Solthis Therapeutic Solidarity and Initiatives for Health

NIGERSTRENGTHENING SYSTEMS AND HEALTH SERVICESFighting HIV / AIDS

Context :

Niger started the PMTCT program in 2004 with the support of partners such as UNICEF, WHO, UNAIDS and Solthis (as of 2008). Since then, progress has been made both in terms of coverage of pregnant women in need of PMTCT and follow-up of children. However, despite the scaling up of PMTCT interventions in Niger, significant challenges remain in providing screening and care for women living with HIV as well as regular follow-up of their children up to 18 months in the 1115 health facilities offering PMTCT services in Niger. To overcome these challenges, the country has developed a PMTC plan and identified 66 sites as priorities because they are expected to contain the majority of pregnant women who will be screened for HIV, which will begin soon and run until the end of 2023. Solthis has been identified to support the implement of this PMTCT plan and also based on the recommendations made during the National Forum on PMTCT Bottlenecks – Tahoua, January 18-20, 2022.

Indeed, Solthis intervention will target the following recommendations:

o Support the quality of PMTCT services during the prenatal consultation, where more than 80% of women consult.

o Support the availability of inputs and involve the regional public health directorates (DRSP) and districts more in the management of supplies.

o Improve the quality of mentoring by the DRSP and the districts and the collaboration between the various HIV actors.

o Improve the quality of reporting and analysis of PMTCT data by the districts.

o Support to the definition of PMTCT mentoring and quantification recommendations in the next funding round of the Global Fund (GC7).

General outcome:

Support to improve HIV/AIDS testing of pregnant women in health facilities and ARV for test HIV+ pregnant women in Niger.

Specific outcomes (SO) :

1. SO1: Support the country to improve the HIV testing strategy in pregnant women in priority sites.

Indicator: 75% of women tested for HIV in prenatal consultations (NFM3 country target).

2. SO2: Support the country to improve ARV treatment in women diagnosed with HIV during pregnancy in priority sites.

Indicator: 75% of women tested for HIV + in prenatal consultations put on ARV (NFM3 country target).

3. SO3: Support to the country in defining strategies and interventions to improve testing strategy and ARV treatment in in women diagnosed with HIV during pregnancy for the GC7 design.

Indicator: Integration of DSD technical assistance recommendations into the Global Fund application (CG7).

Planned activities:

1.Situational diagnosis with a 1 month participative desk review:

2. Reinforced support for health authorities and field actors in charge of implementing PMTCT in a sample of pilot sites, in order to better document the difficulties and good practices and guide the interventions to be prioritized in the NFM4 through the strengthening of existing mentoring mechanisms.

3. National support to the PNLSH to plan the implementation of the PMTCT recommendations formulated during the national forum on PMTCT bottlenecks of January 2022, and to identify the priority interventions to be integrated into the GC7.