WS 08 - Beyond the SDGs: What Does the End of AIDS Look Like?

The year is 2031. It has been 50 years since the discovery of AIDS and one year since the Sustainable Development Goals were due, including the Goal to end AIDS as a public health threat. In 2021, concerted global efforts had led to a significant decrease of new HIV infections and the potential to live long, healthy lives with HIV. However, progress was deeply uneven. Some countries achieved high levels of HIV service coverage, while others had major gaps. Some populations within countries were well served and decreasingly threatened by HIV, but other populations had made little progress and continued to experience the HIV pandemic as a daily crisis—too often a growing crisis. Additionally, in 2021 resources allocated to the AIDS response globally were stagnating or shrinking despite increased need. What then will 2031 need? If the new Global AIDS strategy is fully resourced and implemented, we could see a closing of those gaps and achievement of 2030 goals. If it is not, we are likely to see an increasingly two-track epidemic, where continuing or even growing inequalities lead to new infections and more AIDS-related deaths for some, while other are freed of HIV and AIDS. Based on this scenario, the panellists, including global leaders of the AIDS response, scientists and community members will develop and share their vision and hopes of what the end of AIDS and the AIDS response will look like in the year 2031 and beyond.