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Excellencies, Members of the Bureau, civil society representatives, 

Let me begin by thanking the Executive Director of UNAIDS, and Brazil as Chair of the PCB for the invitation to be with you today.  I would also like to give a shout out to Ambassador Shuten and Tovar, who I spoke with last week and convinced me that being here in person was very important for this session, and it really has been so far.

 As I have been listening to you and today's presentation of the strategy, it really is an excellent strategy, and I have seen manyacross the agencies that I chair in the UN Sustainable Development Group, there are over 42 of them. This is a really good one. Why? Because it has so much clarity, it has so much of a division of labor, but I think that in this particular case, what has helped it is this nature of inclusion that you have had, and demonstrated, in the PCB, with civil society having such a strong voice.

I also heard yesterday looking at Winnie's speech that took us back in history, and I think it is really important for us in these days, when it is really complex and hard out there, to remember that we have had success, enormous success, and this is one of the issues and challenges that the world met in crisis, and has come quite a long way.     

Having said that, I also heard a lot this morning, as we meet at this pivotal moment for the global fight against HIV and AIDS. Everyone was leaning into the strategy, maybe there were some issues around language. But more importantly, leaning into a strategy has to come with the means of implementation.

And what we are seeing is a step back from the means of implementation, or perhaps, pushing to say domestic resources need to be leveraged. Let us remind ourselves that in developing countries today, the pressure on domestic resources that has come from debt, where governments, even if they wanted to prioritize HIV and AIDS as a budget spend, quite frankly, are taking away from education, taking away from health, because they cannot meet that. So, there's a bigger picture out there of what needs to happen with the financial architecture, and what needs to happen to leverage more resources for countries to be able to cope with this. And I see that our international community is stepping back from development, from humanitarian responses, and part of what we have to do today with this strategy and with the transitions that we offer in UN80, and UNAID's one of them, is how to convince the international community to come back.

We need to listen and to hear the constraints that are there, many of them very real to donors that have been generous in the past but now find themselves challenged. That financing, the means of implementation, is a really big part of what you will need to discuss and find how can we come back to that.

We have had four decades of UNAIDS playing a vital role in the global response, and it does stand as one of the United Nations' major success stories. Countless lives that have been saved, but there is also an understanding that everyone, more today than we had 40 years ago, is a citizen, is a human being in countries, and the issues of discrimination have been and continue to be addressed. We should take credit for that, and need to we push further, that last mile is always the most difficult.

But our pride — which we fully share with all our partners worldwide — and all around the table - is supported by the statistics. And thanks to UNAIDS for the data that they have, but also to the co-sponsors.                        

AIDS-related deaths have been reduced by 70% since their peak in 2004 and by 54% since 2010. You know this data. HIV prevention and treatment services have reduced new infections by 40% between 2010 and 2024. That is quite remarkable, even though there is much more to be done.

It is important, as you have always reminded us, in fact, in Brazil where I was first reminded a couple of decades ago that these achievements go far beyond health. Our response is critical to giving people a fair chance at life and protecting the most vulnerable everywhere. 

Excellencies, 

As we celebrate these successes, we must focus on how we continue strengthening the ability of the UN system to deliver support for the key populations most in need. 

In the Secretary-General’s UN80 report, he sets out a vision for further integration of UNAIDS’ capacity and expertise across the system – through our co-sponsors and partners. 

This is not about diluting UNAIDS’ impact – but it is about further strengthening it and build on its successes. We are careful to ensure that, in addressing these issues, valuable elements are preserved. 

It is in a spirit of renewal that the Secretary-General has proposed to Member States that they take a decision to, and we use the word sunset UNAIDS, by 2026, but it is a transition, a constructive and robust transition to a system that has been working together. And I know that we have seen the space that UN AIDS has occupied, it is very special, and I have heard very much, where that space is, and today, we can perhaps not see how some of it can be taken over in the transition, but that is what the working group is about, to really to resolve those issues.

These changes are about ensuring we keep the UNAIDS mission alive. People will be living with HIV and AIDS even by 2030 and beyond.

This builds upon the discussions that the PCB has been having about safeguarding the enduring legacy of UNAIDS. But allow me to reassure everyone in the room and outside, that the Secretary-General and I are guided by the same principle of preserving that legacy. 

The Secretary-General has asked that I work with you – the board, the programme – to help guide this progress. and we have a team now that is in place for that. It has taken a bit of time to set up, but the UN80 mandate and the parts of it that I have been given are taking its toll. There are tight timelines. If you think this timeline to June is tight, you would be surprised what we are being asked to do in UN80.

In the past few weeks, I have had the pleasure of meeting with many of you – including the Member States, the UNAIDS, co-sponsors and the NGO Delegation. Your lived experience, expertise, and analysis continue to shape our thinking and our response. Even today, what I have heard, including the voices of civil society, have had impact on what we will be going back to discuss with the Secretary General. There are many questions, but I hope that with the incredibly good presentation of the working group proposals, that we can find a way forward.

Through these discussions, I grow increasingly reassured of the transition vision. 

We have to be very clear here —the mission has to continue, and it must be responsive because many of our environments are changing fast, and I will come to that at the end, where I hope we can make more commitments to other parts of UN80 that are taking place that you should be fully engaged with. 

I have my marching orders to deliver this mission. 

First, we will safeguard the uninterrupted delivery of HIV and AIDS services. The strategy is an excellent tool for us to do that. We will carefully transition its capacities and expertise into the parts of the UN system best positioned to carry this mission forward effectively and sustainably.

The UN’s collective expertise and programming from across our entities and agencies will be brought into a re-imagined structure to support governments and civil society.

Second, Governments and civil society remain at the centre of the HIV response. 

The United Nations will continue to support national leadership, helping countries sustain and integrate HIV services within their broader health and social systems. Civil society will remain at the heart of this response, and the PCB is an excellent demonstration of how you have maintained that inclusion.

We do have the resident coordinator in our countries. Their job is to coordinate and to convene. It will be important for them, as we think through the UNAIDS response, how we better convene the multi-stakeholder communities in ensuring that we deepen the work.

Third, the UN system must collaborate more cohesively drawing on comparative strengths of our entities. We are not always best known for that, except when there is a crisis, but now there is. There is one about our integrity.

The multilateral system is being challenged, and we know that everyone believes that space is important, but there is always a “but”, and the “but” is not doing things the same way that we are doing them. And so, it is not just that we see resources withdrawn from many of our programs. It is a long time coming, the reforms. 1945 is not 2025. We have to do things differently. We have technology today. We can be more efficient. We can be more responsive. Partnerships have deepened, and we know that there is a huge constituency of young people that must be engaged in the work that we do.

Fourth, sustained financing and funding underpins all our efforts, the means of implementation. Without adequate and predictable financing, it needs to be at scale, it needs to be on time, even the strongest strategies and partnerships will not succeed. 

HIV must remain visible and prioritized in national budgets and global financing discussions - the advocacy for this has to continue and to deepen. Ending AIDS remains achievable, but only if resources match our ambition. We must ensure we not only safeguard the resources but also leveraging and mobilise more. 

Finally, advocacy will remain a key tenant of this process - your voices continue to be essential. A successful transition can only be achieved in full partnership with all UNAIDS stakeholders. It is a big family, it is complex, you have worked over four decades to bring it to where it is today, we should be standing on your shoulders and not going back.

Throughout our engagement with you, we have carefully noted your ideas and your legitimate concerns.

The Secretary-General’s timeline for a decision by June is ambitious but achievable. 

ECOSOC and the relevant specialized agencies cosponsoring UNAIDS hold the formal decision-making authority for this transition. The PCB will continue to play a critical role in ensuring a smooth and responsible transition that is well thought out, safe and inclusive.  

Aligning these timelines, we look forward to the PCB’s guidance on this for a more progressive timeline. It is critical that we bring this forward. I have discussed with the Executive Director and the Chair. There is a sense of urgency, but let me underscore here, we are not in a hurry to fail. We do not consider a June date to be one on which the process should stand or fall. We think that those dates that have been put forward are really constructive. If we can do better, let us do better. If we cannot, then we cannot, but let us put our best efforts forward. We must achieve common ground around all the concerns that the PCB and Civil Society have aired over the last few weeks in particular.

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, 

The UN will always standby our mandate on HIV/AIDs. This is not a retreat, it is about preserving and enforcing the mission whilst facing down the unprecedented realities and pressures we face today.  

Throughout, we are drawing immense inspiration from the many important signs of country and community resilience that are emerging around the world. Brazil – our host – is one such example – for requesting the certification for the elimination of mother to child transmission of HIV. 

Inspired by your leadership, we remain certain that we can protect and build on the extraordinary success of UNAIDS through a careful and substantive transition.  

On a personal note, you will have my full commitment to be, not just working with you and hopefully responding in times to what you expect, but also on UN80. On UN80 we have some cross-cutting issues here that you need to be very much engaged and part of. It is the new country configurations, and what does the response look like in that? It is the regional reset. If we are asking for surge capacity at the regional level for countries on expertise, what does that look like for this constituency?

More importantly, we are looking at the data commons, we are looking at the knowledge hubs, and also the technology mechanisms as we see the growth of AI, and more importantly, the humanitarian reset, or where we want to leave absolutely no one behind.

And with that, once again, thank you very much for giving me this space, and I look forward to continuing this discussion.