Strengthening National Epidemiologic and Research Capacity to Improve Health Outcomes in the Kingdom of Swaziland under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)

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The national response to the HIV epidemic in Swaziland has undergone dramatic changes and achieved major milestones up to date. As the epidemic matures in Swaziland and the country shifts from emergency response to scale-up of prevention interventions and universal access to care and treatment, the technical needs of the country are also evolving. Monitoring trends, identifying and addressing knowledge gaps, and strengthening the country’s long-term capacity to use epidemiological tools to produce strategic information are now recognized as important priorities moving forward. Currently, Swaziland lacks coordinated infrastructure and capacity to formulate and address research questions that will inform programmatic and policy decisions. In addition, the country needs a robust epidemiological surveillance system for communicable and non-communicable disease to enable the detection of and efficient response to disease outbreaks. The overall goal of this FOA is to strengthen the capacity of Ministry of Health (MoH) and Ministry of Economic Planning and Development (MoEPD) to produce and effectively use epidemiological, surveillance, and research data in the Kingdom of Swaziland.

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