Sustaining Harm Reduction Amidst Political and Financial Uncertainty

This session reflected on lessons from past funding volatility, highlighting how sudden donor withdrawals – particularly recent U.S. funding freezes – have disproportionately disrupted harm reduction and prevention services that are already fragile and heavily donor‑dependent. The presentation noted uneven regional responses, with some governments, multilateral mechanisms, and philanthropic donors beginning to step up, while significant gaps and future financial threats remain, especially in low‑resource and politically contested settings. To sustain and scale harm reduction under financial pressure, Abdool Karim emphasised strategies including embedding services within national health systems, diversifying funding sources, and reframing harm reduction as a human rights‑based, cost‑saving public health and governance investment rather than discretionary donor‑funded programming.

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