Draft Program Description- Request for Comments

The summary for the Draft Program Description- Request for Comments grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the Agency for International Development, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

Draft Program Description- Request for Comments: The award(s) proposed under this RFA will serve as central components of the USG HIV prevention portfolio for the next five years. The award is expected to build on prevention tools and approaches that have been developed and implemented in Nigeria. The new award(s) will also support mass media (at the state-level), community mobilization, interpersonal communications, and complement and coordinate with other USG-funded partners. The USG encourages applications from all partners who can demonstrate technical excellence and the capacity to provide high quality assistance in comprehensive HIV prevention programming. The USG seeks partners who are cost-effective and innovative, and committed to local ownership, capacity strengthening and sustainability. STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE STRENGTHEN HIV PREVENTION SERVICES FOR MOST-AT-RISK POPULATIONS, ESPECIALLY FOR FEMALE SEX WORKERS AND THEIR CLIENTS. This RFA focuses on the need to strengthen HIV sexual prevention services for female sex workers (FSW) and their clients. To a lesser extent men who have sex with men (MSM) and injecting drug users (IDU) will also be supported. Prison populations, military, uniformed services, vulnerable girls, out-of-school youth, male sex workers and other vulnerable populations will not be priorities under this agreement. Women engaging in broader forms of transactional sex are also not a priority under this mechanism as those activities will be carried out within USG prevention programs focusing on the general population. Interventions will need to be customized for different risk groups based on their respective needs.Existing data on HIV in Nigeria indicate that FSW, clients of sex workers, MSM, and IDU are at an increased risk for HIV infection. Although there is a clear need for more systematic data on these populations, the data available point to geographic hotspots for MARPs within the more generalized epidemic. In developing interventions, the Applicant should prioritize the following populations -Female sex workers are defined as those women that engage in commercial sex work involving explicitly defined terms of exchanging sex for money. -Clients of sex workers including relevant occupational and risk groups that purchase sex for money from commercial sex workers. Applicants should prioritize occupational groups for which there is evidence that they frequently purchase sex. -Men who have sex with men, including all relevant sub-categories of MSM such as gay-identified MSM, non-gay identified MSM, 'hidden' MSM populations, and transgendered individuals. -Injecting drug users are those persons who regularly, irregularly, or recreationally inject illegal substances (injection can be done intravenous, but also intramuscular or subcutaneous). Of particular concerns are those IDU who share injecting equipment. It should be noted by the Applicant that FSW and their clients are the primary focus of the interventions under this RFA. Depending on the occupational groups targeted as clients of sex workers, the Applicant may chose to form limited private sector partnerships to access these groups. USAID encourages the Applicant to consider possible activities for MSM; but, those activities should be scheduled later during the life of the project and be based on the results of the MSM project currently being implemented by Heartland Alliance in Nigeria. Initially, the Applicant should limit any proposed activities for IDU to formative research and/or size estimations, with the possibility of initiating activities for IDU later in the life of the project based upon evolving data on this population.