PEPFAR Project Shares Experience, Improves HIV/AIDS Response

March 28, 2007
No. 19/07

Addis Ababa – The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Family Health International (FHI) on Wednesday, March 28 shared lessons learned from the Implementing AIDS Prevention and Care Project, called IMPACT, which sought to build an expanded and comprehensive response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Ethiopia.  The half-day meeting, which included Government of Ethiopia partners and local non government and community based organizations, highlighted the challenges and successes of the IMPACT project.  The meeting was held at the United Nations Conference Center, and was attended by His Excellency Dr. Tedros Adhanom, Minister of Health.

Since 2001, the IMPACT project helped decrease HIV prevalence and improve the quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS by strengthening prevention, care, support and treatment services.  The project focused on Addis Ababa and three regional states: Amhara, Oromia and Southern Nations and Nationalities Peoples Region (SNNPR).  This five-year, U.S. $20 million program was funded through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, and implemented by FHI.  The project ended in September 2006.

IMPACT assisted Regional Health Bureaus and Regional HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Offices (HAPCOs) in their official mandate to coordinate a regional-level response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.  The project consulted with and engaged many stakeholders and many sectors to work together for a, comprehensive response to HIV/AIDS.  Primary partners under the IMPACT program included national and regional HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Offices (HAPCOs) and Regional Health Bureaus.  A range of local non government and community based organizations were also involved.  IMPACT’s activities ranged from HIV prevention programs for taxi drivers in Addis to ensuring quality HIV counseling and testing in 484 public health centers around the country. 

Some of the major accomplishments of the project include the implementation of home and community based care programs in 14 cities with the involvement of Idirs (approximately 46,000 chronically-ill and bedridden patients received care provided by 11,000 trained volunteers); the development of Behavior Change Communication (BCC) strategies and campaigns to combat HIV-related stigma and discrimination and to promote Volunteer Counseling and Testing in target regions; the expansion of HIV counseling and testing services by integrating them into the standard package of services provided at government health centers (between 2001 and 2006, the number of counseling and testing sites in the four regions increased from 157 to 750).  IMPACT also created a national network of youth groups, called the Ethiopian Youth Network to coordinate the efforts of youth groups in all regions to engage effectively in the response to HIV/AIDS.

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