Capacity Building through Training and Mentoring for Treatment, care and Support, Including PMTCT, TB/HIV, Laboratory, Informatics and Cervical Cancer in Botswana under PEPFAR | CDC RFA GH15 150402CONT17

Opportunity Information: Apply for CDC RFA GH15 150402CONT17

The grant opportunity titled "Capacity Building through Training and Mentoring for Treatment, Care and Support, Including PMTCT, TB/HIV, Laboratory, Informatics and Cervical Cancer in Botswana under PEPFAR" is a U.S. government funding notice issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), specifically under CDCs Center for Global Health (CGH). It is framed as a continuation opportunity, meaning it is intended to continue or extend an existing body of work rather than launch a brand-new standalone project. The overall purpose is to strengthen Botswanas health system capacity by providing structured training and hands-on mentoring that improves the quality and reach of HIV treatment, care, and support services, while also building linked capabilities in prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT), integrated TB/HIV services, laboratory systems, health informatics, and cervical cancer programming. The effort sits under PEPFAR, the U.S. Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, so it is aligned with PEPFAR goals such as sustaining HIV epidemic control, improving quality of clinical outcomes, strengthening service delivery platforms, and reinforcing country ownership through workforce development and systems improvement.

From an administrative and funding standpoint, the opportunity is identified by the Funding Opportunity Number "CDC RFA GH15 150402CONT17" and uses a Cooperative Agreement as the funding instrument. A cooperative agreement is different from a standard grant in that CDC typically has substantial involvement in the project, which often includes close collaboration on technical strategy, monitoring, evaluation expectations, and alignment with national and PEPFAR priorities. The activity category is Health, and the CFDA number listed is 93.067, which corresponds to a CDC global HIV-related assistance program area. The opportunity was created on October 5, 2016, with an original closing date of December 8, 2016. It lists one expected award, reinforcing that it is likely designed for a single prime partner to implement or coordinate a consolidated package of capacity-building activities across multiple technical domains. The award ceiling is shown as 0, which commonly indicates that a specific maximum amount is not being stated in the public synopsis and that funding levels may be determined by program needs, available appropriations, or continuation award structures.

Programmatically, the core of the announcement is capacity building through training and mentoring, which generally implies a combination of formal instruction and on-the-job support to translate guidelines into consistent practice. In the context of HIV treatment, care, and support, this usually covers strengthening clinical management of people living with HIV, improving adherence and retention approaches, supporting differentiated service delivery models, and enhancing patient-centered care across facility and community settings. The inclusion of PMTCT signals a focus on strengthening services for pregnant and breastfeeding women and their infants, typically encompassing antenatal testing, rapid initiation and maintenance of antiretroviral therapy, early infant diagnosis workflows, maternal viral load monitoring, and follow-up systems that prevent transmission while improving maternal health outcomes. The TB/HIV component points to integration work, such as improving TB screening among people living with HIV, ensuring timely TB diagnosis, strengthening TB preventive therapy processes, and coordinating co-treatment and referral pathways, all of which are critical in high-burden settings where TB remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among people with HIV.

The laboratory component indicates that the award is not only about clinical mentoring but also about the diagnostic and monitoring backbone required for modern HIV programs. In practice, this type of work often involves strengthening sample referral networks, improving quality management systems, supporting proficiency testing and accreditation-related activities, reinforcing biosafety and quality assurance practices, and ensuring that key tests like HIV viral load and early infant diagnosis are reliable, timely, and effectively used for clinical decision-making. The informatics component reflects the growing importance of accurate, timely, and usable data in managing PEPFAR-supported programs. Capacity building in informatics typically includes strengthening electronic medical records or other reporting platforms, improving data quality and data use at facility and district levels, building the skills of data managers and clinicians to interpret performance indicators, and supporting interoperability or data governance practices that make routine reporting more efficient and trustworthy.

The explicit mention of cervical cancer highlights the intersection between HIV and womens health, since women living with HIV have a higher risk of persistent HPV infection and progression to cervical cancer. Within PEPFAR contexts, cervical cancer programming often involves building capacity for screening and treatment of precancerous lesions, strengthening referral systems for more advanced care, and training providers in methods such as visual inspection with acetic acid (where used), HPV testing strategies, and treatment approaches like thermal ablation or LEEP depending on national guidelines and available infrastructure. Including cervical cancer alongside HIV treatment and PMTCT suggests an integrated approach that leverages HIV service delivery platforms to expand access to lifesaving prevention and early detection services for women.

Eligibility is listed broadly as "Others" with direction to consult additional eligibility text, which typically signals that this opportunity may be limited to specific organizations, existing implementing partners, or entities that meet particular continuation or programmatic criteria. Because it is a continuation notice with a single expected award, it often functions as a mechanism for CDC to extend an established cooperative agreement with a current recipient that has been implementing in Botswana, rather than opening wide competition to all potential applicants. Even so, the public summary still outlines the scope of work so that the project purpose, CDC role, and program alignment are clear.

Overall, this funding opportunity is best understood as a targeted, CDC-led cooperative agreement under PEPFAR designed to reinforce Botswanas HIV response by investing in the practical skills, systems, and day-to-day mentoring needed to deliver high-quality services. Rather than focusing solely on commodities or direct service delivery, it emphasizes building durable capacity across clinical care, PMTCT, TB/HIV integration, laboratory strengthening, informatics, and cervical cancer programming, with the expectation that improved training, mentorship, and systems performance will translate into better outcomes for patients and greater sustainability for national programs.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control - CGH in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Capacity Building through Training and Mentoring for Treatment, care and Support, Including PMTCT, TB/HIV, Laboratory, Informatics and Cervical Cancer in Botswana under 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 Oct 05, 2016.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Dec 08, 2016. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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