The Honorary co-chairs of the Task Force are Senator Russell Feingold and Senator John E. Sununu. Senator William H. Frist, former U.S. Senate Majority Leader, remains an active partner of the Task Force. The CSIS Task Force on HIV/AIDS is funded by principally by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with project support and input from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and Merck and Co. The Task Force outlines strategic choices that lie ahead for the United States in fighting the global HIV/AIDS pandemic and is comprised of a core network of experts drawn from Congress, the administration, public health groups, the corporate sector, activists, and others. This panel helps to shape the direction and scope of the Task Force and disseminate findings to a broader U.S. audience.
Now in its seventh year, the Task Force’s principal focus is on two critical issues: first, raising the profile and improving the effectiveness of U.S. support to
global prevention efforts and facilitating a bi-partisan discussion of global HIV prevention policy; and second, examining how U.S. leadership can facilitate the sustainability of HIV/AIDS programs, both in terms of resource flows and in situating HIV/AIDS responses within a broader strategy to address
gaps in gender equity, health infrastructure, human capacity, and international collaboration on global health. A senior delegation to
Vietnam in January 2006 examined the special challenges of halting a pandemic in a low HIV prevalence country driven primarily by injecting drug use. The Task Force continues to engage on the emerging dynamics of the epidemic in Russia, China, and India with recent delegation visits in the Spring and Summer of 2007.
