Trump admin ends $45M support for Namibia HIV program

The Trump administration announced it will be ending $45 million in support for Namibia’s HIV response program following two decades of annual payments.

The U.S. will provide its final $45 million payment in the 2027 fiscal year as “this support will transition into a technical cooperation model,” according to a Friday joint statement from Namibia’s Ministry of International Relations & Trade and the U.S. Embassy in Namibia.

“This transition is a celebration of Namibia’s leadership and a model for what is possible,” U.S. Ambassador to Namibia John Giordano said in the statement.

Namibia will now integrate its HIV response into a “sustainable national health system” that is “guided by Namibia’s priorities, policies and legal frameworks.”

The U.S.-backed program previously supported “investments in HIV testing, counselling, community-based organizations and other key health system intervention.”

The joint U.S.-Namibian effort notably surpassed global targets for HIV testing, treatment and viral suppression during its tenure, reporting that 97 percent of infants born to HIV-positive mothers tested negative for the disease.

“As we evolve this partnership, we remain committed to a cooperation model that respects Namibia’s sovereignty and the integrity of our national health data,” said Dr. Esperance Luvindao, the Namibian Health minister.

The decision follows Namibia’s rejection of provisions that would have required the country to share sensitive health data with the U.S.

According to The Namibian , the end of funding follows Namibia rejecting U.S. efforts to require the country to share sensitive health data as part of continued U.S. support.

Officials told the outlet that, “the Namibian government has made it unequivocally clear that the data-sharing or specimen-sharing agreements in their proposed forms are not in compliance with Namibia’s national laws.”

A report by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) found that global HIV response plunged in 2025 blaming a steep decline in U.S. support.

The Trump administration previously created the “ America First Global Health Strategy ” that called for significant scale-down in U.S. funding for countries in the future, including global health programs which it called “inefficient and wasteful and created a culture of dependency among recipient countries.”

Other changes made by the administration include freezing and ultimately canceling global HIV projects, eliminating the U.S. Agency for International Development and canceling support to UNAIDS in 2025.