Regional HIV/AIDS Treatment Acceleration Project

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The primary goal of the Treatment Acceleration Program (TAP) is to pilot strategies for strengthening each country's capacity to scale up comprehensive programs providing care and treatment, which is effective, affordable, and equitable. It will pilot treatment systems which ensure that people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and their immediate families benefit from care and treatment. The project has the following three components: Component 1) the TAP activities comprise: (a) piloting scaling up existing care, and treatment programs managed by selected implementing partners to ensure the delivery of the full continuum of care, and (b) piloting efforts to significantly increase the number of patients needing care and treatment at different stages. Component 2) will ensure effective public oversight of the treatment scale-up process, TAP would: (i) strengthen the capacity of the National Treatment Committee, established in each country by the Ministry of Health, to provide technical guidance and quality control; (ii) coordinate program expansion through improved planning of infrastructure, human resource development, and drug procurement; and (iii) monitor the accessibility, quality, and results of treatment with particular attention to the poor. Component 3) will support in-country learning, TAP would fund World Health Organization (WHO) technical support activities, through its headquarters and regional offices, and within each Ministry of Health (MOH) TAP unit: (i) refining and implementing treatment guidelines and protocols; (ii) developing national standards, criteria and assessment tools for accrediting laboratories and treatment sites; and (iii) setting up quality assurance systems for drug procurement and testing. WHO will also provide additional technical assistance in: (i) developing curricula and pedagogical methods for the training of medical and paramedical staff; (ii) strengthening program monitoring and evaluation; and (iii) establishing methods for managing patient compliance and evaluating treatment outcomes and potential drug resistance.