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 You are in: Bureaus/Offices Reporting Directly to the Secretary > Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator > Press Room > Fact Sheets and Issue Briefs > 2005 
Fact Sheet
Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator
Washington, DC

New Partners Initiative (December 2005)

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Reaching out to build lasting new partnerships in the fight against HIV/AIDS

“We will reach out to faith-based and community organizations that provide much of the healthcare in the developing world, and make sure they have access to American assistance. By identifying and supporting these organizations, we will reach more people, more effectively, and save more lives.”

President George W. Bush
December 1, 2005


The President’s Emergency Plan
In his 2003 State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush announced the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Its goals include supporting treatment for two million HIV-infected people, preventing seven million new HIV infections, and supporting care for 10 million people infected with HIV and affected by AIDS, in fifteen severely affected focus countries. In order to affect this many lives, it is necessary to work with a vast number of partners that can do the work on the ground.

The New Partners Initiative (NPI)
Through NPI, the Emergency Plan will provide $200 million for grants to new partners to provide HIV/AIDS prevention and care services.

The need for new partners
Today, many organizations have the capability to reach people who need HIV/AIDS services, but lack experience in working with the U.S. Government and its processes. Community and faith-based organizations, in particular, represent vital but underutilized resources. Many such organizations are well-established within communities and well-placed to reach out to those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.

Building the capacity of organizations at the community level also helps to build local ownership of HIV/AIDS responses for the long term. In some countries, such organizations provide as much as 40-50 percent of all care for people living with HIV/AIDS -- with little support from the U.S. Government. In some cases, existing U.S.-based organizations can serve as a “bridge” due to their relationships with these entities in host countries.

NPI goals
The Emergency Plan will reach out to organizations through NPI, working to enable them to become new partners. The goals of the initiative are to:

Increase the Emergency Plan’s ability to reach people with needed services:

  • Identify potential new Emergency Plan partner organizations
  • Increase their capacity to provide prevention and care services
  • Increase the total number of Emergency Plan partners

Build capacity in host nations:

  • Develop indigenous capacity to address HIV/AIDS to promote the sustainability of host nations’ efforts

“We have a unique presence and reach within communities. We have unique structures and programs that are already in place. We are available. We are reliable. And we are sustainable. We were there long before AIDS came and we will still be there when AIDS goes away.”

Reverend Canon Gideon Byamugisha,
an HIV-positive Anglican priest
from Uganda, on the role
of faith-based organizations

 

How the NPI will work
Competitive grants: NPI will include a competitive process for $200 million through fiscal year 2008 in grants to provide HIV/AIDS prevention and care services. Eligible entities are nongovernmental organizations, working in any of the fifteen Emergency Plan focus countries, with little or no experience working with the U.S. Government -- defined as no more than $5 million in U.S. Government funding during the preceding five years, excluding disaster or emergency assistance or funding as a subcontractor.

Leadership: NPI will be led by the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, assisted by an interagency U.S. Government Executive Committee with representation from Emergency Plan in-country teams. The Coordinator will set and approve policies and direction for NPI and will appoint a New Partnerships Director, who will manage the program.

Partner outreach: Initial inventories of potential participants already working in affected countries will be conducted in order to shape outreach strategies. Regional bidders’ conferences, held in the U.S. and abroad, will be offered. The first U.S. conferences will take place from February through April of 2006 in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Denver, and Los Angeles.

Pre-competition assistance: NPI will offer technical and capacity-building assistance to participants to help them compete now and in the future – both within the NPI grant process and in other competitions. Technical assistance will focus on topics such as: initial needs assessment; proposal writing; pre-award audits; personnel recruitment; competition processes; and monitoring and evaluation planning.

Post-award capacity-building assistance: NPI will offer assistance to successful applicants, focusing on: successful program implementation; needs analysis; and organizational growth and strengthening.

The Emergency Plan focus countries are: Botswana, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Guyana, Haiti, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam, and Zambia.

“Our focus is on the bottom line – saving lives. The President has directed that we aggressively seek out new partners, including faith- and community-based partners, when they can help us meet our goals.”

 Ambassador Randall L. Tobias
November 29, 2005



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