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.

The Southern Province Medical Office (SPMO) FY 2014-2015 Operational Plan (COP) covers the 13 districts in the province with a population of about 1,678,540 and annual growth rate of 2.9%.The HIV prevalence is estimated at 14.5% (DHSZ, 2007) translating 243, 388 people with HIV infection of which 97,355 people require treatment while currently 69,002 are active on treatment. The TB burden remains high with the notification rate of 341/100,000 while the HIV testing rates remain as low as 25%. The SPMO will focus on activities that will improve direct service delivery (DSD), and HIV patient outcomes, health systems capacity strengthening and foster ownership of programs at district and facility level. The goals is to significantly contribute to the reduction in maternal mortality and AIDS related deaths, and prevent new HIV infections through combination HIV prevention and treatment and community engagement. Important components addressed include retention of clients in treatment and care with a renewed focus on HIV related nutritional aspects. This COP aligns with the national development plan and strategic frameworks for meeting the MDGs related to health. In this COP, cost efficiency and effectiveness has been addressed through proposed reduction of costs with emphasis on accountability and effective models. The transitioning from high cost models to local ownership has been proposed. Integrated planning at district and facility level in cascading fashion for sustainability is promoted. More emphasis has been placed on monitoring and use of data at the point of generation with each technical area having detailed monitoring and evaluation. The budget level will change due to increase number of districts from 11 to 13.

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.