Dear Secretary Clinton:

The response to the global AIDS pandemic is in URGENT need of more funding to put people on lifesaving HIV treatment. 20 million people living with HIV do not have access to treatment and care - and they are all at risk of completely preventable death. 

Millions of people lives depend on the United States and other donor countries, who must increase funding to global AIDS programs immediately, or risk rising HIV infections rates and an uncontrollable pandemic. The next President of the United States has a responsibility to increase the U.S. budget for global AIDS programs including the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria. 

The largest and most successful bilateral AIDS program, the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS relief (PEPFAR), is running out of money. There is not enough funding to continue to scale up in the coming years. Under the leadership of Dr. Deborah Birx, PEPFAR has made remarkable use of flat-funded budgets --building off the efficiencies that Dr. Eric Goosby started and making difficult choices about where and what to prioritize. But there are no more efficiencies to be made. 

We continue to urge you to commit now to increase funding for PEPFAR by at least $2 billion more per year by 2020. This plan would double the number of people on treatment supported by PEPFAR and help set the world on track to putting over 30 million people living with HIV on treatment by 2020. 

It would provide additional funding for an initiative that not only fights disease but also combats poverty and inequality--key social and economic drivers of HIV. This funding would also allow PEPFAR to scale up critical new programs to focus on young women who face such dramatic HIV burden in Sub-Saharan Africa--programs begun in recent years but which lack sufficient funding. Your leadership on the needs of young women has been critical and we urge your commitment now for these programs.     

You have long been committed to the global fight against HIV. It is crucial for you to model that leadership for other nations by making concrete monetary and service delivery commitments to substantiate the general commitment you have voiced for PEPFAR. 

Secretary Clinton: Make a public commitment to increase funding for global AIDS programs by at least $2 billion per year and double the number of people the US supports in HIV treatment by 2020