PEPFAR Community Led Monitoring (CLM)-Zambia | PCLM 2025

Opportunity Information: Apply for PCLM 2025

The PEPFAR Community Led Monitoring (CLM) - Zambia funding opportunity is a U.S. Mission to Zambia (U.S. Embassy Zambia) cooperative agreement designed to strengthen the quality of HIV services by systematically collecting and using feedback from people receiving PEPFAR-supported HIV care. The core idea is that trained community members gather client experiences directly from health facility users, then that information is triangulated, summarized, and shared with key decision-makers so gaps in service delivery can be identified and fixed. PEPFAR Zambia and Zambia's Ministry of Health (MOH), working alongside bodies like the National HIV/AIDS, STI, and TB Council (NAC), use the findings to improve the client experience and ultimately strengthen HIV outcomes across the country.

This program builds on CLM work that began in 2021, when PEPFAR supported not-for-profit organizations to implement monitoring activities in each province. Starting around May 2025, PEPFAR intends to continue CLM in a way that strengthens prior efforts and places stronger emphasis on systematically addressing the feedback that communities provide. A key feature of the approach is holding quarterly review meetings with government and other stakeholders to discuss recurring problems and barriers to service uptake at site and facility level. PEPFAR is specifically looking for community-based applicants in every province, with encouragement to integrate PLHIV-focused community organizations as the local structures that help reach clients and support sustained engagement.

The grant expects implementers to run feedback collection in two phases: phase one establishes a baseline picture of service quality and client experience, and phase two measures change over time to show whether service delivery improved after issues were raised and addressed. Grantees are expected to cover both low- and high-volume facilities, and to ensure feedback reflects rural and urban realities. The monitoring must be inclusive and representative, explicitly covering all constituencies of people living with HIV (PLHIV), including but not limited to key populations (KP), adolescent girls and young women (AGYW), persons with disabilities, pregnant and breastfeeding women (PBFW), and also pediatrics as referenced in the proposal instructions. The NOFO is clear that applications without a credible plan to include all constituencies will not be considered, making inclusivity a non-negotiable requirement rather than a general preference.

In terms of required outputs and ongoing responsibilities, grantees must collect client feedback across their province using a harmonized reporting tool developed by stakeholders, and they must synthesize and share that feedback with stakeholders subject to PEPFAR and MOH approval. Routine reporting is central to the award: monthly programmatic reporting is required, alongside quarterly summarized program indicators and quarterly financial reporting. Programs must also track and document changes between phase one and phase two, participate in quarterly coordination meetings with government, community representatives, USG, and implementing partners, and produce actionable recommendations that can realistically improve client care based on what recipients of care report. The program places emphasis on supportive supervision and quality assurance of field teams so that collection is done correctly and reports are submitted on time throughout the award period.

Eligible applicants are not-for-profit entities, including civil society organizations, NGOs, and public or private educational institutions. PEPFAR is seeking applicants that can demonstrate capacity to collaborate with PEPFAR, MOH, NAC, and other stakeholders, as well as the ability to manage a province-wide community monitoring program. The proposal instructions also ask applicants to describe organizational experience and past operations, including prior management of funding programs of at least USD 25,000 and any previous U.S. government grants, which signals that applicants should be able to demonstrate at least some baseline grants management and compliance capability. If an applicant plans to sub-award, they must explain how sub-awardees will be managed, how reporting will be tracked, and how compliance will be maintained, and they must also provide assurance they are not operating under a competing interest for this program.

On the funding and award structure, this opportunity is listed as a discretionary cooperative agreement under CFDA 19.029. The posted award ceiling is USD 115,000, with an anticipated 10 awards. Applicants are instructed to prepare budgets in U.S. dollars and to calculate using an exchange rate of USD 1 = ZMW 25 (as of July 2024). Because this is a cooperative agreement, applicants should expect meaningful ongoing involvement from PEPFAR Zambia in oversight and coordination, especially around how feedback is synthesized, validated, and shared with stakeholders, even though the grantees lead on collection and reporting.

Applications must be submitted electronically through Grants.gov only, and paper or email submissions will not be accepted. The deadline is February 17, 2025 by midnight Zambia time. Required submission components include standard federal forms (SF-424, SF-424A, SF-424B), a summary cover sheet that names the organization and the province applied for, a detailed proposal that explains methodology and monitoring plans in plain terms, key personnel details (including roles and level of effort), partner/sub-awardee information, and a budget justification provided as both a detailed budget and a narrative. Attachments must include CVs/resumes of key personnel, letters of support from partners (if applicable), and three reference letters, including one from an international organization with annual funding of USD 25,000 or more. Applicants requesting more than USD 100,000 must also submit SF-LLL (Disclosure of Lobbying Activities). Questions must be submitted by email to the PEPFAR Zambia Grants Team (lusakasmallgrants@state.gov) by January 20, 2025, with responses expected to be posted by February 3, 2025 on the PEPFAR Zambia webpage.

• The U.S. Mission to Zambia in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "PEPFAR Community Led Monitoring (CLM)-Zambia" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 19.029.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-12-09.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2025-02-17. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $115,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 10 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for PCLM 2025

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