In September 2023, world leaders gathered to endorse the second United Nations (UN) Political Declaration on Universal Health Coverage (UHC), titled “Universal Health Coverage: Expanding Our Ambition for Health and Well-Being in a Post-COVID World.” The inaugural UN Political Declaration on UHC, charted in September 2019, set the trajectory for the global community to attain UHC by 2030 and to leave no one behind which is reinforced in 2023.

The 2023 World AIDS Day theme is “Let Communities Lead” and the theme for the upcoming International AIDS Conference 2024 is “Put People First” – both emphasising the need for a people-centred and key population- and community-led approach to end AIDS as an epidemic by 2030. Lack of adequate investments is hampering our efforts towards ending AIDS as an epidemic. The gap in funding for HIV programs in low- and middle-income countries is growing.

Led by GFAN AP and supported by Keshav Suri Foundation, Revival Disability India, we remind leaders – in an era where the world is experiencing volatile and unprecedented geopolitical tensions, violent conflicts, climate change and pandemics – we cannot forget the adverse impact on mental health on key and vulnerable populations living with and/or affected by HIV, Tuberculosis (TB) and malaria who are especially impacted given the stigma, discrimination, lack of psychosocial support, financial burdens, criminalization, side effects, ageing, amidst other factors.