Targeted programmatic support across countries under the global fund to fight HIV/aids, tuberculosis and malaria and under the president's emergency plan for aids relief (pepfar) - with support from…

Targeted programmatic support across countries under the global fund to fight HIV/aids, tuberculosis and malaria and under the president's emergency plan for aids relief (pepfar) - with support from pepfar and the global fund (GF), many countries most affected by HIV have made great strides towards enhanced coverage of prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and viral suppression (VS) for people living with HIV (plhiv) and those at risk of acquiring IT. Current priorities in the global HIV response focus on advancing epidemic control and achieving 95-95-95 targets in high-burden settings. To take national HIV programs to the next level of effectiveness and impact, ministries of health (MOH), pepfar implementing partners (IP), and other key stakeholders in pepfar- and GF-supported countries require high-quality, data-driven technical assistance (TA) to identify and effectively address remaining gaps in the HIV prevention, care, and treatment cascades using evidence-based and cost-effective approaches. In addition, cross-program, cross-country learning platforms are needed to support best practice diffusion and peer-to-peer knowledge transfer for appropriate implementation and real-time use of data for decision making. The purpose of this program is to provide comprehensive, cost-effective, targeted TA for HIV prevention, care, and treatment as well as capacity building (CB) for MOH, IP, and other stakeholders to achieve the 95-95-95 targets and advance progress toward epidemic control in pepfar and GF-supported countries. Harnessing the most up-to-date evidence to inform its approaches, and in line with CDC guidance, icap will provide targeted TA for: 1) capacity building of MOH, key stakeholders, and the health workforce to achieve and sustain control of national epidemics; 2) service provision, to improve delivery of high-quality, evidence-based HIV prevention, care, and treatment services, increase VS, and decrease HIV transmission among high-risk and vulnerable populations (VP); and 3) strategic information, to generate timely, actionable, high-quality data and increase its use to inform HIV policy and programs. In response to country TA requests, icap will select suitable TA and CB approaches from its extensive catalogue of field-tested, evidence-based solutions and work closely with CDC-pepfar, MOH, IP, and other in-country stakeholders to design, plan, and implement a package of support tailored to the local epidemic, population groups, and health care worker cadres. Employing an unwavering focus on use and generation of actionable data across all strategies and technical domains, icap will provide TA to MOH, pepfar IP, and other key stakeholders to improve health workforce allocation, productivity, and performance; increase HIV service coverage, quality, and access among target populations, geographic areas, and service areas; and strengthen generation and use of routine and enhanced data for decision-making. A better-aligned, more productive health workforce, together with better-targeted HIV service approaches will produce higher-quality, more efficient, and more effective HIV services, which will improve key metrics (e.g. testing coverage, art initiation, adherence, retention, VS) that drive progress toward 95-95-95 and epidemic control. By applying rigorous and collaborative monitoring, icap will ensure that IT meets or exceeds project-specific targets and achieves all program outcomes. Intermediate and long-term program outcomes will include improved quality and effectiveness of HIV programs to increase retention and adherence to treatment for all plhiv and to effective prevention methods for at-risk groups; increased use of data to measure progress on 95:95:95 targets and epidemic control; increased capacity and ownership of MOH and other key stakeholders of all HIV epidemic control efforts in a sustained manner; decreased HIV transmission among high-risk and VP; and increased VS among all plhiv and all subgroups of PLH