Over the past 25 years, AIDS has imposed a huge cost, in economic and social terms, on many countries, communities, and households around the world. At the same time, the price tag to respond fully and effectively in the areas of prevention, care and treatment, mitigation, and research has grown to tens of billions of dollars, and is continuing to increase. There have been dramatic increases in funding, but available resources are now becoming increasingly tight as the global recession adversely impacts both donor and developing countries, and as other competing priorities (e.g. climate change, swine flu) emerge.

In this context, there is an urgent need for better and long-term estimates of the cost and financing trajectories for the AIDS pandemic, and a fresh perspectives on possible policy actions that could improve things in the coming decades.

To respond to this need, aids2031 was established in 2008 as a high level international consortium of partners, bringing...