PEPFAR’s 20: Reflecting on the US mission to save lives globally

Partners: Jacobsen meets with former Botswana President Festus Mogae at the 2022 American Independence Day celebration in Gaborone. Mogae was instrumental in the launch of the PEPFAR programme in Botswana
Partners: Jacobsen meets with former Botswana President Festus Mogae at the 2022 American Independence Day celebration in Gaborone. Mogae was instrumental in the launch of the PEPFAR programme in Botswana

This month we mark twenty years of PEPFAR, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, and we commit ourselves to ending HIV/AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.

Former U.S. President George W. Bush launched PEPFAR in 2003. Thanks to the compassion and generosity of the American people, PEPFAR has helped to save more than 25 million lives across the globe.

Globally, since the establishment of PEPFAR, new HIV infections have been reduced by 42 percent since their peak in 2004, and AIDS-related deaths have declined by 64 percent since their peak that same year. These successes are largely due to PEPFAR and U.S. contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.

Editor's Comment
Molepolole unrest: Urgent attention on missing person cases

From Jakoba's mysterious disappearance on November 9 to the grim discovery of his remains at Mosinki Lands, a gap in the response mechanisms of the police and village leadership has been laid bare. The community's anger is evident, seen in the attack on Bakang Masole, the man found driving Jakoba's taxi and the main suspect, and the subsequent riot. Residents express discontent, citing a troubling trend of missing persons cases often...

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