New Partners Initiative

Announced on World AIDS Day 2005, the New Partners Initiative (NPI) is part of a broader effort within the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to work with new partners, including community- and faith-based organizations, enhancing their technical and organizational capacity and ensuring the quality and sustainability of HIV/AIDS programs by supporting community ownership.

On World AIDS Day 2008, The U.S. Government announced the third round of planned grant awards under the NPI, establishing new partnerships through 19 grants.

These new partners will join prior NPI grantees announced on World AIDS Day 2006 and World AIDS Day 2007 in preventing new infections, providing care for people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS, and building local capacity. These organizations will work through networks of local community- and faith-based organizations, working to strengthen their networks capacity as well.

How the New Partners Initiative Works

Under the New Partners Initiative, PEPFAR is awarding grants totaling approximately $200 million to new partners to provide HIV/AIDS prevention and care services. This third round of planned three-year grants will be worth at least $52 million.

To ensure the sustainability of the response, NPI offers assistance to successful applicants, focusing on quality program implementation, needs analysis, and organizational growth and strengthening.

The Need for New Partners

• 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 to 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.
• The alliance between PEPFAR and new partners will promote better care for people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS, and give hope to stronger families and healthier communities.

New Partners Initiative Goals

PEPFAR is reaching out to organizations through NPI and working to enable them to become new partners of the U.S. Government. The goals of the initiative are to:

• Increase PEPFAR's ability to reach people with needed services by identifying potential new PEPFAR partner organizations, increasing their capacity to provide prevention and care services, and increasing the total number of PEPFAR partners; and
• Build community ownership by developing the technical and organizational capacity of local partners to address HIV/AIDS and to promote the sustainability of host nations' efforts.