U.S. Embassy Gaborone through the PEPFAR Botswana Coordination Office (PEPFAR/PCO) is pleased to announce an open competition for local civil society organizations (CSOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to submit applications to carry out a Community-Led Monitoring (CLM) program.

The CLM program is funded through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief in Botswana (PEPFAR/Botswana) in support of the Government of Botswana’s (GoB) effort to achieve HIV epidemic control through the implementation of evidence-based and client-centered interventions to accelerate progress in HIV prevention, care and treatment and ultimately, save lives.

The overall goal of the CLM program is to ensure the availability, access to, and delivery of quality health and HIV services. The CLM program’s main objective is to provide a direct feedback mechanism to clients and beneficiaries of these services throughout the health service delivery experience to diagnose persistent issues and barriers to service uptake. The expectation is that this feedback loop will help identify gaps and workable solutions that are driven by the community to overcome them.

The CLM program seeks to provide grants to local CSOs and NGOs to establish, train and support networks of clients and beneficiary groups to monitor and address persistent problems and barriers to effective, client-centered HIV and health services. Monitoring clients and beneficiaries will be recruited from representative groups including people living with HIV, people living with disabilities, key populations, youth groups that include adolescent girls and young women, DREAMS ambassadors, PrEP ambassadors, ART champions, etc. Grantees are expected to set up monitoring groups that are diverse, inclusive and gender-and-age balanced.

With the support of the grant recipients, the monitoring groups will collect quantitative and qualitative data and observations using standardized tools. The data will be synthesized using a variety of methods to provide insights on barriers to service uptake and workable solutions to address them at the appropriate service delivery levels – local (community and facility), district, and national. The CLM program findings will be analyzed and discussed collaboratively between community representatives, service providers and facility managers to ensure dialogue and help all participating sides identify, implement and monitor follow up actions. By capturing clients’ and beneficiaries’ perspectives on these barriers and enablers and engaging them in identifying and adopting corrective actions, the CLM program seeks to improve service quality, continuity of care, and retention for all clients and beneficiaries. This includes expanded treatment literacy, improved access to services, and increased service uptake. 

The CLM program will cover 20 of the country’s 27 districts, including Bobirwa, Boteti, Francistown, Gaborone, Good Hope, Kasane, Kgatleng, Kweneng East, Lobatse, Mabutsane, Mahalapye, Moshupa, Ngamiland, North East, Palapye, Selebe Phikwe, Serowe, South East, Southern, and Tutume. The scope and scale of monitoring will be determined by the participating client and beneficiary groups, in consultation with the grantees and PEPFAR/PCO. For example, monitoring activities could be limited to facilities and community sites supported by PEPFAR or expanded to cover all health facilities and sites in a district.

The CLM grant deliverables are:

• Formation and training of monitoring groups for each district; groups must be diverse and inclusive of all constituencies that access health and HIV services;
• Data collection, consolidation, and analyses;
• Formulation, implementation, and monitoring of follow up actions to improve service uptake at the local and district levels;
• Quarterly financial and activity reports;
• Participation in quarterly meetings with PEPFAR, community, government, and other stakeholders, to provide in-depth discussion of work and results at the local, district and national levels;
• Participation in national level advocacy activities when/where relevant.

Funding Information

• Total amount available: $ 400,00
• Maximum for each award: $ 100,00
• Maximum expected number of awards: 10

Eligibility Criteria

Not-for-profit organizations, including think tanks, civil society or non-governmental organizations, and community-based organizations, that are currently not receiving PEPFAR funding to deliver health services are eligible to apply. Organizations currently funded by PEPFAR to deliver health services either in the community or at the health facility are excluded from this funding opportunity.

Eligible organizations should also meet the following criteria:

• Be registered as a not-for-profit organization with the Government of Botswana (proof is required).
• Must have experience of successfully implementing programs with funding of a minimum of $40,000.
• Must apply for only one CLM award, which can cover multiple districts; only one proposal per organization is allowed.

For more information, visit Grants.gov.