USAID Zimbabwe: HIV Care and Treatment Grant Opportunity

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The United States Agency for International Development in Zimbabwe (USAID/Zimbabwe) intends to award a cooperative agreement for HIV Care and Treatment (HCT) program in Zimbabwe. Under this program an implementing partner is to increase availability, and improve the quality, of care and support services for persons living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA), primarily through non-government organization (NGO) channels. For this new activity, the NGO community is defined as any non-governmental or non-parastatal organization, either non-profit or for-profit and may include faith-based or commercial entities. Although working primarily through (but not limited to) non-governmental organizations, the HCT Mechanism is expected to contribute to Zimbabwe’s national objectives in the health and education sectors while complementing public sector efforts to improve and expand the availability of critical services oriented to the mitigation of HIV and AIDS in the country.

The overall goals of the HCT mechanism are to:
(1) to increase the availability of high quality comprehensive care and treatment services for HIV-positives at community level and
(2) to strengthen community-level health systems to monitor, track and maintain persons living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA) in care.
In working toward these goals, the HCT mechanism also is expected to have two key objectives: i) expand the availability of HIV care and treatment services; and, ii) improve the quality and range of HIV care and treatment services that are offered through NGO-operated facilities, outreach services to and at the community level.
The main activities envisioned include: expanding care and treatment services for HIV-positive individuals; psychosocial support services; nutrition counseling; antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence counseling; family planning counseling and service delivery; tuberculosis (TB) symptom screening; training and technical support for PLWHA support groups and their members; and referrals to other clinical services (such as TB diagnosis and treatment, treatment of opportunistic infections and ART in public sector hospitals, etc.).

USAID anticipates awarding one cooperative agreement with a five-year period of performance. Applicants are encouraged to consider partnerships with relevant organizations with high-quality skills in HIV Care and Treatment. Subject to the availability of funding, USAID/Zimbabwe expects the HCT mechanism to receive an authorized funding level of approximately 35 million dollars over the five-year period.

The attached Draft Program Description is provided for more information. Applicants are encouraged to submit comments at this time. Please submit all comments (if any) to Theresa Peta at tpeta@usaid.gov, with a copy to harareprocure@usaid.gov by May 6, 2015. USAID may revise the Program Description based on comments received, but is not obliged to do so.

PLEASE NOTE: This is not a request for applications (RFA). Do not submit an application at this time. The full RFA will be released at a later date. This notice does not constitute an obligation or endorsement by USAID to proceed with the RFA or ultimately award a cooperative agreement on the basis of this notice, or to pay for any cost incurred in the preparation and submission of comments on this DRAFT Program Description.
The Request for Applications (RFA) is anticipated to be released on or around May 13, 2015 and will be available for download at www.grants.gov.