Deadline: 12 September 2019
Aidsfonds has announced its 2019 International Call for Proposals titled: Stay On – Sustainably retaining people living with HIV in care in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Nigeria, or South Africa.
This call looks at the future. With a growing number of people living with HIV (PLHIV) on treatment, they now broaden their focus from saving lives to sustaining their successes for the next decades. This must be accomplished in line with the Universal Health Coverage commitments.
With this call, Aidsfonds aims to support civil society organisations to develop, implement, and monitor an intervention to sustainably retain PLHIV in care. Of course, this should have a strong focus on those most vulnerable to drop-out.
Objectives
The objectives are to:
- Expand successful approaches to ensure a person living with HIV will grow old in good care. This means work at four levels:
- PLHIV are supported to adhere to treatment throughout all phases of life
- PLHIV have access to lifelong quality treatment
- The healthcare system, which includes community-based approaches, is equipped to retain PLHIV in quality care
- Structural barriers hampering PLHIV to remain in care are reduced
- Reach long-term sustainability through national government taking responsibility for systems to retain PLHIV in care throughout their lives. This is a crucial element of the UHC package.
Type of Programmes
The main goal for a programme under this call should be to support PLHIV to remain in care for the rest of their lives. This means PLHIV adhere without interruptions to treatment in a supportive environment so that they reach viral load suppression and are able to maintain it. Thus, programmes should strive for a differentiated care approach, addressing clients’ vulnerabilities throughout different phases of their lives. The aim is to support those most vulnerable to drop-out; this could be during one specific phase of life. Programmes do not need to work on the full life-cycle of a person living with HIV.
Aidsfonds believes that a combination of interventions is necessary to build a sustainable system that retains PLHIV in care for the rest of their lives. With this call they therefore ask for programmes with a multi-component approach addressing the most relevant factors for a certain location and/or population.
They ask for programmes with a civil society organization or community-led organisation in the lead. Networks of PLHIV and key population-led organisations are strongly encouraged to apply and/or be part of the consortium in partnership applications.
The programme should aim to sustainably retain PLHIV in care through:
- It should be embedded n or linked to the local healthcare system.
- It should be seeking synergies with existing initiatives and not build stand-alone activities.
- It should have the potential to be scaled up to a nation-wide approach in cooperation with the Ministry of Health.
- It should include community-based approaches.
- PLHIV should be meaningfully involved in the development, implementation, and evaluation of the programme.
- It should focus on the populations and locations with the lowest retention rates.
- A gender analysis intersectioning with other social determinants of vulnerability” must be done in order to create a gender responsive programme.
- It should advocate for rights-based HIV-care to be part of UHC.
- It should implement a combination approach working at least at three of the four levels mentioned in section t individual, medication-related, healthcare, and structural factors.
Budget Information
Budgets are to be submitted in Euros, through the designated Result and Budget Framework 2019 (part of the online application form). For each programme, a total budget of €300,000 -€600,000 is available for the duration of three years. Aidsfonds aims to support two to three programmes.
Eligible Countries
Aidsfonds focuses its work in 13 countries with the highest HIV burden. In order to have the biggest impact with this call the countries with the biggest gap in the treatment cascade were selected. Therefore, programmes under this call for proposals should take place in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Nigeria, or South Africa.
Eligibility Criteria
- Organisations that meet the definitions and criteria set by this call for proposals and are working in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Nigeria, or South Africa are invited to submit an online application.
- The lead applicant is a registered organisation. Proposals by individuals will not be taken into consideration for funding. In case the programme is implemented by a consortium of partners, a partner organisations maybe unregistered;
- The lead applicant is a non-profit and non-governmental organisation;
- Funding will only be provided to a proposal with a civil society organization in the lead that is responsible for programmatic and financial reporting.
- They strongly encourage community-led organisations to apply.
Selection Criteria
- The proposal is submitted in English;
- The result and budget framework 2019, provided in the online application form, describes objectives, outcomes, indicators, activities, and budget for three years (2020-2021-2022);
- The result and budget framework 2019 is uploaded in Microsoft Excel as part of the online application form 2019;
- The proposed programme builds towards the objectives of this call;
- The proposed programme works at three of the four levels of this call;
- The proposed programme takes place in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Nigeria, or South Africa;
- The proposal is supported by the latest available annual narrative and financial report (uploaded through the online application form).
Quality Review
Once proposals are considered eligible for further assessment, Aidsfonds identifies two or three technical experts with long-term and relevant expertise who will anonymously review the proposals. The independent reviewers score proposals according to a review form. Reviewers must inform Aidsfonds of any potential conflicts of interest, which would lead to exclusion of the reviewer. The independent experts review the proposals and applicants according to the following criteria:
- Review Criteria for Proposal
- Overall quality and clarity of the proposal;
- Quality and appropriateness of the context analysis, using a gender
- Expected impact of the proposed activities on the objectives of this call;
- Relevance of the proposed programme in the specific context;
- Proposed programme complements existing programmes in that location;
- Specific explanation of how the combination approach that is proposed will lead to a bigger impact;
- Coherence and feasibility of the proposed three-year strategy working towards the long term outcome(s):
- SMART formulation of objectives and results;
- Clear explanation on how activities contribute to the results;
- Clear explanation of the underlying assumptions;
- Appropriateness of the budget in line with activities and results;
- Demonstrated need for items included in the budget;
- Demonstrated critical awareness of cost-efficiency;
- Realistically planned implementation;
- Demonstrable intention to work with Ministry of Health;
- Potential to scale up.
- Review Criteria for Applicants
- Track records in working on the objectives of this call;
- Capacity:
- Appropriate governance and accountability structures;
- Appropriate financial management;
- Appropriate leadership;
- Capacity to implement the proposed activities;
- Capacity to monitor outcomes of the proposed activities.
How to Apply
Applicants can apply online via given website.
For more information, visit this link.