Cote d’Ivoire

Political instability in Cote d’Ivoire has made it increasingly difficult to implement, sustain, and measure the impact of HIV prevention and treatment programs throughout the country.

Although these barriers exist, Côte d’Ivoire’s HIV prevalence rate of 2.67 percent among people aged 15-49 makes continuing these programs critical. Populations most at risk of HIV infection include women ages 20-24, sex workers, and military personnel.

With support from PEPFAR and the United States Government team in country, AIHA managed two partnership projects in country from 2007 to 2011 through our HIV/AIDS Twinning Center Program.

Projects

Hope Worldwide / African Palliative Care Association
(2007 – 2011)

This south-south partnership advocated for increased availability to appropriate palliative care medicines and working to improve the overall provision of palliative care services available in Cote d’Ivoire. AIHA partnered Hope Worldwide in Abidjan with the African Palliative Care Association (APCA) in Kampala, Uganda, to increase the availability of appropriate palliative care drugs in Côte d’Ivoire.

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Launched in April 2007, this south-south partnership worked to develop a country-specific advocacy program and strengthening networks, as well as linkages among health and social support organizations to improve the provision of palliative care in this West African nation of 20.6 million.

Program accomplishments included:

  • Completion of a comprehensive capacity assessment of Hope Worldwide’s organizational systems and palliative care services conducted by the APCA partners;
  • A one-day fundraising training for Hope Worldwide to help them expand donor support;
  • Development and implementation of a holistic, home-based palliative care package and care kit for community caregivers; and
  • Development, in cooperation with the Ministry of Health and other key stakeholders, of National Standards and Guidelines for Palliative Care.

Partners collaborated with the National AIDS Task Force to develop an advocacy implementation plan for Côte d’Ivoire; map community-based palliative care organizations and the types of services they provide; and conduct a quality assessment of home-based palliative care services.

Key outcomes achieved through this partnership include the formation of ASPCI — the national palliative care association — and the adoption of national guidelines for the use of opioids in pain management.

Although it was slated to graduate from the Twinning Center’s technical assistance program in 2010, this was delayed due to post-election instability within the country. Because of this, partners worked on closeout activities in 2011, after which they expected to receive direct funding from the Ministry of Health and PEPFAR in the future.

Through the partnership, Hope Worldwide’s organizational capacity was greatly strengthened and CDC/Côte d’Ivoire, the U.S. funding agency in country, rated AIHA’s performance at the highest level. To read the final closeout report for AIHA’s HIV/AIDS Twinning Center Program, click here. 

PCD-CI / Liverpool VCT
(2007 – 2010)

This south-south partnership linked PCD-CI, a technical working group of three voluntary counseling and testing sites in Cote d’Ivoire, with Kenya-based Liverpool VCT. Partners worked together to scale-up existing services and bolster PCD-CI’s capacity to train additional workers to provide high quality prevention, counseling, and testing services.

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AIHA’s partnership linking PCD-CI — a technical working group comprised of three voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) sites in Côte d’Ivoire — with Kenya-based Liverpool VCT graduated from the Twinning Center’s technical assistance program in June 2010.

The overall objective of this south-south partnership was to scale up comprehensive, high quality HIV counseling and testing services in Côte d’Ivoire.

Liverpool VCT proved to be an invaluable resource partner, sharing its extensive experience with implementing HIV counseling and testing services and related quality assurance and monitoring programs, providing technical assistance on topics including supervision, evaluation, policy and standards development, and accreditation.

Specifically partners worked together to increase PCD-CI’s capacity to support the delivery of quality counseling and testing training activities on a national level. They also supported implementation of a revised, comprehensive national policy on counseling and testing; as well as a national level counselor supervision program and finger-prick testing algorithm.

PCD-CI’s organizational capacity was sufficiently strengthened through the Twinning Center partnership with Liverpool VCT to earn the VCT sites direct funding from CDC/Côte d’Ivoire following its graduation from AIHA’s technical assistance program in 2010. This support is allowing them to continue implementation of much-need counseling and testing services in the country.

To read the final closeout report for AIHA’s HIV/AIDS Twinning Center Program, click here.