Protecting Africa’s children from extreme risk: a runway of sustainability for PEPFAR programmes

PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) is recognised for saving 26 million lives from HIV. PEPFAR investments have also had life-saving impacts for children across sub-Saharan Africa through childhood HIV prevention, care, and treatment, ensuring 7·8 million babies were born HIV-free, supporting 13 million orphaned and vulnerable children, and protecting 10·3 million girls from sexual abuse.

PEPFAR-supported countries in Africa are committed to ownership of HIV responses by 2030—overall, PEPFAR-supported countries in sub-Saharan Africa have progressively increased their co-financing of their health systems through domestic government and private expenditure from $13·7 billion per year in 2004 to $42·6 billion per year in 2021.

Without continued PEPFAR programs, models predict that by 2030, an additional 1 million children will become infected with HIV, 0·5 million additional children will die of AIDS, and 2·8 million children will additionally become orphaned by AIDS.

There is now an opportunity for a transformational partnership between the USA and Africa, to accelerate domestic government co-financing, private-sector investments, and charitable foundations. A 5-year progressive runway of transition can occur through continued authorisation of PEPFAR programs, which can lead to the end of AIDS for children and families, a historic achievement.