ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION:

This is a new activity and it links to all the other activities in the USG AB portfolio. Analysis of the current

USG Nigeria AB portfolio, conducted by the USG Nigeria's Prevention technical working (PTWG) and

reinforced by recommendations from previous technical assistance (TA) assessments, identified a number

of key programmatic gaps: current paucity of indigenous partners to take programs to scale; lack of

comprehensive package of services to promote abstinence, fidelity and related changes in community and

social norms; lack of capacity of indigenous FBO's and CBO's to implement high quality prevention

programming that will bring about effective behavior change interventions with harmonized messaging

across the different prevention activities and poor coverage of the rural areas with prevention programs.

Consequent upon these identified gaps, recommendations were made to the need for building local

capacity for an expanded Prevention Program through the establishment of an umbrella mechanism to

support and build the management capacity of an expanded network of partners especially indigenous

partners.

The USG/Nigeria Prevention TWG, in further pursuit of ensuring high quality programming with appropriate

dosage and intensity for behaviour change, developed a minimum package of AB interventions for reaching

each target within the population served. In COP08 AB partners will be required to provide a recommended

minimum package of services from a pool of established best practices to reach a target. These best

practices include the peer education model; PEP plus model; Curriculum and non curriculum based school

programmes, community awareness campaigns; interventions that address income generation activities,

essential life skills; and workplace programmes providing interventions targeting adult males and females

and also greater involvement of PLWA (GIPA) . In COP08, partners will be expected to utilize a minimum of

three of these interventions to reach a target and these will be reinforced with mass media activities. The

minimum package of services will ensure that the intended behaviour change outcomes are achieved and

will provide a proxy tool for measuring targets reached with AB services.

In response to the above recommendation, an analysis was conducted which identified a number of

contracting difficulties within the current portfolio. Current in-country ability to make awards to new partners

is constrained by the capacity of indigenous, civil society organizations (CSOs) and CBO's to meet award

criteria of contracting mechanisms that currently exist in USG agencies. In addition, the analysis noted that

PACT/Community REACH has the capacity to engage local partners through granting, and this will ensure

quality and comprehensive AB services at the grassroots level. It will also build project management

capacity to facilitate the graduation of indigenous sub-partners to prime partners.

Based on these findings, USG Nigeria will develop a Leader with Associate (LWA) Proposal under the

PACT/Community REACH mechanism, which is a Cooperative Agreement managed out of the Office of

HIV/AIDS in the Global Health Bureau at USAID/W. PACT/Community REACH was selected because it

has demonstrated capacity to quickly identify and provide grants to local CSOs and CBO's in a range of

technical areas related to prevention, care and support, management and program-related data collection

and analysis.

The Nigeria AB LWA will particularly focus on PACT/Community REACH's ability to:

1. Quickly mobilize local/indigenous CSOs, CBO's, and FBOs already formed and playing essential AB

prevention roles in the fight against HIV/AIDS at grassroots (rural) level for capacity building in areas of

management (program and financial) and scaling up of services in the country.

2. Provide grants to these organizations for comprehensive and effective AB prevention interventions

according to OGAC guidance and in line with the government of Nigeria Plan of Action for AB prevention

programs.

3. Support organizational capacity building especially in program management and service delivery for

these groups to enable them to be more sustainable and eligible to directly access donor funding.

4. Collaborate with NACA-National Agency for the Control of AIDS activities in the country and other USG

machineries to facilitate the formation of National Network of Civil Society organizations implementing AB

activities in rural areas/grassroots to establish an umbrella program for providing grants to members of the

rural network.

The LWA SOW will be developed in conjunction with USG Nigeria (led by the Nigeria Prevention TWG), the

OGAC General Population and Youth Technical Working Group and the Office of HIV/AIDS in USAID/W.

While this activity narrative provides an overview of the activities that are intended to be contracted through

the LWA, the USG Nigeria team recognizes - and has already begun planning for - intensive, coordinated

joint-planning with the General Population and Youth Technical Working Group and the Office of HIV/AIDS

in USAID/W to finalize the LWA SOW.

Specific programmatic gaps that the LWA with PACT/Community REACH will address include:

1. To quickly mobilize funding to organizations playing valuable roles in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

a. PACT will quickly mobilize indigenous CSOs and CBO's and sub-grant to them to provide Prevention

interventions using the Minimum Package approach at the grassroots level. PACT will provide

organizational capacity development, which builds the capacity of PACT grantees to develop strong

programming, management and monitoring skills, with the goal of local sub-partners graduating to prime

partners.

b. PACT will increase USG Nigeria's rural areas coverage of AB Prevention services provision. Community

-based and faith-based organizations in particular will be targeted as sub-grantees.

2. To provide technical assistance to local sub-grantees to deliver quality AB services at the grassroots

level.

3. To provide TA to PACT grantees to enable application of a minimum package of AB interventions. Each

target is expected to be reached with a minimum of at least three interventions appropriate to the specific

target group to be counted as reached.

PACT Community REACH activities will ensure program linkage to other HIV/AIDS interventions including

treatment and care services. PACT/Community REACH will also engage with local sub-grantees to promote

sustainability and document evidence-based best practices, lessons learned and new approaches, tools

and methodologies.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO OVERALL PROGRAM AREA:

This activity substantively contributes to the overall USG Nigeria's 5-Year Strategy and to the

Activity Narrative: implementation of Nigeria's National AB prevention Plan by developing and strengthening capacity of

indigenous CBOs, FBOs and NGOs for service delivery. The organizational capacity building component of

this activity helps sustainability as the sub-grantees develop the potential to be prime recipients of donor

funding The suggested targets are determined based on the current estimated cost per targets for a

minimum package of AB interventions. As this is an LWA mechanism, the final targets will be vetted with

OGAC uploaded into COPRS after final award negotiations as is the practice of the USG/Nigeria team. The

programs and activities implemented will increase the reach of AB interventions to rural underserved

populations and geographic areas with fairly high HIV/AIDS prevalence in comparison with the national

average.

LINKS TO OTHER ACTIVITIES:

The activities implemented under the PACT/Community REACH award will achieve set targets for AB

programs while also providing clear linkages to care and treatment services. The emphasis on

dissemination of best practices will also help develop the sustainability.

POPULATIONS BEING TARGETED:

Populations targeted in these activities includes the general population and grassroots CBO's whose

special mandate will be to reach the rural general and youth populations.

EMPHASIS AREAS:

There is a strong emphasis on local organization capacity building, human capacity development and

service delivery at grass root level. Other emphasis areas include community mobilization; development of

network/linkages/referral system; information, education and communication and linkages with other sectors

and initiatives.

ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION:

This is a new activity and it links to all the other activities in the USG OVC portfolio. Analysis of the current

USG Nigeria OVC portfolio, conducted by the USG Nigeria's Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) TWG

and reinforced by recommendations from previous technical assistance (TA) assessments, has identified a

number of key programmatic gaps: current paucity of indigenous partners to take programs to scale; poor

understanding of OVC definitions by implementing partners; inadequate monitoring and supervision; weak

referral networks between facility-based and community-based partners; lack of coverage in high

prevalence states; few programs addressing the needs of adolescents OVC, particularly females. In

addition to these programmatic gaps, the analysis identified a number of contracting constraints, as the

current in-country capacity for making awards to new partners is constrained by the current capacity of

indigenous, civil society organizations (CSOs) to respond to the contracting regulations that currently exist

in USG agencies. In addition, the analysis noted that PACT/Community REACH has the mandate and

capacity to engage local partners through granting, in order to ensure quality and comprehensive services

at the grassroots level to OVCs and to build organizational management capacity that supports the

graduation of sub-partners to prime, indigenous partners.

Based on these findings, USG Nigeria will develop a Leader with Associate (LWA) Proposal under the

PACT/Community REACH mechanism, Cooperative Agreement managed out of the Office of HIV/AIDS in

the Global Health Bureau at USAID/W. PACT/Community REACH was selected because it has

demonstrated capacity to quickly identify and provide grants to local CSOs in a range of technical areas

related to prevention, care and support, and program-related data collection and analysis.

The Nigeria OVC LWA will particularly focus on PACT/Community REACH's ability to:

1. Quickly mobilize local/indigenous CSOs, NGOs, and FBOs in the Southeast, North Central and South-

South geopolitical regions of Nigeria that are playing essential roles in the fight against HIV/AIDs to provide

OVC and prevention services.

2. Provide grants to these organizations for comprehensive OVC services delivery according to OGAC

guidance and in line with the government of Nigeria Plan of Action for OVC and Standards of practice.

3. Support Organizational Capacity building and service delivery capacity building for these groups to

enable them to be more sustainable and eligible to directly access donor funding.

4. In the OVC program area, collaborate with ENHANSE Project tasked with facilitating the formation of

National Network of Civil Society organizations implementing OVC activities to establish a national umbrella

program for providing grants to members of the network.

The LWA SOW will be developed in coordination with USG Nigeria (led by the Nigeria OVC TWG), the

OGAC OVC TWG and the Office of HIV/AIDS in USAID/W. While this Activity Narrative provides an

overview of the activities that are is intended to be contracted through the LWA, the USG Nigeria team

recognizes - and has already begun planning for - intensive, coordinated joint-planning with the OGAC

OVC TWG and the Office of HIV/AIDS in USAID/W to finalize the LWA SOW.

Specific programmatic gaps that the LWA with PACT/Community REACH will address include:

1. Mobilization of funding to organizations playing valuable roles in the fight against HIV/AIDS .

a. PACT will quickly identify indigenous CSOs and sub-grant to them for OVC services. PACT will provide

organizational capacity development, which builds the capacity of PACT grantees to develop strong

programming, management and monitoring skills, with the goal of local sub-partners graduating to prime

partners.

b. Increase USG Nigeria's geographic areas of OVC service provision. Currently there is a dearth of OVC

services within the Southeast, South-South, and North Central regions of Nigeria, and grantee recruitment

will be focused in these regions. Community-based and faith-based organizations in particular will be

targeted as sub-grantees.

2. Provision of technical assistance to local sub-grantees to deliver quality OVC services at the grassroots

level. TA will be needed for accurate identification of OVC that qualify for services. Currently there is weak

understanding of the Nigerian definition of what children fall under the category of orphaned or vulnerable.

Activities will be designed to build provider understanding of who is eligible for OVC services, and work with

communities and clinical service providers to identify all children that are eligible for services. TA will also

be provided to PACT grantees to enable application of a holistic OVC service provision model. All OVC

service providers should know and understand the standard level of care for each of the 6+1 services. All

OVC will receive at least 3 of these services, one of which must be psychosocial support. These services

should be delivered through a family-centered and community-based model, that reaches out to all children

in a family infected/affected by HIV/AIDS using standards and practices that have been developed with

USG support and GON collaboration.

PACT Community REACH activities will also ensure a multi-program and multi-sectoral referral system. All

community-based and facility-based OVC service providers in a state should be aware of the geographic

regions in which one another are working, and collaborate to form linkages and referrals between clinical

and community-based care. Wherever possible, community partners should engage with and to link to

clinical service providers, refer clients for HCT, care, and treatment, accept client referrals, and use this as a

starting point to engage families in order to assist all children infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS.

PACT/Community REACH will also engage with local sub-grantees to promote sustainability and document

evidence-based best practices, lessons learned and new approaches, tools and methodologies. Work with

sub-grantees will also focus on developing robust M&E plans that articulate utilization of the Child Status

Index and GON tools to ensure high-quality programming.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO OVERALL PROGRAM AREA:

This activity substantively contributes to the overall USG Nigeria's 5-Year Strategy and to the

implementation of Nigeria's National Plan of Action on OVC by developing and strengthening capacity of

indigenous CBOs, FBOs and NGOs for service delivery to OVC. The organizational capacity building

component of this activity helps sustainability as the sub-grantees develop the potential to be prime

recipients of donor funding The suggested targets are determined based on the current estimated cost per

targets for a minimum package of OVC interventions. As this is an LWA mechanism, the final targets will

be vetted thru OGAC, and uploaded into COPRS after final award negotiations. The programs and activities

implemented will increase the reach of OVC underserved populations and geographic areas with fairly high

Activity Narrative: HIV/AIDS prevalence in comparison with the national average.

LINKS TO OTHER ACTIVITIES:

The activities implemented under the PACT/Community REACH award will achieve set targets for OVC

served and caregivers trained while also providing clear linkages between their own activities and the wider

OVC portfolio as implemented by other IPs. The emphasis on dissemination of best practices will also help

develop the sustainability.

POPULATIONS BEING TARGETED:

Populations targeted in these activities will include all OVC with special emphasis on reaching the hard to

reach populations. Also targeted are community members- traditional leaders, religious leaders, men and

women who act as caregivers for OVC.

EMPHASIS AREAS:

There is a strong emphasis on local organization capacity development and service delivery at grass root

level. Other emphasis areas include community mobilization; development of network/linkages/referral

system; information, education and communication and linkages with other sectors and initiatives.