This notice announces the opportunity to apply for funding under the Capacity Building for Sustainable HIV Services project.The purpose of this cooperative agreement, funded under the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), is to enhance capacity building in PEPFAR countries. Capacity building encompasses quality, effectiveness, efficiency, patient-centeredness, safety, accessibility, equity, and sustainability of all HIV clinical services and related non-clinical support in identified PEPFAR countries. HRSA is committed to sustainable control of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, by working with local partners in country (such as civil society, faith-based and community-based organizations, key populations groups, etc.) and Ministries of Health to build the capacity of health care workers and health systems to produce a sustained, efficient, and responsive approach to the HIV epidemic in resource-limited countries. The program aims to build the capacity of countries to be agile and current in their response to the needs of program beneficiaries, achieve the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) 95-95-95 targets,1 and sustain these efforts over time.
The goal of this program is to improve health outcomes for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) along the HIV care continuum by building sustainable health systems, including a global workforce with the right skills, mix, and distribution to respond to HIV and other population health priorities. The program will support countries currently receiving capacity building support (Mozambique, Botswana, India, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, and Ukraine) through HRSA’s International AIDS Education and Training Centers (IAETC) program, as well as extend this work and offer additional programming to new countries.
The program shall focus on:
• comprehensive and client-centered service delivery;
• quality improvement to address gaps in performance and inequities;
• transitioning to local partners and integration of HIV services into primary health care;
• strengthening Human Resources for Health (HRH);
• interventions to address other determinants of health, such as behavioral health;
• data management, telemedicine and e-learning, and health informatics/system solutions to identify and track patients, monitor results and progress; and
• improving diagnosis, linkage, treatment, retention and viral suppression rates.
The program also provides direct technical assistance to Ministries of Health and regional and local government entities, and supports institutional capacity building. The overall objective is to achieve and/or maintain HIV epidemic control within the PEPFAR program.
