The Lancet: Advancing global health and strengthening the HIV response in the era of the Sustainable Development Goals: the International AIDS Society-Lancet Commission
Linda-Gail Bekker, president of the International AIDS Society (IAS) and deputy director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, and colleagues on the International AIDS Society-Lancet Commission

“The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have marked a new era in global development … But even in the short time since their endorsement, there are immense and growing challenges to achieving them. The global HIV/AIDS response is not immune to this changing landscape and there are signs that the response is faltering. The International AIDS Society-Lancet Commission will interrogate the following questions: First, what is the future of the HIV response in a more integrated global health and development agenda? How can we bring AIDS to an end in an era in which health and development priorities are proliferating? Second, what have we learned in four decades of battling HIV/AIDS that could inform and strengthen global health more broadly? Third, what are the real threats to global health and to universal health coverage? And finally, what are the ways forward for a more unified movement to ensure sustainable health and development for all? The Commission explores key domains in global health with relevance to HIV, and proposes ways forward for an invigorated and sustainable global health effort” (7/19).

The Lancet: Beyond the silos: integrating HIV and global health
Pamela Das, senior executive editor, and Richard Horton, editor-in-chief, both at The Lancet

“This week, we publish a new International AIDS Society (IAS)-Lancet Commission report: Advancing global health and strengthening the HIV response in the era of the Sustainable Development Goals. … [T]his Commission engaged an international group of experts in HIV and across other global health domains to examine the future of the AIDS response in the context of a more integrated global health and sustainable development agenda. The Commission has several key findings. First, the HIV/AIDS community made a serious error by pursuing ‘the end of AIDS’ message. … Second, as the global community revitalizes efforts on HIV, more of the same is not enough. … Third, and perhaps most importantly, it is now time to end the siloed and vertical response to AIDS, and, in the words of the Commission, to ‘make common cause with the global health field.’ … Integration of the AIDS response with broader aspects of global health will be challenging and difficult. But there needs to be leadership. We invite these institutions to reflect on the message of the Commission and consider how to broaden their mandates” (7/19).

The Lancet: HIV: from exceptionalism to endgame
Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

“…The need to revitalize the battle against HIV is one reason HIV programs must be better integrated with initiatives to strengthen the health system as a whole. … The report of the International AIDS Society-Lancet Commission provides powerful insights into how HIV programs can be more effectively integrated into the SDG3 agenda. … I welcome the Commission’s support for continued robust funding of the Global Fund and PEPFAR. Yet the most urgent priority is to increase national funding. While some countries have taken important steps to increase domestic resources, … overall fiscal mobilization for health in many low-income and middle-income countries is dismally short of what will be required to turn SDG3 into a reality. … Ending the HIV epidemic will take more money. Achieving the SDG3 goal of universal health coverage will require even more. We must rediscover the energy and global solidarity that inspired the exceptionalism of the HIV response, expanding its reach to encompass SDG3. We must build people-centered health systems while maintaining laser-like focus on achieving results” (7/19).

The Lancet: Tackling global health inequities in the HIV response
Keletso Makofane and Bruno Spire, both members of the IAS-Lancet Commission, and Phumi Mtetwa of the Masithandane End Hate Crimes Collective and Social Change Initiative

“…Although patterns of HIV risk and burden trace the contours of deeper social inequities within and across countries, the HIV response has yet to develop a common language to use in addressing the unequal distributions of power and the unfair economic arrangements that drive these inequities. … In heralding a new era of global solidarity, the International AIDS Society-Lancet Commission’s report sees in the global health field the potential to re-engineer the development project ‘from one based on charity from the high-income countries to one that tackles the central determinants of global health inequities.’ … The call for a new global solidarity is an opportunity to reflect on these silences and construct something new. If global health is to re-engineer the development project and tackle inequality, can it do so without using the words capitalism and oppression?” (7/19).