different UNAIDS model, with focal points or smaller offices, has both advantages and disadvantages.” She shared the example of Bolivia, which never had a UNAIDS country office but instead had HIV advisors. “During the meeting with the WHO director-general, I said that communities welcome the opportunity for transformation because the HIV epidemic itself has changed significantly over time,” she said. “However, given the current funding crisis affecting the HIV response, we fear that community engagement is at risk of being lost, because during emergencies or periods of resource scarcity, community participation is often the first thing to be cut.” Ross also highlighted that one of the strongest existing models of community participation is the Global Fund Country Coordinating Mechanism, which consistently includes representatives of communities and civil society in decision-making processes. “I stressed that communities do not want to see the HIV response hidden within an obscure programme of any individual UN agency,” she said. “Communities expect engagement that goes beyond consultation and beyond participation in meetings.” Communities expect to lead, co-create, and jointly implement responses alongside UN agencies and member states, noted Ross. “We cannot give up simply because the UN80 reform process may result in the closure or restructuring of an agency,” she urged. “The HIV response remains vital, communities remain essential, and the fight to end AIDS is far from over.” | 
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