NOTE: The following is taken from summaries released by PEPFAR on the PEPFAR Data Dashboard. They are incomplete summary paragraphs only and do not contain the full mechanism details. When the full narratives are released, we will update the mechanism pages accordingly.

High quality laboratory diagnostic services are critical to the diagnosis, care and treatment of HIV patients. The USG will fund the African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET) to: 1) implement Strengthening Laboratory Management Towards Accreditation (SLMTA) at 7 laboratories in order to prepare them for accreditation based on international clinical laboratory standards; 2) conduct external quality assessment of HIV rapid testing (External Quality Control) at selected sites providing ART/PMTCT services, and 3) train GRA laboratory staff on early infant diagnosis (EID) of HIV. For COP 14, CDC plans to provide on-site mentoring and training for a new cohort of laboratories that will include two continuing sites, two HIV laboratories, the TB reference lab, the national blood center and a military laboratory. All new laboratories will have a baseline audit within three months of enrollment and will be assessed by African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM) for international accreditation at one year and two years of enrollment. AFENET will conduct external quality assessment and proficiency testing (PT) of HIV rapid tests at designated PMTCT sites. PT will be directly observed on-site by an AFENET team member. AFENET will train laboratory clinicians at the central laboratory and at selected PMTCT sites on PCR diagnostics for EID and on DBS collection, storage, and sample transport. Activities will be monitored at the central level and at selected PMTCT sites.

Since COP2014, PEPFAR no longer produces narratives for every mechanism it funds. However, PEPFAR has now included performance targets or indicator information for each mechanism based on the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Reporting (MER) system. The MER guidance is available on PEPFAR's website https://www.pepfar.gov/reports/guidance/. Note that COP years 2014-2015 were under a previous version of the MER system and the indicators and definitions may have changed as of the new 2.0 guidance.