ZINQAP is a non-profit organization whose mandate is to assist medical laboratories to attain and maintain good quality testing.

The objectives of this project are:

Strengthen laboratory management in 30 labs to improve service delivery and in preparation for accreditation.

Maintain a national proficiency testing scheme for public health laboratories.

Collaborate with other stakeholders in order to coordinate the routine revision, printing and distribution of national laboratory standard operating procedures (SOP).

Maintain accreditation for the proficiency testing scheme through SANAS.

Improve on the information and communication technology and information management systems currently in use at ZINQAP.

Evaluate the impact of implementing quality assurance in laboratories and testing sites performing HIV and related testing.

Collaborate with the health professional authorities in order to strengthen its position as a regulatory body for laboratories and implement the Zimbabwe Medical Laboratory Guidelines.

Provide in-service training to medical laboratory scientists in an effort to address the deficiencies identified during quality assurance activities.

Provide ongoing support to National Microbiology Reference Lab (NMRL) to conduct testing for national surveys.

Support the laboratory directorate of the MOHCW in carrying out its administrative mandate.

Develop and implement a sustainable strategy for ZINQAP.

Strengthen the lab M&E system for the MOHCW laboratories

The activities that ZINQAP implements support the HIV/AIDS national strategy and plan through strengthening of the laboratory services provided in the country for diagnosis and monitoring of HIV/AIDS and opportunistic infections; monitoring of the quality of testing provided by laboratory and testing sites; training laboratory personnel in quality systems of key tests such as CD4 testing and support to national surveys that provide the necessary data to guide the program.

ZINQAP operates a national program that covers all provinces in the country and its membership includes public, private, mission and research laboratories. The activities will have a special emphasis on the 2 national reference labs in Zimbabwe (Tuberculosis and Microbiology labs) which are in charge of the laboratory testing of national survey samples.

The key contribution of this program to health systems strengthening is that provincial laboratories and staffed district laboratories in Zimbabwe will be refurbished with commodities required for quality systems and will become accredited under the 5 year program, thus providing confidence in the quality of results produced. This activity will increase access to testing services to the Zimbabwean population. National reference laboratories will be strengthened in their capacity to manage specimens for surveys and for public health surveillance.

ZINQAP already provides quality assurance services for multi-disciplinary areas like serology, hematology, chemistry, etc. in many of the labs currently participating under ZINQAP's CD4 quality assurance scheme. ZINQAP works in close partnership with the MOHCW lab directorate and leverages funding through Global Fund for quality assurance provision for TB.

ZINQAP also provides laboratory mentorship/training for improved service delivery and in preparation for accreditation by WHO AFRO using the SLMTA model.

The cross-cutting programs that ZINQAP covers are Human Resources for Health through in-service-training of laboratory personnel, salary support of ZINQAP staff and retention of key staff at the NMRL. Key issues include malaria quality assurance done during the site visits for HIV quality assurance; malaria proficiency testing carried out together with the HIV proficiency testing and, TB through the procurement and strengthening done at the National TB Reference Lab.

The strategy for cost-efficiency of this program is based on bulk procurement of reagents and consumables for TB and other HIV related testing. Good inventory management practices like first in first out (FIFO) to avoid expiration of reagents. Resources that are already in place are utilized as much as possible. Cost savings will be realized by conducting integrated site visits to sites within close vicinity to minimize traveling costs and time.

Monitoring and evaluation of the activities will be done through quarterly progress reports based on a detailed implementation plan that includes targets and indicators. Site reports, PT shipment reports and training reports will contribute to the monitoring activities. Progress in the accreditation of labs will be monitored by WHO assessors and confirmed by International Standardization Organization (ISO) when the facilities are at the required international level. Lab M&E reporting will improve at the MOHCW nationally after the implementation of the routine lab M&E system.

ZINQAP will continue gap procurement of reagents for lab monitoring of HIV/AIDS patients which gradually will be handed over to another implementing mechanism.

ZINQAP will support the NMRL in the specimen testing of the National ANC survey samples and the expanding the database for the lab monitoring and evaluation system.

ZINQAP will continue providing external quality assurance services for the Zimbabwe laboratory system, mentorship of labs using the Strengthening of Laboratory Management Towards Accreditation (SLMTA) and the national accreditation program based on the WHO-AFRO step wise process. Additionally, ZINQAP will continue supporting the retention of key laboratory staff at the NMRL, the supervisory role of the national laboratory directorate and the revision, printing and distribution of Standard Operational Procedures for all clinical lab tests.

ZINQAP will do procurement of gap filling TB commodities for TB microscopy, culture and drug sensitivity Testing (DST).