This is a TBD partner / mechanism for activities that were implemented previously by Columbia University. The program goal is to strengthen nursing and midwifery education systems, enhance nursing and midwifery professions and increase the number of professionally trained nurses. The program will encompass an existing activity that is centrally-funded called the nursing educational Partnership Initiative (NEPI), which is managed by the USG Human Resources for Health Administration (HRSA) and will compliment the new USAID HRH program that emphasizes quality of midwifery education and increased number of midwives graduated. Ethiopia is beginning its NEPI activities with an emphasis on midwifery pre-service education. Activities under this TBD mechanism will focus on nursing career development from pre-service to continuing professional development. The geographic coverage is national and the target population is nurses, midwives and the systems that support their professional development (technical colleges, universities, professional associations). The TBD partner will develop partnerships with nurse/midwife entities and provide technical and capacity building support. In preparation, phased assessments will be conducted and if needed, recommendations aligned with country priorities will be costed. Evaluations will be conducted at mid-term and end of project highlighting program strengths and weaknesses and provide key findings and recommendations for remainder of or future projects. The proposed program is aligned with the goals of the GOE and USG HIV/AIDS Partnership Framework and Global Health Initiative. It is anticipated that the awarded partner will have in place a system to routinely monitor and regularly report on program performance.

This is a continuing activity focusing for successful implementation of decentralized care and treatment services in a resource poor setting with significant constraints in human resource for health (HRH), capacity building of nurses and midwives to support task-shifting initiatives play a vital role in ensuring that the required services are delivered uninterrupted and without compromising quality. There is now widespread recognition and experience that physician-based models of care are not sufficient to meet the demand created for the provision of comprehensive HIV services in developing countries with high disease burden. Experience to date in Ethiopia in terms of involving nurses to deliver HIV care and treatment services has been a promising task shifting activity to sustain HIV care and treatment programs. In the Ethiopia, nurses and midwives play a key role in providing HIV services as counselors, care and support providers, and ART providers in facility and community based settings. However, a critical mass of nurses have not been adequately educated, trained, supported, or empowered to perform these tasks. HRSA initiated a program in FY2009 to implement an innovative, integrated, sustainable approach to improving nurse led HIV/AIDS services, nurse retention in the public workforce, and institutional capacity building of nursing organizations. Under COP2012, the cooperative agreement was competed and awarded to Columbia University making it possible for them to build off of the achievements of the previous cooperative agreement in order to implement activities in order to collaborate, jointly plan, and execute this nursing capacity building initiative with the Federal Ministry of Health, Regional Health Bureaus, Ethiopian Nurse Association, and other stakeholders as well as work on scaling-up the activities according to the HRH strategy of the country. In FY13, Columbia University will continue activities from FY12 while striving to strengthen local ownership of the initiative and ensure sustainability of the program by building indigenous capacity with a purposeful planned transition. Activities include strengthening nursing training, TOT for nurse mentors and cascaded training of mentors, support deployment of nurse mentors etc.

For successful implementation of decentralized care and treatment services in a resource poor setting with significant constraints in human resource for health (HRH), task-shifting plays a vital role in ensuring that the required services are delivered uninterrupted and without compromising quality. There is now widespread recognition that physician-based models of care are not sufficient to meet the demand created for the provision of comprehensive HIV services in developing countries with high disease burden. Attention has turned to nurses to deliver HIV care and treatment, a promising task shifting activity to sustain HIV care and treatment programs. In the Ethiopia, nurses play a key role in providing HIV services as counselors, care and support providers, and ART providers in facility and community based settings. However, nurses have not been adequately educated, trained, supported, or empowered to perform these tasks. HRSA initiated a program in FY2009 to implement an innovative, integrated, sustainable approach to improving nurse led HIV/AIDS services, nurse retention in the public workforce, and institutional capacity building of nursing organizations. Under COP2012, the TBD partner implementing this activity will collaborate, jointly plan, and execute this nursing capacity building initiative with the Federal Ministry of Health, Regional Health Bureaus, Ethiopian Nurse Association, and other stakeholders. It will continue to build on achievements made since the program began under Columbia University, and work on scaling-up the activities according to the HRH strategy of the country. The TBD partner will strive to strengthen local ownership of the initiative and ensure sustainability of the program by building indigenous capacity with a purposeful planned transition. Activities include strengthening nursing training, TOT for nurse mentors and cascaded training of mentors, support deployment of nurse mentors etc.