Call to Action (USAID/PEPFAR)

Overview

With funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), EGPAF implemented the eight‐year Call to Action (CTA) project in 12 countries, including Kenya (from 2004 through 2007). This service-based program was aimed at scaling up prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) services, and preventing pediatric HIV infection through research, advocacy, and prevention and treatment programs. Kenya-specific highlights include:

• Building Sustainability: In Kenya, the program developed a tool to track supplies and reorders to maintain buffer stock, also strengthening district stores, capacity to forecast and order kits and supplies to distribute them to the facilities;
• District Approach: Offering PMTCT services that engage district health management leadership in the planning, implementing, and evaluating of PMTCT services through providing capacity building support and technical assistance. The benefits of a district approach include the decentralization of services to the rural areas to increase access to PMTCT services;
• Improved Service Delivery: The need for additional physical space in which to confidentially counsel pregnant women has strained existing antenatal care services. In Kenya, EGPAF-supported sites have introduced partitions (within existing facilities) and trucking containers to create additional counseling rooms.