Project Background
The Zambian Local Partners Capacity Building Program (LPCB) is a $49 million, 4.5 year initiative, created under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). LPCB is intended to increase the number and involvement of new non-governmental, faith-based, and community-based organizations responding to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Zambia. LPCB’s primary focus is to develop effective institutional strengthening and grant programs to assist local NGOs, FBOs, CBOs and networks to expand and improve their organizational capacity, and in turn, their HIV/AIDS service delivery and activities.
LPCB began in May of 2008 and is tasked with providing capacity building services in all nine provinces of Zambia.
LPCB is an organizational development and competitive grants program for organizations with the desire and ability to help implement the President’s Emergency Plan, but with little or no experience in working with U.S. Government funding. LPCB reaches out to new partners to support the capacity strengthening of their organizations through a focus on organizational assessments, organizational development, and skills building. The goals of the program are to:
- Increase new partners capacity to provide prevention and care services
- Create sustainable in-country capacity through capacity leaders and a network of mentors
- Identify potential new USG partner organizations
Project Goals
The overall goal of the LPCB project is to improve the organizational capacity of Zambian NGOs, FBOs, CBOs, and networks to ensure efficient expansion of their programs so that quality HIV/AIDS services continue to be delivered in Zambia. FHI 360 and its sub-partner, Management Systems International, Inc. (MSI), are charged with several specific goals under this project:
- Facilitate organizational, technical, and scale-up assessment and institutional improvement planning processes with NGOs, FBOs, CBOs and Networks
- Provide Technical Assistance (TA), training, and NGO, FBO, CBO and networks strengthening grants to improve their institutional capacities in a sustainable manner
- Implement a service provision grant program to provide PEPFAR funding opportunities for NGOs, FBOs, CBOs and networks that have achieved institutional strengthening goals
- Train and mentor Capacity Leaders and individual mentors to become effective and sustainable providers of institutional strengthening services to NGOs, FBOs, CBOs and networks
Project Impacts
As of November 2010, LPCB has provided 107 local organizations with technical assistance. Nearly 103 local organizations became official LPCB Partner Organizations and completed a series of core organizational trainings. In addition, four local organizations were appointed Capacity Leaders providing support and technical assistance through a South-South exchange. Out of the 103 Local Partner Organizations, nearly half have gone on to win funding in the form of HIV Service and Commodity Grants from LPCB. Awards range from USD 25,000 – USD 300,000.
Since the inception of the program approximately 3,535 individuals have been trained to promote HIV/AIDS prevention programs through AB, 8,439 community health and para-social workers have successfully completed an in-service training program, and more than 105,830 people have been reached with individual and/or small group level HIV prevention interventions as of April 2012.
Key Staff
The LPCB program is implemented by the FHI 360 and MSI teams in Zambia and is a collaborative project between FHI 360’s Center on AIDS & Community Health and Center for Civil Society and Governance. Key project staff includes:
Country Staff
- Cara Endyke Doran, Chief of Party (Zambia) (Country Contact) email
- Francis Johnston, Deputy Chief of Party (Zambia)
U.S.-based Staff
- Danielle Darrow de Marrow, MPHc, Program Director (HQ Contact) email bio
- Sarah Torrance, MPH, Program Officer
- Alyssa Charland, Program Associate
Funding Organization
Funding for LPCB is through a USAID Associate Agreement under FHI 360’s Capable Partners Program and is funded entirely by PEPFAR. LPCB grantees are funded through sub-contracts with FHI 360.