United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief – PEPFAR
September 11, 2019
Kinshasa – In September, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) launched a new health activity that will work with the Government of the DRC to deliver high quality, accessible HIV services in Lualaba Province. Under the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), this $2.6 million activity will include HIV prevention, HIV testing services in high yield entry points, enrollment in care and support services for HIV-positive clients, life-saving treatment of HIV-positive clients, and HIV/Tuberculosis integration.
Lualaba Province is key to combatting HIV as it is home to numerous, large, formal and informal mining sites and a major trans-Africa highway route, which includes high-risk populations such as truckers and sex workers.
This HIV Epidemic Control activity is USAID’s first direct award in DRC to a local partner in HIV programming. USAID and PEPFAR have a stated goal to transition 70 percent of HIV programming to local partners by FY 2020. This activity will help to establish the capability and durability of this local partner, ensuring a successful, long-term local partnership.
PEPFAR has set global targets of 95 percent of people living with HIV who know their status, 95 percent of people who know their status accessing treatment, and 95 percent of people on treatment having suppressed viral loads across all ages, genders, and at-risk groups by 2030. To attain epidemic control, local partners like Kheth’Impilo must be supported to plan, finance, and implement solutions to maintain HIV epidemic control and eventually become direct implementers of HIV services in the DRC.
