Request for Applications: Expansion of Community HIV Response in Nigeria

The NOFO targets closing service coverage gaps in adolescents and young persons (AYP) and key populations (KP) sub-groups including sex workers (SW), men who have sex with men (MSM), people who inject drugs (PWID), and transgender people (TG). This will contribute to Nigeria’s attainment of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) 95-95-95 targets, which require having 95% of people living with HIV (PLHIV) tested and diagnosed, 95% of those diagnosed placed on anti-retroviral therapy (ART), and 95% of those on ART virally suppressed. Recipient(s) will be expected to operate within community structures or develop innovative mechanisms to deliver integrated community-led HIV interventions for AYP and KP. This NOFO seeks to achieve impactful and sustainable outcomes that require implementation of innovative and efficient models of community-led prevention and treatment methods, including program monitoring and routine use of data for continuous quality improvement. The NOFO will support a shared programmatic approach that collaborates with, and builds the capacities of other community stakeholders, promotes local ownership, and contributes to Nigeria’s overall HIV epidemic control efforts.

Goals and Priorities

• Reducing the prevention and treatment gaps for adolescent girls and young women (AGYW), children, and key populations (KPs);
• Strengthening national and local programmatic, financial, and community leadership;
• Designing new partnerships with key private, public, and multi sector entities that can complement existing programs and expand reach;
• Utilizing the PEPFAR platform for broader disease surveillance and public health programming, consistent with the PEPFAR legislative and funding authority;
• Investing in the scale-up of cutting edge behavioral and implementation science to bend the curve on new infections;
• Improving the care and treatment of HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and related opportunistic infections by improving STI management; enhancing laboratory diagnostic capacity and the care and treatment of opportunistic infections; interventions for intercurrent diseases impacting HIV infected patients including tuberculosis (TB); and initiating programs to provide anti-retroviral therapy (ART);
• Strengthening the capacity of countries to collect, use, and share surveillance data and manage national HIV/AIDS programs by expanding HIV/STI/TB surveillance programs and strengthening laboratory support for surveillance, diagnosis, treatment, disease monitoring, and HIV screening for blood safety; and
• Developing, validating, and/or evaluating public health programs to inform, improve, and target appropriate interventions, as related to the prevention, care and treatment of HIV/AIDS, TB, and opportunistic infections.

Funding Information

• The Approximate Total Fiscal Year Funding/Average One Year Award Amount/Approximate Average Award amount for this NOFO is $10,000,000. CDC will consider any application requesting an award higher than this amount as non-responsive and it will receive no further review.

Strategies and Activities

• Strategy 1: Use multi-faceted innovative approaches to strengthen and facilitate the uptake of community HIV-prevention services among AYP and KP in selected sub-national units.
• Strategy 2: Implement partnership-building strategies among stakeholders to address treatment gaps among AYP and KP, and to improve and sustain continuity of HIV care and treatment services at the community level.
• Strategy 3: Implement innovative project management and ethical data use approaches among stakeholders to monitor, evaluate, and improve the delivery of community-level HIV services for AYP and KP.
• Strategy 4: Strengthen CBOs’ capacities to develop, implement, and support sustainable community service delivery systems, and to collaboratively coordinate, monitor, and champion the AYP and KP HIV-response at national and sub-national levels.

Relevant Work

• The recipient(s) are expected to demonstrate experience working in the following program areas:
  • HIV prevention for at-risk populations
  • Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT)
  • HIV testing services (HTS)
  • KP service
  • Adolescent care and treatment services
  • Laboratory services delivery
  • Strategic information and monitoring and evaluation (M&E)
  • Health systems strengthening

Eligibility Criteria

• Government Organizations:
  • State governments or their bona fide agents (includes the District of Columbia)
  • Local governments or their bona fide agents
  • Territorial governments or their bona fide agents in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianna Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau
  • State controlled institutions of higher education
  • American Indian or Alaska Native tribal governments (federally recognized or state-recognized)
• Non-government Organizations
  • American Indian or Alaska native tribally designated organizations
• Other
  • Ministries of Health
• Additional Information on Eligibility
  • This is a fully competitive NOFO and eligibility is unrestricted, meaning any and all types of organizations and entities are eligible to apply.
  • In addition, as may be required by host country laws, applicant is expected to comply with and document that it has satisfied all regulatory requirements of their governing entities that could otherwise compromise the integrity and resources provided by this program or make the conduct of expected activities under this award unable to be performed. Applicants must also meet the criteria established in CDC’s pre-award risk assessment to be eligible to receive funds under this NOFO.

For more information, visit Grants.gov.