OpportunityTitle: Resilient and Responsive Health Systems (RRHS) Initiative
CategoryExplanation: https://grants.hrsa.gov/2010/Web2External/Interface/FundingCycle/ExternalView.aspx?fCycleID=8e7b21c2-3e6b-4684-9791-86ef105755b6
AdditionalInformationOnEligibility: Eligible applicants include domestic and foreign public and private non-profit entities, including institutions of higher education, and for profit entities.&#160; Faith-based and community-based organizations, tribes, and tribal organizations are eligible to apply.     Applicants are required to apply as a consortium that at minimum includes collaborations with two impact partner entities from the RRHS Focus Country.&#160; Applications from U.S. domestic organizations are strongly encouraged to include African institutions with the relevant expertise as consortium partners, with the long-term goal of strengthening networks within Africa.&#160; African applicants may include collaboration with institutions in the U.S., other high income countries (HICs), or other low and middle income countries&#8217; (LMIC) institutions with particular expertise in the proposed priority areas as consortium partners.&#160;      The applicant institution must meet the eligibility requirements and assumes all legal, programmatic, and financial responsibilities under the award.&#160; Consortium participants would be considered subrecipients under the award.&#160; Subrecipients are subject to all programmatic terms and conditions of the award.&#160; Depending on the type of engagement and scope of work, consortium agreements may be in the form of MOUs, subawards, or contracts.&#160;&#160;      If you are applying as the applicant institution for more than one RRHS Focus Country, then you must submit separate applications for each applicable RRHS Focus Country (DRC, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan).     IMPORTANT NOTE:&#160; the competition for South Sudan has been postponed until further notice.&#160; Applications to support activities in South Sudan will be accepted at a later time.
Description: This announcement solicits applications for the Resilient and Responsive Health Systems (RRHS) Initiative, a five-year program to strengthen human resources for health (HRH) in order to address public health challenges like HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Liberia, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan and to achieve health system resiliency. [IMPORTANT NOTE: the competition for South Sudan has been postponed until further notice. Applications to support activities in South Sudan will be accepted at a later time.] This RRHS Initiative seeks to address fundamental health systems constraints that impede the availability of and access to quality health services by supporting the implementation of countries&#8217; national health strategies and recovery plans to respond to emerging epidemics, prevent, manage and control HIV and other diseases, and improve population health outcomes. The resilience of a health system is its capacity to respond and adapt to planned and unplanned needs, and the ability to absorb shocks, such as a disease outbreak, natural disaster, or conflict.[1] Decades of experience in health systems development in fragile states have demonstrated a need to address weaknesses in HRH, policy, leadership, management capacity, service delivery, and data collection and evaluation through the World Health Organization&#8217;s health system building blocks framework,[2] taking into consideration also the capacity, security situation, and state of health in each state.[3] In fragile states, these core structural components of the health system are by definition weak and incomplete, often characterized by the inability to provide health services to a large proportion of the population; insufficient coordination, oversight and monitoring of health services; ineffective or nonexistent referral systems; inadequate management capacity; lack of health equity; lack of health infrastructure for delivering health services; a lack of mechanisms for developing, establishing and implementing national health policies; and non-operational health information systems.[4] Achieving an AIDS-free generation is dependent upon the ability of people at risk and/or living with HIV and AIDS to find and access quality health services, providers and products. A well-functioning and resilient health system meets these needs, effectively supporting prevention, care and treatment for HIV and AIDS, TB, malaria, and other diseases. In just eleven years, PEPFAR has moved from an emergency program to one squarely focused on controlling the epidemic. PEPFAR has now entered what may be its most challenging, but exciting, phase yet&#8212;Phase III focusing on Sustainable Control of the Epidemic. To reach the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS&#8217; (UNAIDS) ambitious 90-90-90 global goals (90 percent of people with HIV diagnosed, 90 percent of them on ART and 90 percent of them virally suppressed by 2020), PEPFAR is pivoting the scale-up of resources and services towards health service delivery sites with moderate and high yield of patients, communities that link patients to those sites, and geographic areas with high burden of HIV. Meeting demand in those settings requires an adequate supply and appropriate skills mix of Human Resources for Health (HRH) available to provide quality HIV services along the continuum of care. Between 2009 and 2014, PEPFAR strengthened countries&#8217; health systems to address HRH bottlenecks to service delivery broadly, and HIV services in particular. However, PEPFAR&#8217;s current pivot requires a recasting of its HRH investment approach to more directly support HIV services and populations where the highest impact gains towards an AIDS-free generation (AFG) will be felt. The RRHS supports this shift. By 2022, it is expected that the RRHS Initiative will contribute to achieving progress towards the following objectives in each country: Improved health outcomes, with a targeted focus on decreasing maternal, child mortality, decreasing new HIV infections, and improving HIV-related health outcomes Improved use of HRH information in decision making Improved coordination and monitoring of HRH functions Improved HRH workforce performance and management To meet the aforementioned objectives, the RRHS Initiative will work with country stakeholders to collectively prioritize and develop sustainable and country-led solutions to address national priorities that include the following: [1] Campbell J. et al. Improving the resilience and workforce of health systems for women&#8217;s, children&#8217;s, and adolescents&#8217; health. BMJ 2015; 351 :h4148 [2] Jonnalagadda Haar, R. and Rubenstein, L. (2012). Special Report: Health in Post conflict and Fragile States. United States Institute for Peace. Retrieved from: http://edoc.bibliothek.unihalle.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/HALCoRe_derivate_00006087/USIP_SR_301.pdf. [3] ibid [4] Witter, S., (2012). Health financing in fragile and post-conflict states:What do we know and what are the gaps?, Social Science and Medicine, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.09.012
GrantorContactEmailDescription: Contact Jose Rafael Morales at (301)443-3650 or email jmorales@hrsa.gov
GrantorContactText: Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration&lt;br/&gt;jmorales@hrsa.gov&lt;br/&gt;