ICAP has received funding from the Open Society Foundations (OSF) to improve access to HIV care and treatment and to support health systems strengthening in Myanmar (Burma).

ICAP will leverage a decade’s worth of experience strengthening HIV programs in countries around the world and aim to mitigate the impact of HIV in Myanmar by providing focused technical assistance to strengthen the national response to the HIV epidemic, sharing best practices in HIV programming and catalyzing the diffusion of innovations in HIV care delivery.

Myanmar faces a serious HIV epidemic. At present, only one-third of people living with HIV have access to life-saving care and treatment, and public HIV services remain high-centralized. Expanding care and reaching key populations most severely affected by HIV is essential.

ICAP aims to provide technical support to Myanmar’s National AIDS Program (NAP) to advance the goal of scaling up HIV services. This will include supporting a comprehensive HIV situational assessment at all levels of Myanmar’s healthcare system and working with key stakeholders to begin implementing an action plan that focuses on scale-up of HIV services and complements Myanmar’s current national HIV strategic plan.

“ICAP welcomes the opportunity to partner with the Government of Myanmar and support the response to HIV,” said Wafaa El-Sadr, director of ICAP. “Lessons learned from establishing a successful decentralized HIV program will serve to inform the response to other health threats that the country is facing,” she added.