Advancing community-based epidemic control in namibia project (acec) - dapp is pleased to propose the advancing community-based epidemic control in namibia project (hereafter project acec), in…

Advancing community-based epidemic control in namibia project (acec) - dapp is pleased to propose the advancing community-based epidemic control in namibia project (hereafter project acec), in response to the CDC nofo advancing comprehensive community-based HIV services to achieve epidemic control in namibia under pepfar (CDC-RFA-GH21-2152).the purpose of the 5-year intervention is to build on the strong foundations of dapp?s current CDC project (CDC-RFA-GH16-1639) while featuring new approaches that directly address critical gaps and weaknesses in namibia?s national response to HIV and TB, especially in the areas of enhancing active HIV case finding among men and adolescents, improving early infant diagnosis (EID) for mother-baby pairs, integrating HIV self-testing to enhance HIV case finding, and creating region-specific approaches to boost the impact of community-based index testing, linkage and retention.building on a partnership model successfully implemented by dapp and mohss since 2018, dapp will directly implement project acec in 8 high disease burden regions of namibia and in the remaining 6 regions will provide targeted TA to mohss staff who will directly implement community-based services. Within the 6 TA regions, dapp will also directly implement activities in 20 hotspot towns that have large numbers of undiagnosed people living with HIV (plhiv) or art patients experiencing treatment interruption or where other gaps and weaknesses have been identified that present a challenge to attaining epidemic control. In this way, project acec will provide high quality, effective community-based HIV/TB services in all 14 regions of namibia.project acec will be implemented using the total control of the epidemic (TCE) approach, a systematic and evidence-based approach to providing high-quality, scaled-up HIV and TB prevention, treatment, care and support interventions. The approach is community-led, engaging HIV negative and positive populations to take control of their own health and make informed decisions to elim inate vulnerability to HIV/aids, TB and other diseases. Throughout its 15 years of implementation, dapp has evolved its TCE approach under the guidance of mohss and CDC to meet emergent needs to address the HIV and TB epidemics in namibia with new and evidence-based interventions. Under the proposed project, activities will be further tailored to address specific, urgent gaps to support namibia to attain the unaids 95-95-95 epidemic control targets.dapp ? A local non-governmental organization (NGO) with more than 30 years of experience implementing community-based health projects in close collaboration with the government of namibia and the ministry of health and social services (mohss) ? Has the organizational capacity, experienced staff, and strong stakeholder relationships required to effectively implement project acec. To realize project targets and goals and ensure gains are country-owned and sustained, project acec will be implemented in full cooperation with CDC and the mohss at regional, district, health facility (HF), and community levels. The outcomes of project acec will include increasing HIV diagnosis among high-risk populations, preventing mother-to-child transmission, increasing coverage of art, retention in care, and viral load suppression (VLS), linking HIV-negative people to preventive services. Together, these outcomes will help move namibia towards reducing TB and HIV incidence, morbidity and mortality and supporting the country to achieve and sustain HIV and TB epidemic control by 2030.