Human Rights Watch says the 2025 cuts ended US-funded community prevention and care, while outreach workers describe missed medication and lost contact with clients.
US aid cuts in 2025 ended all community-based HIV prevention and care for LGBT people in Indonesia funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Human Rights Watch says in a new investigation.
Before the cuts, outreach workers helped people get confidential HIV tests, accompanied them to clinics and supported them in taking antiretroviral medicines, which treat HIV. They also distributed condoms and information about preexposure prophylaxis, medication taken to prevent HIV infection.
Workers told Human Rights Watch that they had since lost contact with clients and that some clients collected medication late or missed doses. Local organizations no longer had the capacity to track new infections or interruptions to treatment, the workers said.
President Donald Trump froze US humanitarian aid after taking office on 20 January 2025. The freeze, initially described as temporary, was followed by the elimination of 83% of USAID programs and the agency’s dismantling.
US government figures cited by Human Rights Watch show that obligated HIV funding for Indonesia fell from $11.9 million in fiscal year 2024 to $7.9 million in fiscal year 2025. International donors covered 98% of HIV programming for men who have sex with men and transgender people, who often relied on community services because of stigma and discrimination at public health facilities, the organization says.
Human Rights Watch says outreach workers also paid for transport and tests, helped patients obtain identification and health insurance, advocated for them with clinic staff, and trained health workers to provide respectful care. Transgender patients whose identity documents do not reflect their gender identity can be called by a former name in public, exposing them to humiliation or discrimination, the group says.
Every participant in the All of Us study carried a relevant variant, while 24.4% had a record of taking a drug affected by a variant they carried. The findings expand the data available to researchers but do not establish better treatment outcomes.
For its investigation, Human Rights Watch interviewed 35 people in Jakarta, Depok and Serang in November 2025 and June 2026. They included people living with HIV, outreach workers, activists, academics, aid recipients and nongovernmental organization staff. The group also reviewed budget and policy documents.
Human Rights Watch says it received no response to inquiries sent on 24 September 2026 to the US Department of State, Indonesia’s Health Ministry and its Ministry of Home Affairs.
The investigation also cites an estimate of more than 170,000 additional HIV-related deaths worldwide in one year following cuts. In January 2026 reporting, Impact Counter, a website based on an analysis by Boston University infectious disease modeler Brooke Nichols, estimated a similar global toll from disruptions to the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The analysis had not been peer-reviewed; the estimate is not a count of deaths observed in Indonesia.
Human Rights Watch wants Indonesia and international donors to restore community-led HIV services. Its senior health researcher Julia Bleckner warned that, without restored care, more people could be pushed out of treatment and die from preventable causes. The group asks Indonesia to fund prevention and care for men who have sex with men and transgender people, maintain medicine supplies and train health workers to provide nondiscriminatory care. It also asks the US to ensure continuous, timely funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, disclose the impact of terminated programs and withdraw its “Promoting Human Flourishing in Foreign Assistance Policy,” which the group says restricts transgender-rights work. It asks donors to increase contributions to the Global Fund and directly support LGBT-led HIV organizations in Indonesia.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said in September 2026 that Indonesia’s Health Ministry presented a financing transition roadmap in March 2026. HIV and tuberculosis programs are scheduled to move away from the fund’s support after the grant cycle ending in 2032. The fund’s analysis identified community health services, medicines and diagnostics as needing continued support until the transition timelines end.
3 min
Researchers published the finding on 11 November 2026, identifying adult and child prints on figurines from what is now Israel. They suggest adults taught children to work the clay, though the prints do not establish that.
2 min
Human Rights Watch says the plan announced on 5 November aims to expand electrification and renewable investment but sets no concrete target for phasing out fossil fuels.
3 min
