PEPFAR's annual planning process is done either at the country (COP) or regional level (ROP).
PEPFAR's programs are implemented through implementing partners who apply for funding based on PEPFAR's published Requests for Applications.
Since 2010, PEPFAR COPs have grouped implementing partners according to an organizational type. We have retroactively applied these classifications to earlier years in the database as well.
Also called "Strategic Areas", these are general areas of HIV programming. Each program area has several corresponding budget codes.
Specific areas of HIV programming. Budget Codes are the lowest level of spending data available.
Expenditure Program Areas track general areas of PEPFAR expenditure.
Expenditure Sub-Program Areas track more specific PEPFAR expenditures.
Object classes provide highly specific ways that implementing partners are spending PEPFAR funds on programming.
Cross-cutting attributions are areas of PEPFAR programming that contribute across several program areas. They contain limited indicative information related to aspects such as human resources, health infrastructure, or key populations programming. However, they represent only a small proportion of the total funds that PEPFAR allocates through the COP process. Additionally, they have changed significantly over the years. As such, analysis and interpretation of these data should be approached carefully. Learn more
Beneficiary Expenditure data identify how PEPFAR programming is targeted at reaching different populations.
Sub-Beneficiary Expenditure data highlight more specific populations targeted for HIV prevention and treatment interventions.
PEPFAR sets targets using the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Reporting (MER) System - documentation for which can be found on PEPFAR's website at https://www.pepfar.gov/reports/guidance/. As with most data on this website, the targets here have been extracted from the COP documents. Targets are for the fiscal year following each COP year, such that selecting 2016 will access targets for FY2017. This feature is currently experimental and should be used for exploratory purposes only at present.
Years of mechanism: 2007 2008 2009
ACTIVITY HAS BEEN MODIFIED IN THE FOLLOWING WAYS:
?Highlights on progress made in FY 2008
Summary: The Vanderbilt University-University of Alabama at Birmingham AIDS International Training and
Research Program (VU-UAB AITRP; 5-D43-TW00135-10), led by Dr. Sten Vermund, has played an
important role in the development and sustainability of research capacity in Zambia. Twenty-nine Zambians
have received Masters of Public Health (MPH) from the University of Alabama at Birmingham or Masters in
Science (MSc) from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; all have returned to work in
Zambia. Over 500 Zambians have been trained in-country and over 40 Zambians have been trained in
short courses at UAB. The program has been instrumental in strengthening the ability of Zambian
investigators to take part in large-scale public health evaluation, service, and research projects, take on
leadership positions in initiatives such as PEPFAR, and apply for additional research and public health
service funding. VU-UAB AITRP in-country trainees will continue to sustain the current service, research,
and training efforts, even once the AITRP training funds are exhausted because considerable attention has
been given to sustainability.
Since the program's implementation in 1998, there has been a high demand for additional primary training
as well as continuing education for public health professionals and to continue building institutional capacity
in Zambia. Since the beginning of its collaboration with the University of Zambia (UNZA) and the University
Teaching Hospital (UTH), the VU-UAB AITRP has continued to work closely with these institutions and the
Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health and the UAB Sparkman Center for Global Health to provide
biostatistics and research methods training at the UNZA, to build medical informatics capacity, and to
improve the overall climate for research with donated journals, guest seminars, and research consultation.
Our goal is to develop Zambian clinical investigators who can be leaders in independent investigation,
including research through manuscript submission and grant writing. This is not at all redundant to our
AITRP, but is complementary. Our resources do not support both our long term trainees and continued in-
country programs of this magnitude. Happily, the CDC-Zambia office concurs with this need and has
indicated support for this AITRP supplement to support the ongoing in-country mentorship and training work
outlined below.
1. Specific Aims: 1) Train a new generation of HIV/AIDS research leaders in our partner nations, allied
closely with institutions that are superbly placed to provide national and regional leadership in HIV/AIDS
prevention and care research, emphasizing both physician and nurse-scientist training. 2) Promote the
initiation of new HIV- related research that complements and facilitates existing international research
endeavors between US and foreign investigators and builds long-term collaborative relationships among
international scientists themselves. 3) Track and document the long-term impact of training on Trainee
careers, Research capacity of home institutions and Impact of conducted research at institutional, regional,
national, and global levels.
I.The FY 2009 funding will support the following three activities:
A. Master's of Medicine (MMed) Capacity Building: The UNZA MMed program is a degree taken in parallel
with post-graduate residency training. This degree involved a research project and a full MMed thesis. In
Dr. Vermund's ten-year experience of working in Zambia, the program did not meet its didactic goals in
perhaps 90% of its graduates. This is demonstrated in the overall poor methodology used for MMed
research projects and the inability to get MMed projects published. We aim to hire a Zambian-based
consultant to mentor MMed students during the last six months of the project. The mentor will be a senior
masters-level researcher (MPH or MMed preferred) with expertise in research methods and biostatistics.
We will consult with Dr. K. Bowa, MSc, BSC, MBChB, M Med, FRCS(Glasgow), FCS (ECSA), Assistant
Dean of Postgraduate Affairs at UNZA in the consultant selection process. The mentor will guide the MMed
students through their research design, implementation, analysis, publication of results, and grant
submissions. MMed Tutoring will also be provided by Zambians with masters-level training from universities
such as UAB, Emory, LSHTM, University of Nebraska, and the University of Miami. Advanced MMed
students will be invited to participate in the training outlined in Section III B. Research awards ($2,500) will
be provided to 12 MMed students for their HIV-related research projects. Applications will be vetted and
reviewed by Dr. Vermund, Dr. Kristensen, and three UNZA faculty members.
B. Short-term In-country Training: The Vanderbilt-UAB AITRP has conducted three workshops (May 2005,
April 2006, and January 2008) in Zambia sponsored by FIC-NICHD-CDC entitled, "Advanced Short Course
in Proposal Writing and Manuscript Preparation". The short-courses were focused on upgrading
HIV/AIDS/TB/STI-related research capacity among already-trained, experienced Zambian health
professionals. Many of the trainees have received MPH or MSc degrees from UAB, LSHTM, or other
universities, while others have completed MPH or MMed training at the University of Zambia. All 73
trainees were in positions of academic authority, government service, or non-governmental activity in which
they have opportunity to engage in HIV/AIDS/TB/STI-related research. The most recent short-course in
January 2008 included in-depth training and small group mentorship solely focused on manuscript writing.
Out of the 28 trainees from the 2008 training: 12 manuscripts have been submitted, two are currently in
press, and 22 are in development.
We intend to conduct two short courses in scientific writing in 2009 to support HIV/AIDS-related research
efforts in-country. We will utilize local expertise and other fiscal support as we have done in the past.
Vanderbilt, UAB, and UNZA faculty/staff will lead the short-course training program. We recommend a
maximum of 25 trainees per workshop to enhance the contacts between trainers and trainees.
C. UNZA MPH Curriculum Development: The Department of Community Medicine at UNZA is one of the
departments in the School of Medicine (SoM) that runs several undergraduate and postgraduate courses in
public health. In the MPH program, the department runs, among other modules, the Basic Epidemiology &
Biostatistics, Health System Research and Management modules. The main strategy of the project is to
create a demand-driven graduate public health education program with a well-defined and clear mission to
increase the number of trained public health professionals with specialization in Epidemiology and
Activity Narrative: Biostatistics in Zambia. Our AITRP Co-Investigator Dr. Sybille Kristensen and the UAB administrative staff
will assist our partners at UNZA in developing new courses and updating existing courses. Support will be
provided for four UNZA faculty (MMed and MPH) to attend a month-long training at The Perinatal HIV
Research Unit (PHRU), a research unit of the University of the Witwatersrand in Soweto, South Africa.
UNZA faculty will be provided first-hand training in not only prevention of mother to child transmission but on
many different aspects of HIV prevention, treatment and care including medical and social research.
New/Continuing Activity: Continuing Activity
Continuing Activity: 15621
Continued Associated Activity Information
Activity Activity ID USG Agency Prime Partner Mechanism Mechanism ID Mechanism Planned Funds
System ID System ID
15621 9787.08 HHS/National Vanderbilt 7203 5263.08 VU-UAB AITRP $240,000
Institutes of Health University
9787 9787.07 HHS/National Vanderbilt 5263 5263.07 VU-UAB AITRP $50,000
Emphasis Areas
Human Capacity Development
Estimated amount of funding that is planned for Human Capacity Development $240,000
Public Health Evaluation
Food and Nutrition: Policy, Tools, and Service Delivery
Food and Nutrition: Commodities
Economic Strengthening
Education
Water
Table 3.3.18:
