ProVIC Year 5 Semi-Annual Report: October 2013–March 2014

The project, which is funded by the US Agency for International Development, focuses on improving HIV testing and counseling, prevention services, care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS, and strengthening health systems. ProVIC's efforts in HIV testing and counseling resulted in more than 36,000 pregnant women learning their HIV status, including 670 who were newly identified as HIV positive. This represents a 50% increase over the previous year and is primarily due to the rapid scale-up of health facility partners. The project also achieved a 93% rate of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV-positive pregnant women. In addition to its work in HIV testing and counseling, ProVIC made significant progress in its educational support to orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). The project provided support for school fees and supplies to 4,875 OVC, representing 81% of the target. This achievement is a doubling of the number of OVC supported over the previous year. ProVIC also continued to be a national leader in providing services to key and priority populations, including men who have sex with men (MSM) and sex workers (SW). The project reached 146% of its target by providing prevention messages to 2,203 SW and 923 MSM during the reporting period. The project's work and data are regularly cited by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and the DRC Ministry of Health. ProVIC's contributions to the national HIV/AIDS strategic plan were significant, and the project's data were used to inform the development of the plan. The ProVIC project's focus on the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) platform resulted in a significant increase in the number of pregnant women counseled and tested. The project's PMTCT cascade of services includes counseling and testing, antenatal care visits, and labor and delivery services. During the reporting period, 36,822 pregnant women were counseled and tested, 32,118 women received HIV counseling during antenatal care visits, and 4,704 women received counseling at labor and delivery. The project's work in strengthening health systems included supporting the capacity of provincial government health systems and improving the capacity of nongovernmental organization providers. ProVIC also strengthened strategic information systems at the community and facility levels. Despite some challenges, including the wind-down and closeout of community-level interventions, ProVIC achieved significant success in its educational support to OVC and continued to be a national leader in providing services to key and priority populations. The project's work and data are regularly cited by international organizations and the DRC Ministry of Health, and its contributions to the national HIV/AIDS strategic plan were significant.