Strengthening Clinical Services for Men Who have Sex with Men, Transgender, and Bisexual Populations Living with HIV/STI in the Dominican Republic under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) | CDC RFA GH15 162603CONT17

Opportunity Information: Apply for CDC RFA GH15 162603CONT17

This funding opportunity is a continuation cooperative agreement issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Center for Global Health, under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). It focuses on improving and expanding clinical services in the Dominican Republic for key populations that experience a disproportionate burden of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections: men who have sex with men (MSM), transgender people, and bisexual populations. The overall intent is to strengthen how clinical care is delivered to these groups so that prevention, testing, treatment, and ongoing care are easier to access, higher quality, and better aligned with the real barriers these communities face in routine health systems.

The award mechanism is a cooperative agreement, which typically means CDC expects substantial involvement beyond simply providing funds. In practice, that often includes close technical collaboration, joint planning, performance monitoring, and ongoing guidance on implementation and reporting. Because this is labeled as “continuation” (Opportunity Category: Continuation), it is generally aimed at continuing or extending previously funded work rather than launching an entirely new, open competition. The listing shows the eligible applicant category as “Others,” with additional eligibility details referenced in the original posting; that phrasing often signals that eligibility may be limited to existing recipients or a defined set of organizations with prior awards, demonstrated capacity, or in-country operational presence.

Programmatically, the opportunity targets “strengthening clinical services,” which usually involves improving the full continuum of HIV and STI care for key populations: making HIV testing more accessible and acceptable; ensuring rapid linkage to care and initiation of antiretroviral therapy; supporting retention and viral load monitoring; integrating STI screening and treatment; improving management of co-infections and sexual health needs; and reducing loss to follow-up through patient navigation and differentiated service delivery. For transgender clients, clinical strengthening frequently includes improving provider competency and reducing discrimination, since stigma in clinical environments can be a major driver of delayed diagnosis, lower treatment adherence, and poorer outcomes. For MSM and bisexual populations, strengthening services can include expanding confidential, nonjudgmental testing and treatment options and reinforcing clinical practices that support consistent engagement in care.

Because the activity category is “Health” and the CFDA number listed is 93.067, the work sits within CDC’s broader global HIV/AIDS program framework. Under PEPFAR, projects like this usually emphasize measurable public health impact: increased case identification, improved linkage and retention, and higher rates of viral suppression among people living with HIV, alongside improved STI diagnosis and treatment coverage. Clinical service strengthening can also include training and mentoring of healthcare workers, development or refinement of clinical protocols and quality improvement systems, improvements in data collection and use for decision-making, and coordination with national HIV programs so that services align with Dominican Republic guidelines and reporting structures.

The opportunity was created on February 6, 2017, with an original closing date of April 6, 2017. The posting lists an award ceiling of 0, which commonly indicates that a specific maximum funding amount is not stated in the summary field (or may be provided elsewhere in the full announcement or tied to continuation-year budgets). The expected number of awards is 10, suggesting CDC anticipated supporting multiple implementing partners or multiple continuation actions under the broader program. Overall, the grant opportunity is essentially about sustaining and improving clinical systems and service delivery models in the Dominican Republic so that MSM, transgender, and bisexual people living with HIV or affected by STIs can receive consistent, high-quality, stigma-free care that leads to better individual outcomes and stronger population-level HIV/STI control.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control - CGH in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Strengthening Clinical Services for Men Who have Sex with Men, Transgender, and Bisexual Populations Living with HIV/STI in the Dominican Republic under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)" 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 06, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Apr 06, 2017. (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 10 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for CDC RFA GH15 162603CONT17

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