LBR-C-PLAN/GC7

Grant Title: HIV/AIDS Response for Key Population and Community TB Programme in High Burden Areas in Liberia

Grant Value:  $44,974,752 USD

Principal Recipient: PLAN International Liberia

Time Period: January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2026

Program Goal and Objectives

Goal: 

  • Reduce new HIV infections by 90% to less than 200 by 2026.
  • Reduce stigma and discrimination for PLHIV and vulnerable populations to less than 20%.
  • Strengthen multisectoral monitoring, reporting, and evaluation of the national AIDS and TB response.
  • Institute bold policies and supportive systems for TB care and prevention.
  • To provide high-quality TB preventive, diagnostic, and treatment services to all patients without having to incur catastrophic costs.

Objectives:

  • Scale up HIV interventions to reach 60% of the estimated Key Population and vulnerable groups.
  • Eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV to less than 2%.
  • Zero denial of health services based on perceived or positive HIV status.
  • 90% of Persons living with HIV have access to justice and can challenge rights violations.
  • Community system and CSO are strengthened and contribute significantly to accelerating the response
  • Quality strategic information on HIV, AIDS, TB and TB/HIV is produced and used for decision-making.
  • Ensure TB case notification coverage is ≥ 90% by 2026.
  • Increase the proportion of community contribution to TB case notification to 28% to all cases notified annually by 2026

 

Strategies and Activities

Under GC7, the HIV and TB interventions are tailored to and target communities with high with high disease burdens and counting for more than 80% of the cases. GC7, through the human rights, equity and gender lens, aims to enhance access to health services and patients’ retention on prevention, treatment and care through the improvement of the quality of care.

HIV Strategies and Activities

  • Capacity strengthening of health through training, including in-job training, mentorship and supervision.
  • Index testing, especially family index testing to increase the number of PLHIVs knowing their status, especially children under fifteen years old.
  • Peer education strategy for key population (MSM, PWID, TG, Sex Workers) and their sexual partners: social behavioral communication, condoms and lubricants distribution, HIV testing including HIV self-testing, diagnostic and treatment of STI, PrEP and legal literacy.
  • Reduction of harmful practices (specific to PWID)
  • Online outreach of KP through a gender-responsive online and social media outreach strategy.
  • Strengthen Key Populations and local Community-Based Organizations network and enhance community, county and national partnerships.
  • Provide KPs and PLHIV with increased access to legal and psychological assistance when they experience SGBV at the 2 DICs and One-Stop center.
  • Multi-month ART dispense
  • Develop and adopt viral load literacy programs and activities at health facility and community level
  • Community Outreach activities to PLHIV as part of the comprehensive treatment retention and adherence strategy that is gender responsive.
  • TPT for PLHIV eligible
  • Provision of HIV, HBV, and Syphilis screening services among pregnant woman attending ANC, ART for those HIV positive, and Peer support to strengthen the adherence to treatment.
  • Improve timely testing, EID, linkage to treatment( mother-baby pairs) for HIV-exposed infants and initiation of ART for those HIV positive infants by expanding services across MNCH units( nutrition, maternal health, PNC, ANC) inpatient, and TB wards.
  • Sensitization of law enforcement, the judiciary, and traditional authorities on KP rights and on the links between gender inequality, exclusion, GBV, SEAH and HIV/TB.
  • Advocacy to change discriminatory and punitive laws of same-sex activity, sex work, drug use, HIV transmission, abortion legally recognized people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities and expressions, or to address gender-based violence and create enabling legal and policy frameworks
  • Strengthen the capacity of civil society partners in crisis management, legal advocacy, and organizational governance.

Tuberculosis Strategies and Activities

  • TB prevention through community engagement and social mobilization
  • Increase TB active case findings through systematic screening in health facilities, referrals and sputum transportation
  • Improve the use of molecular WHO-recommended rapid diagnosis as the first TB diagnosis tool.
  • Strengthen referrals and treatment success through treatment adherence support.
  • Community TB screening targets vulnerable groups such as miners and dockers
  • Systematic TB screening among high-risk groups (especially those living with HIV/AIDS)
  • Referrals for TB testing at diagnostics facilities
  • Sputum transportation
  • Treatment adherence support and follow up on TB care continuum
  • Nutritional support of DRTB patients
  • Strengthen infection Prevention Control in two centers for DRTB management.

Resilient and Sustainable Systems for Health

        Health Products Management

  • Strengthen the coordination of supply chain stakeholders at the national and county levels to support the generation and utilization of quality data and where identified, coordination of interventions to respond to risk of stockout or overstocks.
  • Generate efficiencies in the use of CMS warehouse information system to inform national-level stock monitoring, quantification, and supply planning.
  • Ensure interoperability of mSupply and the other electronic and support digitization of the national master product list and standardized codes, descriptions, and units of measure.
  • Improve medicines distribution systems and ensure effective last-mile distribution of ARVs, essential medicines, RDTS, VL reagents and other consumables.
  • Strengthen the LMHRAS regulatory framework for medical devices and information systems for pharmacovigilance.

Laboratory

  • Strengthen the sample referral network.
  • Improve the Quality Management Systems.
  • Obtain lab accreditation

Community Systems Strengthening

  • Assess organizational capacity gaps of KP-led organizations.
  • Support activities and programs to build the institutional capacity of KP-led organizations and improve their internal organization procedures.
  • Capacity building for community-led organizations of TB survivors to conduct monitoring advocacy for access to care and reduction of stigma and discrimination.
  • Annual advocacy meetings and continued clinical membership for Community TB, integrating a gender and inclusion perspective in Montserrado County.
  • Institute and support community-level monitoring activities.

Health Monitoring and Evaluation Systems

  • Strengthen routine reporting and data quality at all levels.
  • Strengthen program data analyses program evaluation, data verification assessments/ reviews and data utilization.
  • Improve operational research and knowledge management capacity at all levels and within community-based organizations.