The HIV Coverage, Quality, and Impact Network (CQUIN) is a multi-country learning network designed to accelerate the implementation of high-quality differentiated service delivery for HIV. CQUIN’s goal is to increase the number of people living with HIV initiating and sustaining highly effective HIV treatment with sustained viral suppression.

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Learn more at cquin.icap.columbia.edu

ICAP is supporting sustainable surveillance systems among key populations (KP) and support the Government of Zambia to improve HIV-related services for KP. The purpose of this project is to implement sustainable surveillance systems to understand the HIV epidemic among KP in Zambia and support the Government of Zambia to develop and roll out strategic planning, with the goal of increasing access and utilization of evidence-based, tailored, and comprehensive HIV prevention, care, and treatment services for KP (funded by PEPFAR through CDC).

The Biological Behavioral Survey (BBS) project began in September 2017 and is funded by the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The purpose of this project is to establish sustainable surveillance systems to understand the HIV epidemic among key populations(KP) in Zambia and support the Government of Zambia through the National HIV/AIDS/STI/TB Council to develop and roll out strategic planning, with the goal of increasing access and utilization of evidence-based, tailored, and comprehensive HIV prevention, care, and treatment services for KP.

The target population are: Female Sex Workers (FSW), People Who Inject Drugs (PWID) for non-medical purposes, Men who have sex with men (MSM), their sexual partners and other priority populations. The target locations/towns are those regarded as the first order districts due to a high burden of KP and these are: Lusaka, Livingstone, Chipata, Mongu, Kapiri Mposhi, Mansa, Ndola, Kitwe and Solwezi.

This project is premised on the fact that HIV prevalence in Zambia is among the highest in sub-Saharan Africa, and also evidence indicates that KP contribute substantially to the number of new HIV infections and, consequently, that their effective engagement in high-quality, evidence-based HIV services is needed to achieve epidemic control.

The project’s primary objectives are to:

• Create and foster strong partnerships with the Zambian government, MOH, NAC, CBO, and other stakeholders to collaborate on national strategic planning to meet the HIV-related needs of KP
• Conduct Integrated Biological Behaviour Surveillance Surveys (IBBSS) among KP, build in-country capacity to develop and implement IBBSS for KP, and establish a sustainable IBBSS for KP in priority areas, including mapping and Population Size Estimation (PSE) of KP
• Enhance in-country capacity to provide KP with evidence-based, accessible, tailored, and comprehensive HIV-related services

Providing technical assistance to three provincial health offices to strengthen services at 571 health facilities, with a focus on improving case identification and linkage to treatment, TB/HIV management, retention in care and treatment, viral load coverage and suppression, pediatric and adolescent services, integration of quality-improvement methodologies, and data quality assurance.

Through the Quality Improvement Capacity for Impact Project (QICIP), ICAP provides ministries of health and local partners with technical assistance that enables them to monitor program performance, identify quality challenges, explore root causes, develop targeted interventions, and conduct rapid, iterative tests of change in programs supported by PEPFAR.

In Zambia, ICAP is supporting the Ministry of Health to convene a Differentiated Service Delivery (DSD) quality improvement (QI) Community of Practice workshop for 9 PEPFAR implementing partners; facilitate an  identification of QI for DSD best practices and change interventions with implementing partners; and support the annual Zambian MoH HIV Program QI Conference.

Previously, this project implemented quality improvement collaboratives focused on improving linkage to HIV treatment among infants identified through early infant diagnosis testing, and adolescent antiretroviral therapy adherence.

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Find out more on the QICIP Project Page

ICAP collaborated with the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ) to conduct an evaluation to generate information about HIV prevalence among general and key populations. This information was used to estimate HIV incidence and provide information about access to health services. (funded by the CDC)

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ZAMPHIA SS: https://phia.icap.columbia.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/ZAMPHIA_Summary_Sheet_Final.pdf

ZAMPHIA FR: https://phia.icap.columbia.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/ZAMPHIA-Final-Report__2.26.19.pdf

Find out more at phia.icap.columbia.edu

ICAP conducted a formative evaluation of HIV self-testing among adolescent girls and young women in Zambia. (funded by HRSA)

The Global Nurse Capacity Building Program (GNCBP) is a global health initiative that was administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), under the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, with funding from the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). It was implemented by ICAP at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health (ICAP) from 2009 to 2018. GNCBP’s goal was to advance the HIV response toward epidemic control and to improve population health in sub-Saharan Africa by fostering individuals, institutions, and networks to expand, enhance, and sustain the nursing and midwifery workforce. The program used a holistic approach to strengthen nursing and midwifery education and practice through two complementary sub-projects: the Nursing Education Partnership Initiative (NEPI), which expanded the health workforce by producing new nurses and midwives; and the General Nursing (GN) project, which supported the maintenance of a skilled health workforce through continuing professional development (CPD), in support of HIV care and treatment scale up and sustainability. Together, NEPI and GN interventions increased the quantity and quality of the nursing and midwifery workforce by addressing seven domains of health workforce development: infrastructure; curriculum; faculty; clinical skills; production; in-service training; and partnership for policy and regulation.

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Find the GNCBP final report here

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Find out more about NEPI

ICAP helped reduce and eliminate missed opportunities to test, link, treat, and retain HIV clients on treatment.

ICAP also supported an evaluation on the feasibility and impact of an enhanced family planning model integrated into antiretroviral therapy (ART) clinics.

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Find out more on the Global Technical Assistance Project Page

The MTCT-Plus Initiative, the world’s first multi-country HIV treatment program, aimed to demonstrate to a disbelieving world that it was possible to provide care and antiretroviral (ARV) treatment in resource-limited settings, using programs to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) as an entry point. In December 2003, the MTCT-Plus Secretariat in New York (the precursor to ICAP, headed by ICAP’s Wafaa El-Sadr and Elaine Abrams) received its first grant from the new President’s Emergency Program For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Four years later, the MTCT-Plus Initiative of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health was providing HIV care and treatment for nearly 17,000 people at 14 sites in nine countries. MTCT-Plus received expansion funding from USAID in 2003 and 2006. By 2010, ICAP had provided HIV care and treatment to more than one million people.

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Find the MTCT-Plus and MTCT-Plus Expansion reports here.

ICAP, in partnership with the Ministry of Health and the Center for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ), conducted an evaluation of decision-making following HIV self-testing among adolescent girls and young women in Zambia.

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Find out more on the OpCon Project Page

ICAP is provided technical assistance to the Ministry of Health to conduct the Zambia Population-based HIV Impact Assessment (ZAMPHIA) survey to assess HIV prevalence, incidence, and access to HIV prevention, care, and treatment services. The survey included household-based interviews and HIV counseling and testing for adults and children. Survey findings were used to assess the impact of Zambia’s HIV response at the national level, and to help guide and target future investment and programs. (funded by PEPFAR through the CDC)

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ZAMPHIA SS

ZAMPHIA FR

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Find out more at phia.icap.columbia.edu

In September 2002, the Mailman School of Public Health (MSPH) at Columbia University (CU) entered into a Cooperative Agreement with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for the University Technical Assistance Projects (UTAP) in Support of the Global HIV/AIDS Program. Situated within ICAP, UTAP was originally envisioned as a single-country program for the provision of technical assistance, but rapidly grew to include long-term and short-term technical and administrative assistance to the national responses to HIV/AIDS in five countries: Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia. As the original UTAP project drew to a close and PEPFAR moved into its second phase—focused on sustainability—ICAP entered into several, follow-on Cooperative Agreements, called UTAP-2. Four were country-focused (in Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Swaziland, and Tanzania) and the fifth—UTAP-2 Atlanta—became a flexible mechanism for providing a wide range of technical assistance and other support to PEPFAR countries. After beginning in 2009 as a means to help CDC conduct surveillance training more efficiently through distance education, UTAP-2 Atlanta grew over the next six and a half years to comprise 11 distinct projects addressing needs and gaps in the HIV response and answering important research questions to inform the response going forward.

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Find all UTAP and UTAP-2 resources here.