Eleven UNAIDS’ Country Offices submitted new reports on the impact of the freeze of US foreign assistance on their country AIDS responses during the week of 24-28 February. As of 28 February, at least one status report had been received from 59 countries, including 79% of all PEPFAR-funded countries and an additional 15 countries that receive US support for their AIDS responses.

Last week, the U.S. Government issued termination letters for many agreements held by USAID. This decision is expected to significantly alter the situation reported by countries in the coming days. For example, in South Africa dozens of USAID implementing partners received termination letters on 26 February. These decisions will affect a large proportion of the 15,374 PEPFAR-funded staff working on the national HIV response in South Africa. Managers of critical programmes have said they have been given too little time to transition from U.S. funding to other sources of funding.

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