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USAID vs. UNAIDS – What’s the Difference?

May 14, 2025
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Recent policy decisions around foreign aid have not only had an immediate impact on humanitarian initiatives but also brought increased attention to some potentially confusing acronyms. For example, USAID and UNAIDS look and sound similar, but they’re very different organizations. Do you know the difference? We’re here to help break it down!

UNAIDS is a United Nations (that’s what the “U and “N” stand for!) program tasked with coordinating the global response to HIV/AIDS. Founded in 1996 in Geneva, Switzerland, UNAIDS involves multiple UN agencies (like WHO, UNICEF, UNDP) with the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. The organization plays a key role in global advocacy, policy guidance, and data collection/reporting, which helps response programs track the state of the fight and strategically deploy resources and funding where they’re needed most. 

USAID stands for United States Agency for International Development. Founded in 1961 by President John F Kennedy in Washington, D.C., USAID has broad goals to promote health, education, economic development, democracy, and humanitarian aid on a global scale. USAID funds and manages aid programs in over 100 countries, tackling global health crises including infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. 

UNAIDS receives nearly half of its funding from USAID and the two organizations collaborate on several initiatives. The key difference is that UNAIDS is a United Nations-led, HIV/AIDS-specific, global coordination focused on policy, advocacy, data collection, and strategic deployment of resources while USAID is a United States development agency, with HIV/AIDS being just one part of its mission. 

UNAIDS has been in the news lately because the organization has been subject to an upheaval by the Trump administration. In January 2025, the administration announced the abrupt termination of approximately 92% of USAID’s foreign aid contracts, amounting to nearly $60 billion in withheld funds, many of which were bound for UNAIDS programs. This illegal action affected nearly 10,000 contracts and grants from the State Department and USAID. And while some exceptions and waivers have been granted to restore funding for specific programs or uses, the damage from this sharp withdrawal from global support ​has forced many operations to cease irreversibly. This threatens to undo decades of progress that have been made in the HIV/AIDS fight. We cannot let this happen. 

Follow @RED to stay up to date on the AIDS fight and visit ONE.org to learn how you can use your voice to speak out against the US’s recent foreign aid decisions.