Supporting Health Systems Evaluation for Improved Performance in Mozambique under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) | CDC RFA GH18 1828

Opportunity Information: Apply for CDC RFA GH18 1828

The grant opportunity "Supporting Health Systems Evaluation for Improved Performance in Mozambique under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)" is a CDC-led cooperative agreement designed to strengthen how Mozambique identifies, studies, and fixes health system barriers that are holding back HIV program results. Funded through PEPFAR and aligned with guidance from the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC), the effort is focused on improving performance on key HIV indicators where Mozambique has struggled, including keeping patients in care (retention), expanding "test and start" approaches (testing people and initiating treatment quickly), and improving linkage to care after diagnosis. The premise of the opportunity is that these HIV outcomes are not only programmatic problems inside HIV services, but also symptoms of deeper health system weaknesses that limit the effectiveness of PEPFAR investments.

A central theme of the opportunity is that persistent HIV performance gaps are being worsened by structural challenges in the broader health system. The NOFO highlights issues such as low health worker morale, difficulty retaining staff, limited government fiscal space for health sector investment, and inefficient use of available resources. In practice, these factors can translate into understaffed facilities, inconsistent service quality, long waits, poor patient follow-up, weak data use for decision-making, and uneven implementation across districts and provinces. The opportunity recognizes that Mozambique and partners already have many sources of information, but that information is not consistently translated into timely evaluations, practical recommendations, rapid course correction, or broad dissemination that would help stakeholders act quickly.

To address this, CDC is calling for a more deliberate evaluation strategy within the PEPFAR program that builds evaluation capacity among key stakeholders. The grant is intended to help stakeholders systematically identify priority health system questions that need evaluation, design and carry out evaluations that produce usable findings, and integrate those findings directly into program planning and operational responses. Another explicit expectation is that results should be disseminated in a more agile way, meaning lessons learned should not sit in reports for long periods but should be shared in formats and timelines that allow program managers, provincial teams, and national leadership to apply them quickly. This combination of capacity building, targeted evaluation, and faster information sharing is presented as the mechanism for improving decision-making and strengthening accountability for performance.

Programmatically, the NOFO builds on prior CDC PEPFAR work in Mozambique that introduced differentiated models of health systems support. These interventions have been implemented at multiple levels, including the facility level (how clinics function day-to-day), the community level (how patients are supported and linked to services), and the provincial and national levels (how resources, supervision, planning, and policies are organized). The new funding is meant to deepen understanding of which system constraints most directly undermine HIV outcomes and to develop and refine interventions that address those constraints. Rather than simply adding more money or expanding activities without evidence, the opportunity emphasizes improving the quality, efficiency, and management of resources throughout the health system so that existing investments produce stronger results.

The anticipated end results are improvements in PEPFAR HIV indicators and expanded HIV service delivery achieved through better performance and smarter use of resources. In other words, the NOFO frames success as getting more impact out of the system by fixing bottlenecks, strengthening workforce stability and morale, improving operational efficiency, and ensuring that evaluation findings directly drive program changes. By doing so, Mozambique's HIV response can improve outcomes like retention and linkage while also building stronger health system capabilities that support sustained progress.

Administratively, this is a discretionary funding opportunity from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Center for Global Health, offered as a cooperative agreement, which typically means substantial involvement and partnership with CDC during implementation. The opportunity number is CDC RFA GH18 1828, listed under CFDA 93.067 (Health). Eligibility is listed as unrestricted. The original closing date was October 16, 2017. The award ceiling is $2,000,000, and CDC expected to make two awards.

• The Centers for Disease Control - CGH in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Supporting Health Systems Evaluation for Improved Performance in Mozambique 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 2017-08-17.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2017-10-16. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $2,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 2 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted.

Apply for CDC RFA GH18 1828

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