National Human Resources for Health (HRH) Strategic Support, Advanced Health Care Worker Training, and Operationalization of a Local Laboratory External Quality Assurance System in Malawi under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEP | CDC RFA GH20 2047

Opportunity Information: Apply for CDC RFA GH20 2047

This funding opportunity is a CDC cooperative agreement under PEPFAR focused on strengthening Malawi's health system by improving health workforce planning, advanced clinical training, laboratory quality assurance, and national pharmacovigilance. The opportunity (CDC RFA GH20-2047; CFDA 93.067) was posted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Center for Global Health, with an original application due date of April 24, 2020 (11:59 p.m. ET). CDC expected to make one award. Although the posted Year 1 award ceiling is listed as "0 (none)," the notice indicates CDC anticipated approximately $1,000,000 in total Year 1 funding, contingent on the availability of funds, which suggests the "ceiling" entry reflects a posting convention rather than an intent to fund at zero.

The core concept of the award is to leverage the University of Malawi College of Medicine (COM), described as the country's sole medical school and a leading public health institution, as a strategic implementing partner for the Ministry of Health (MOH). Rather than creating parallel systems, the project is designed to build national capacity that is anchored in Malawian institutions and can be sustained locally. Because the mechanism is a cooperative agreement, recipients should expect substantial involvement from CDC in planning, oversight, and technical collaboration, with CDC and the awardee jointly shaping implementation details and performance expectations over the project period.

A major pillar of the work is national human resources for health (HRH) quantification and planning. The award calls for Malawi to quantify HRH needs using the Workload Indicators of Staffing Need (WISN) methodology, or another appropriate method, to produce evidence-based staffing requirements grounded in service workload and facility realities. In practice, this involves collecting workload data, defining activity standards, calculating staffing gaps, and using the results to guide staffing decisions across cadres and levels of care. The intent is not only to run a one-time assessment, but to create a repeatable approach that can be refreshed over time as service demand and national priorities change.

Building on the HRH quantification, the opportunity emphasizes development of a long-term strategic vision for HRH forecasting, deployment, and development. This is about moving from reactive staffing fixes to a forward-looking national plan that anticipates training output needs, tracks attrition and deployment patterns, and aligns health worker distribution with population and service needs. Forecasting and deployment elements typically cover how workers will be allocated geographically and by facility type, how recruitment and retention may be improved, and how the system will respond to evolving program demands, including those driven by HIV service delivery.

Another central component is advanced training and quality improvement for the clinical workforce, specifically through increasing the production and quality of COM graduates who are competent to deliver advanced, integrated HIV care and treatment services. The motivation is the chronic shortage of highly skilled health workers in Malawi, which directly affects the capacity to sustain and improve HIV treatment outcomes. The award envisions COM strengthening its training pipeline so more graduates are produced and so their competencies match real service needs, particularly in complex HIV management and integration with broader clinical care. This can include strengthening curricula, clinical rotations, mentorship models, supervision structures, and practical skills development that translate into better readiness for high-burden clinical environments.

The laboratory systems component focuses on operationalizing a local laboratory external quality assurance (EQA) system. The notice explicitly highlights "domesticating" EQA functions by shifting components that are currently sourced outside Malawi to be managed locally, using COM's unique position to take on these roles. The practical goal is to improve reliability and sustainability of laboratory quality assurance by reducing dependence on external providers, shortening feedback loops, and strengthening national ownership of quality systems that underpin accurate diagnosis and monitoring, including for HIV-related testing. A functioning in-country EQA approach can support consistent quality across a network of laboratories and can be essential for maintaining confidence in test results used for patient care and public health decision-making.

Finally, the opportunity includes support for Malawi's newly established national pharmacovigilance center housed within the COM pharmacy department, in collaboration with the Malawi Pharmacy Medicines and Poisons Board. This element is aimed at strengthening systems for monitoring medicine safety, detecting and managing adverse drug reactions, and improving the national capacity to evaluate product safety signals and communicate risks. In the context of HIV programs, pharmacovigilance is particularly important given lifelong antiretroviral therapy, possible regimen changes, drug-drug interactions, and the need to maintain public trust in treatment.

Overall, the opportunity is a systems-strengthening package designed to reinforce Malawi's ability to plan and manage its health workforce, produce more highly capable clinicians for integrated HIV services, ensure laboratory quality through a domesticated EQA platform, and institutionalize medication safety monitoring through a national pharmacovigilance center. The design places COM at the center of implementation to create durable capacity inside Malawi's own public institutions while supporting MOH priorities under PEPFAR.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control - CGH in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "National Human Resources for Health (HRH) Strategic Support, Advanced Health Care Worker Training, and Operationalization of a Local Laboratory External Quality Assurance System in Malawi under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEP" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.067.
• This funding opportunity was created on Feb 24, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Apr 24, 2020 Electronically submitted applications must be submitted no later than 1159 p.m., ET, on the listed application due date.. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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