Health officials and partners who gathered at the event.
The Ministry of Health and Medical Servies together with its partners; the World Health Organization (WHO), DFAT and Solomon Islands Planned Parenthood Association (SIPPA) today marked World AIDS Day with the theme “Overcoming disruption, transforming the AIDS response” at the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Cooperation (SIBC).
Speaking at the event, Ministry of Health and Medical Services, Minister, Honorable Dr. Paul Popora Bosawai in his keynote address at the event stated, “the World AIDS day 2025 under the theme “Overcoming disruption, transforming the AIDS response”. It calls for sustained political leadership, international cooperation and human-rights-centered approaches to achieve SDG target to end AIDS by 2030”.
He explained the theme focuses on the impact of funding cuts and other challenges, highlighting the resilience of communities and countries in protecting progress and moving the HIV response forward.
- The theme acknowledges the challenges and disruptions that have affected the global AIDS response
- It emphasizes the need to transform the response to overcome these obstacles, rather than retreat
- It showcases the resiliencies and dedication of communities, health workers and other stakeholders who are committed to ending AIDS
- The theme calls for accelerating prevention, treatment and care services and ensuring no one is left behind.
He said in 2025, a historic funding crisis is threatening to unravel decades of progress. HIV prevention services are severely disrupted. Community-led services, vital to reaching marginalized populations, are being deprioritized while the rise in punitive laws criminalizing same-sex relationships, gender identity, and illegal drug use is amplifying the crisis, making HIV services inaccessible. AIDS is not over and given today’s environment, a new transformative approach is needed to mitigate risks and help us reach our targets.
“Countries like Solomon Islands must make radical shifts to HIV programming and funding. The global HIV response cannot rely on domestic resources alone. The international community must come together to bridge the financing gap, support countries like Solomon Islands to close the remaining gaps in HIV prevention and treatment services, remove legal and social barriers, and empower communities to lead the way forward.
“Political leadership is paramount to advancing policies that address structural inequalities and protect vulnerable populations. Transformative solutions are needed to improve access to HIV services, eliminate stigma and discrimination once and for all, and ensure the protection of rights for women, girls, and LGBTQ+ people, who continue to face disproportionate barriers in accessing healthcare.
“The reduction in the HIV funding landscape calls for the concerted collaboration and commitment of HIV researchers, policy makers, healthcare professionals, funders, media and communities – to rethink, rebuild and rise”, said Honorable Dr. Bosawai.
However, he said the HIV response has always been defined by resilience, overcoming challenges through innovation, collaboration and activism. We will need to draw deeply on that resilience in the years to come. The HIV response must rethink its approach as shifting geopolitics and funding crises threaten progress. Sustainable funding requires countries to rethink financing through domestic investment, innovative models and private sector engagement.
“We must rebuild momentum, protecting service infrastructure and advancing science. Defending scientific freedom, evidence-based policies and civil society spaces is critical to help the HIV response rise above misinformation and censorship.
“An evidence-based, resilient, fully funded HIV response requires us to rethink, rebuild and rise with effective policy making, a commitment to innovation and strong collaboration”, said Dr. Bosawai.
