Through the Zambia Defense Force HIV Prevention Cross-Cutting project, FHI 360 supports the Government of Zambia and its Ministry of Health to improve the care provided through Zambia Defense Force Medical Services. The project was designed to help the Zambia Defense Force better control the HIV epidemic among its military by filling gaps in HIV prevention programming. It aims to achieve the 90-90-90 targets, set forth by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS), in 47 military facilities in seven provinces.
The project has these objectives:
- To strengthen and scale up prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, to ensure that 90 percent of HIV-positive pregnant women are receiving antiretroviral therapy by 2021
- To strengthen and scale up HIV testing and counseling, to achieve an 80 percent HIV testing rate by 2021
- To strengthen laboratory services by improving the infrastructure and making equipment more widely available, to increase access to and quality and coverage of HIV-related diagnostic testing by 2018
- To support military staff with monitoring and strategic information, to improve services and quality assurance efforts by 2018
- To support and strengthen health systems in these facilities by 2020
FHI 360’s work includes capacity building and systems strengthening to enable health care workers, military medical assistants and community-based lay volunteers to focus on HIV-positive clients as an entry point for testing family members and linking them to care and support through military health facilities. Through curricula and trainings, the project also seeks to make the military leadership more aware of HIV and tuberculosis programming issues.
