Reorganization and the Future of PEPFAR: Implications of State and USAID Reform

In March of this year, President Trump issued an “Executive Order on a Comprehensive Plan for Reorganizing the Executive Branch” and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has made redesign of the State Department and USAID a top priority and recently submitted its redesign proposal to The Office of Management and Budget (OMB). While final plans are still unknown, a variety of organizations have published reports and recommendations on the topic. One area of consideration in these discussions has been whether the statutorily created Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC), which oversees and manages the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), should be moved from the State Department to USAID or in other ways be changed from reporting to the Secretary of State as under current law. When created, PEPFAR was intentionally structured in this way to allow it to: have programmatic and budget oversight of the HIV response across multiple implementing agencies with different missions; harness diplomatic, development, and health expertise across the government; and move beyond the usual model of development to address an urgent epidemic with devastating global consequences.

Read the report here.