During a quiet meeting at the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in Washington D.C. on 2 August an audience of approximately 20 watched a five-member panel lay out an important element of the global fight against AIDS: the plan to assess the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

Over the next two years, the congressionally-mandated evaluation will look at qualitative and quantitative data from the 120 countries that receive PEPFAR money. In 2012, they will deliver a report on their findings and recommendations to Congress mapping the impact of the program. In particular, they hope to examine how efficient PEPFAR is and determine whether it remains an appropriate response to the international HIV crisis. The panel will also consider the “counter-factual” scenario: how things might be different in PEPFAR’s absence. Its findings are expected to play a key role in the debate over PEPFAR’s future funding.

This bureaucratic procedure stands in marked contrast to last month’s 18th annual International AIDS Conference where more than 20,000 people – including scientists, politicians, humanitarian groups, business moguls, and protesters – jostled for attention in Vienna, Austria. Many activists were angry at President Obama’s reneging on a campaign promise to boost PEPFAR funds by large amounts (his administration has allocated $8.5 billion a year until 2014).

The mood at the IOM was far more subdued. Though the meeting was intended as a discussion with interested members of the public, only a handful in the room asked questions and no queries were sent from the live webcast. The five-member panel explicitly stated that it was not their prerogative to evaluate the amount of money allocated to PEPFAR, only its effect.