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AVAC Advocates' Network Logo October 24, 2025
Global Health Watch is a weekly newsletter breaking down critical developments in US policies and their impact on global health. Tailored for our partners in the US and around the world, this resource offers a concise analysis of the week’s events, supporting advocates to respond to threats, challenges and opportunities in this critical period of change in global health. 

This week major shifts in development finance make headlines as do the real-time consequences of the US cuts to foreign aid and withdrawing from the WHO. AVAC’s new issue of PxWire ([link removed]) amplifies issues of access, equity, and accountability with an update on biomedical prevention research and rollout.


** Rethinking Health Aid
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The World Bank‑IMF Annual Meetings wrapped up last week highlighting a critical shift in development finance. African leaders and multilateral agencies signaled a move away from traditional aid models and toward investment‑led growth. They emphasized the need for stronger institutions, locally driven capacity, and private‑sector engagement rather than just grants. At a side event, Dr. Jean Kaseya, Director General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), stated that up to 60% of the continent’s past foreign health aid may have been largely “wasted” (attributed to fragmentation in the health sector among other things), prompting calls for smarter, more accountable finance for health.

IMPLICATIONS: With traditional aid shrinking and philanthropic models racing to adapt, the world may see healthcare investment shifting as a core aspect of economic development, which may lead to more investment in robust national health systems, supply chains, local research and development, and an expanded workforce to make countries less dependent on external aid. For HIV prevention, this means country ownership, and innovative and sustainable financing must take the lead to ensure that evidence-based programs, services and products reach everyone in need and access is not derailed by donor funding shifts.

READ:
* From aid to investment: Reshaping Africa’s path to growth ([link removed]) —Devex
* As aid shrinks, top philanthropies test new ways to spur economic growth ([link removed]) —Devex
* Africa CDC chief: 60% of foreign health aid was effectively wasted ([link removed]) —Devex
* Africa Seeks More Self-Reliance Amid Disease Outbreaks and Decline in Donor Funds ([link removed]) —Health Policy News


** Politics Reshaping Global Health
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In parallel to the discussion at the World Bank, Politico’s recent piece ([link removed]) highlights the implications of the United States’ withdrawal from the World Health Organization and other key multilateral initiatives. This reporting underscores how deeply politics is reshaping global health. The US Administration’s “America First” strategy, combined with steep foreign aid cuts, continues to leave countries grappling with uncertainty over how to sustain essential programs once supported by US funding.

IMPLICATIONS: Many articles this week are showing the health impacts of the upended global health system, with many questioning how the global health community will navigate not only budget cuts but recasting health aid as bilateral, strategic, and conditional rather than universal and humanitarian.

READ:
* Trump is cutting foreign aid. He’s not the only one. ([link removed]) —Politico
* The Story of the Unfolding HIV Crises As Seen in Three Countries: Uganda, Thailand and Malawi ([link removed]) —Geneva Health Files
* Botswana faces new HIV scare as shortage of medicines deepens ([link removed]) —The Mail and Guardian
* National Institutes of Health funding cuts will 'impact us for years' ([link removed]) —NPR
* A Somali Hospital Closed After U.S. Aid Cuts. Fired Employees Reopened It Without Pay. ([link removed]) —New York Times
* Ritshidze report spotlights ‘system-wide slide’ in basics for health facility standards after Pepfar cuts ([link removed]) —Daily Maverick


** Release Critical Global Health Funding!
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Partners in Health and other partners are urging the timely and full disbursement of Global Fund and PEPFAR funding to prevent disease outbreaks, strengthen health systems, and protect vulnerable communities.
Read More ([link removed])


** Tracking the HIV Prevention Landscape
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AVAC’s new issue of PxWire ([link removed]) shows the promise of PrEP – across R&D and delivery. Long-acting injectable lenacapavir for PrEP is advancing toward rollout, with the first supplies expected to reach select countries before the end of the year. Simultaneously, this quarter’s issue tracks updates to pricing of existing PrEP products and the launch of Phase 3 trials for a once-monthly prevention pill.

READ:
* PxWire Volume 15, Issue 4 ([link removed]) —AVAC
* The Promise of PrEP for HIV ([link removed]) —Foreign Policy

What We're Reading

• NEJM and public health group are launching rival to CDC’s MMWR publication ([link removed]) —STAT
• Urgent action needed as Treatment Action Campaign highlights 50 percent cut in HIV funding ([link removed]) —IOL South Africa
• Are Cabotegravir Injections More Tolerable Than Lenacapavir? ([link removed]) —POZ
• Gilead agrees not to raise prices on HIV medicines for state AIDS drug programs ([link removed]) —STAT
• CVS Caremark tells AIDS activists Gilead needs to lower the price of its new HIV drug to get on formularies ([link removed]) —STAT
• Who should get the first doses of the twice-a-year HIV prevention jab? It could be in 360 clinics by February ([link removed]) —Bhekisisa
• Overcoming disruption, transforming the AIDS response - World AIDS Day 2025 ([link removed]) —UNAIDS
• More Europeans are dying from HIV now than 15 years ago ([link removed]) —Aidsmap
• Join the PrEP Revolution: How to Fight for HIV Prevention [VIDEOS] ([link removed]) —POZ
• Anti-science bills hit statehouses, stripping away public health protections build over a century ([link removed]) —STAT
• Can Africa’s drug regulators be both fast and trusted? ([link removed]) —Devex

NEW & UPDATED AVAC RESOURCES
• PxWire Volume 15, Issue 4 ([link removed])
• Source of Programmatic Cabotegravir for PrEP Supply ([link removed])
• Source of Lenacapavir for PrEP Supply to Early Adopter Countries ([link removed])
• EXPrESSIVE Phase 3 Trials Countries of MK-8527 ([link removed])
• Years Ahead in HIV Prevention Research: Time to Market ([link removed])
• Lenacapavir Implementation Studies ([link removed])
Webinar
October 29, 2025
[link removed]


** Reclaiming Voices in Global STI and HIV Prevention
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In solidarity,

AVAC
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AVAC Global Advocacy for HIV Prevention
+1 212 796 6423 [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) www.avac.org ([link removed])
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