Health Systems Trust: Strengthening Local Capacity for HIV Care and Treatment in South Africa under PEPFAR

Health Systems Trust

This announcement seeks to provide funding to eligible and successful organizations to enable them to implement the (Determined, resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored, and Safe) DREAMS initiative.

In 2015 PEPFAR, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Nike Foundation entered into a $210 million partnership – the DREAMS initiative. This initiative seeks to reduce new HIV infections in adolescent girls and young women in ten sub-Saharan African countries including South Africa.

DREAMS involves using multiple evidence-based interventions that go beyond the health sector, to address the structural drivers that directly and indirectly increase girls’ HIV risk, including poverty, gender inequality, sexual violence, and lack of education.

The identified five districts for the DREAMS Initiative are eThekwini, uMgungundlovu and uMkhanyakude in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN); and the City of Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni in Gauteng (GP). Within these 5 districts there are 31 sub-districts and DREAMS will focus in 19 high burden and high transmission sub-districts.

The objectives of the DREAMS initiative are to:

1. Empower Girls and Young Women
2. Mobilize Communities
3. Strengthen Families
4. Provide Social Protection

This FOA supports the goals and objectives of the DREAMS initiative to – reduce new HIV infections in 15-24 year old adolescent girls and young women by 25% by the end of 2016 and 40% by the end of 2017. The objectives of the DREAMS initiative are related to improving the lives of adolescent girls and young women leading to decreased risk for HIV, increasing secondary school enrollment, attendance and completion, decreasing violence and unintended pregnancy.