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Summary of the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) HIV/AIDS Partnership Framework with the Government of the Republic of Zambia (November 2010)

On November 24, 2010, Mark Storella, U.S. Ambassador to Zambia, and Zambian Minister of Finance and Planning Musokotwane and Minister of Health Simbao signed a Partnership Framework (PF) for HIV/AIDS. The Framework represents collaboration to achieve Zambia’s five-year objective: a nation free from the threat of HIV/AIDS. The document outlines national priorities, roles and responsibilities, and supports Zambia’s National HIV and AIDS Strategic Framework (2011-2015).

The Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Reauthorization Act (P.L. 110-293) provides support for the U.S. to enter into Partnership Frameworks with partner governments to promote country ownership of sustainable HIV programs under the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). This Framework documents the efforts of both Governments to strengthen their relationship and increase the efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability of their joint efforts on HIV/AIDS policies, service delivery and financial support. The two Governments are finalizing a Partnership Framework Implementation Plan that will detail the five year objectives, contributions and targets of the Framework.

Zambia’s Partnership Framework

Zambia is facing a severe generalized HIV epidemic which has adversely affected growth and development in the country and has taxed a fragile health system. National prevalence in adults, based on the 2007 Zambia Demographic and Health Survey, is 14.3%. An estimated 1.1 million Zambians are living with HIV, with an additional 600,000 orphaned and vulnerable children directly affected by the epidemic.

The Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ) and the U.S. Government (USG) intend to work together to sustain and strengthen the national response to Zambia’s HIV/AIDS epidemic through the following principles: government commitment and ownership, coordination, decentralization, strengthening of the health system, transparency, accountability, and results-based management of programs.

The Partnership Framework outlines five goals which PEPFAR intends to support the GRZ in pursuing:

• Goal I: To accelerate and intensify prevention in order to reduce the annual rate of new HIV infections.
• Goal II: To accelerate the provision of universal access to comprehensive and quality treatment, care and support for people living with HIV and AIDS (PLHA), their caregivers and their families, including services for tuberculosis (TB), sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and other opportunistic infections (OIs).
• Goal III: To mitigate the socio-economic impact of HIV and AIDS especially among the most vulnerable groups, orphans and vulnerable children (OVC), PLHA and their caregivers and families.
• Goal IV: To strengthen the systems which underpin Zambia’s response to HIV and AIDS.
• Goal V: To strengthen the capacity for a well coordinated and sustainably managed HIV and AIDS multisectoral response.

Under each goal, PEPFAR and the GRZ identified key objectives, priority program areas, roles and responsibilities and key policy reform areas as benchmarks to measure progress and success. The framework also delineates anticipated contributions, roles and responsibilities for each stakeholder and the methods by which partners are to oversee the implementation of the PF.

The activities prioritized for support from the USG under this PF are intended to invest in key areas that will enhance sustainability of programs in the short and long term. In addition to the principles previously mentioned, the USG and GRZ affirm the financial principles of transparency in resource allocation and expenditures, and the importance of continued, coordinated capacity development efforts to improve public administration capacity, particularly in public financial management.