Building Sustainable Health Systems and Laboratory Services in Cote d'Ivoire under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) | CDC RFA GH21 2151

Opportunity Information: Apply for CDC RFA GH21 2151

This grant opportunity, titled "Building Sustainable Health Systems and Laboratory Services in Cote d'Ivoire under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)," is a CDC cooperative agreement aimed at strengthening the laboratory systems that support HIV diagnosis, treatment monitoring, and overall patient care across Cote d'Ivoire. The program is designed to reinforce and sustain access to high-quality laboratory services for people living with HIV who are on antiretroviral treatment (ART), with the broader public health goal of helping the country reach HIV epidemic control. In practical terms, the CDC is positioning this work as a key complement to existing PEPFAR-funded clinical and community activities, because improvements in lab capacity and quality directly influence treatment outcomes, reduce HIV-related illness and death, and help prevent new infections through better detection and viral load monitoring.

From a funding and administrative standpoint, this is a discretionary funding opportunity under CFDA 93.067, issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Center for Global Health (CGH). The funding instrument is a cooperative agreement, which typically means CDC expects to have substantial involvement in technical direction, monitoring, and collaboration during implementation rather than operating as a hands-off funder. While the notice lists an Award Ceiling for Year 1 as 0 (meaning no formal upper cap is stated), CDC anticipated approximately $3,000,000 in total funding for Year 1, contingent on funds being available. Only one award was expected. Eligibility was described as unrestricted (open to any entity type), subject to any additional clarifications in the full notice. The opportunity was posted January 8, 2021, with an original closing date of March 9, 2021.

The program scope is national, but it concentrates effort in 60 PEPFAR-supported health districts. The overall approach combines direct support to service delivery sites with targeted technical assistance (TA) to national and subnational institutions. The intention is not only to fix short-term gaps, but to build durable systems that can consistently deliver reliable, timely laboratory results for HIV care at scale. This includes strengthening the networks that connect testing sites, specimen referral routes, and reporting systems so patients and clinicians can act quickly on results such as viral load, early infant diagnosis, and other relevant tests.

The NOFO lays out five core strategies that define the work plan. First, it emphasizes coordination of a national specimen transportation system, which is critical in settings where many samples need to move from peripheral health facilities to regional or national laboratories for processing. A well-functioning transport network reduces delays, sample loss, and compromised specimen quality, all of which can undermine patient care and program performance. Second, it focuses on strengthening the national laboratory workforce, building professional laboratory networks, and improving the lab-clinical interface. This reflects the reality that laboratory improvement is not only about equipment; it depends on trained staff, supportive supervision, clear communication with clinicians, and consistent use of results in patient management.

Third, the NOFO prioritizes integrating the laboratory management information system (LMIS) with the national health management information system (HMIS). This is a data and interoperability agenda aimed at ensuring laboratory and patient information can be shared across systems in a way that supports continuity of care, program monitoring, and decision-making. Better integration can reduce duplicate data entry, improve result delivery, enable tracking of patients and samples, and strengthen the quality of reporting used for national planning and PEPFAR accountability. Fourth, it calls for strengthening national laboratory policies and institutions while improving adherence to national guidelines. This policy-and-governance pillar is intended to standardize practices, promote consistent quality across regions and facility types, and reinforce national leadership and stewardship over laboratory services.

Fifth, the opportunity centers on implementing Quality Management Systems (QMS) across all laboratory networks. The goal here is to increase the number of laboratories, points of care (POC), and voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) sites that provide quality services. QMS generally covers the full set of processes that make results dependable, such as standard operating procedures, internal quality control, external quality assessment, corrective and preventive actions, documentation, staff competency, biosafety practices, and continuous improvement. By expanding QMS across conventional laboratories and decentralized testing points, the program aims to make quality routine rather than exceptional, which is essential for reliable HIV testing and treatment monitoring.

In terms of partnerships and the expected implementing environment, the recipient is required to support and provide technical assistance to key national and operational actors. These include the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL), the national HIV/AIDS program (PNLS), the HMIS directorate (DIIS), district health teams, and other PEPFAR implementing partners. This reflects a coordination-heavy model where the awardee serves as a system-strengthening partner to government structures and existing PEPFAR-funded service delivery programs, aligning laboratory improvements with clinical and community priorities rather than operating in isolation.

Overall, the opportunity is best understood as a targeted health systems and laboratory strengthening effort under PEPFAR, built around logistics (specimen transport), people and professional practice (workforce and lab-clinical collaboration), information systems (LMIS-HMIS integration), governance (policies and guideline adherence), and quality (QMS across networks). The expected result is a more resilient national laboratory system that can support high coverage and high quality HIV services nationwide, especially in the 60 prioritized districts, ultimately improving ART outcomes and contributing to reduced HIV transmission and HIV-related illness and deaths in Cote d'Ivoire.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control - CGH in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Building Sustainable Health Systems and Laboratory Services in Cote d'Ivoire under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.067.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jan 08, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Mar 09, 2021 Electronically submitted applications must be submitted no later than 1159 p.m., ET, on the listed application due date.. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

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