“Sustaining Capacity of Local Organizations to Reach and End HIV/AIDS Pandemic (SCORE)” program has been designed and will be implemented to achieve the purpose and strategies of CDC funding opportunity CDC-RFA-GH23-0044 - ‘Strengthening Regional, National, and Subnational Institutional Capacities to Sustainably Combat HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)’. SCORE will be implemented in CDC selected countries and we have used Botswana, Cameroon, Eswatini, Kenya and Uganda as cases to ground proposed interventions. The SCORE program will: 1) amplify capacity of governments at all levels of the health care system to design, own, lead and sustainably improve effectiveness and efficiency of public health programs including HIV/AIDS, TB and other diseases of public health concern; 2) strengthen core organizational, leadership and management functions of local organizations as effective partners to governments, and; 3) establish a network that includes governments and local organizations structured as Communities of Practice (COP) to stimulate collaborative learning, benchmarking and elevate overall capacity of the health ecosystem to sustain, renew, innovate and evolve a culture of evidence-based public health programming.
SCORE will benefit all populations living with HIV and those at high risk for HIV acquisition or transmission prioritizing those left behind – Adolescent &Young People, young women, children, LGBTQ+, people diagnosed, undiagnosed and at risk of TB infection & all populations in target countries at risk of disease outbreaks, epidemics, pandemics and Non-Communicable Diseases. In addition, SCORE will target Ministries of Health, other relevant government ministries, national HIV/AIDS organizations and coordinating bodies, national and subnational government units, local organizations (NGOs, for-profit entities serving public health needs, civil society organizations), education institutions and health systems staff, including all cadres of health care workers for capacity enhancement
Georgetown University will serve as prime, under the auspices of the Center for Global Health Practice and Impact (GU CGHPI) including O’Neill Institute, the Center for Global Health Science and Security (CGHSS), School of Health’s Department of Global Health, School of Public Policy and McDonough Business School plus Aspen Institute, SustainAbility Solutions South Africa and will engage a network of resource organizations in each country assigned to implement all activities under SCORE.
SCORE Program activities will be implemented through cross-cutting high level strategies to optimize impact: 1) Comprehensive needs assessment (NA); 2) Stakeholder involved and whole-of-government led co-development of Transition to Sustainability Road Map; 3) A Systems thinking approach; 4) Application of an equity and rights-based lens to all interventions; 5) Brokering and supporting transformative partnerships across public-private, government-non-government and national-regional divides; 6) Unique and innovative application of Human Centered Design, data science, and Communities of Practice to drive decision making and policy formulation; 7) HIV Platform integration to incorporate essential public health functions, provide integrated service delivery for other disease interventions and country attainment of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3; 8) Intelligent application of Implementation Science to bridge the knowledge-application gap. SCORE will enhance the application of evidence and best practices garnered through Implementation Science within host countries. Our vision for SCORE is informed by a central tenet of the NOFO – sustaining HIV and related disease outcome gains and building local capacity for a fortified resilient health system, capable of withstanding any external shocks that would threaten health gains made.