USAID awards South Africa Tuberculosis Program to URC
USAID/South Africa has awarded URC a five-year project to provide technical assistance in strengthening tuberculosis control and prevention initiatives. The URC team will focus on providing assistance in strengthening TB care initiatives at the district and community level, as well as strengthening the health system to manage the pressures exerted by the HIV and AIDS epidemic. While the program’s principle focus will be at the provincial, district, and community levels, USAID will continue to provide assistance at the national level to strengthen critical health systems (e.g. information, supervision and policies and guidelines for TB and MDR/XDR prevention and control as well as infection control). Emphasis will be placed on the key themes of USAID’s TB program which include capacity building; sustainability; quality of care; and integration and coordination.
The team will build on lessons learned from the previous USAID-funded TASCII TB Project, also managed by URC, and from health programs of other partners. The URC team includes the following partners: The International Union Against TB and Lung Disease (IUATLD) will assist in the development of TB/HIV and MDR/XDR program strategies and management strengthening; Health Systems Trust (HST) will be responsible for providing technical inputs in TB program monitoring, research and evaluation; the Johns Hopkins Health and Education South Africa (JHHESA) will provide technical expertise in behavioral change and communication; BEA Enterprises will provide technical expertise in knowledge management and information technology; and Karensoft Consulting Group will assist with system design, information systems, and monitoring and evaluation.
The services and tasks provided under the Contract will support efforts in all nine (9) provinces. However, special focus will be given to the South African National Department of Health and the following provincial Departments of Health: Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, Northwest, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo, including the South African Government’s 18 priority districts.
For more information, please contact
Dr. Ntombi Mhlongo-Sigwebela, Project Director at
NtombiM@urc-sa.com
The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer episode which aired on the Public
Broadcast System on March 24, 2009, World TB Day, featured an interview with
Dr. Refiloe Matji, URC’s Southern Africa Regional Director.
“The major problem in TB is compliance,” Dr. Matji points out.
"If the patient does not adhere to the complete six months of treatment necessary
to cure TB, deadly drug resistant strains of TB can develop."
“Are we saying people who have TB are different than us? They are not,”
she says. "Unfortunately, the circumstances in which they live may result in not
complying with the full course of treatment."
more...
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University Research Co., LLC (URC) currently implements a contract awarded
by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to provide technical
assistance to the National TB Control Program (NTCP) in South Africa. The
small grants program is an important element of the USAID TB PROGRAM SOUTH
AFRICA designed to help increase the demand and availability of TB and TB/HIV
services. To assist the USAID TB PROGRAM SOUTH AFRICA in carrying out the
objectives, several small grants will be awarded by URC to South African
firms in compliance with USAID regulations.
For shortlisted organizations only, the presentations from the January 2010
grantee workshop can be downloaded.
Passwords will be provided by URC to each shortlisted organization.
download the workshop presentations...
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This website is implemented by
University Research Co., LLC,
, in collaboration with
BEA Enterprises, Inc.
This web portal was produced through support provided by USAID through the
South Africa Tuberculosis Program managed by University Research Co., LLC.
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Page updated 26 August 2010