Sustainable National Health Laboratory Systems and Partnerships in Uganda under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)

The Award Ceiling for Year 1 is 0 (none). CDC anticipates an Approximate Total Fiscal Year Funding amount of $3,000,000 for Year 1, subject to the availability of funds.Uganda has strengthened its laboratory network for specimen transportation, testing and implementation of International Standards Organization (ISO) series of Quality Management Systems (QMS); with 13 laboratories and 75 Laboratory hubs attaining international accreditation and being beyond the minimal national level of quality, respectively. The NOFO will build on these gains to achieve a resilient, sustainable National Health Laboratory System to support the National HIV/AIDS Care and Treatment program at all health care levels. Working with the Government of Uganda (GoU) in collaboration with Health Development Partners, the recipient will provide technical assistance (TA) to the Uganda National Health Laboratory Services (UNHLS), the PEPFAR Implementing Partners (IPs), Regional Referral Hospitals (RRH) and District Health teams to optimize the National Diagnostic Network for provision of timely, reliable, and accurate results. To attain this, the recipient will support the UNHLS to sustain and further expand the implementation of QMS at all levels including Point of Care Testing sites and address existing gaps in the QMS. The recipient will support UNHLS to implement a QMS sustainability plan to maintain investments made in the laboratory sector. Gains made and sustained will be leveraged by other programs, for integrated disease surveillance including HIV/TB, multiplex testing and other disease outbreak investigations within the PEPFAR-supported laboratories nationwide.