The Director of programs PEPFAR (The United States President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief), Madam Marie F. Mc LEOD, and representatives of the United Nations systems, bilateral and multilateral partners involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS held a working session at the WHO Country office on February 5, 2013.

This meeting was part of the activities to be performed by the PEPFAR Program’s Director in order to oversee the results and impact obtained through their support.

The WHO country Representative, Doctor Charlotte Faty Ndiaye welcomed the participants and made a brief presentation of the purpose and agenda of the meeting. Each partner institution made a brief presentation of their area of interventions in the HIV/Aids program. This included the technical aspects, geographical coverage, achievements, challenges and perspectives, and how they complement with PEPFAR support.

This was followed by a rich exchange with the Director of PEPFAR programs during which, it was revealed that progress have been made with support from partners. Policy and Guidelines documents, training modules, M&E tools, plan to scale-up PMTCT and early infant diagnosis services have been developped. However, Task shifting approach and District plans to scale-up services are in process.
PMTCT interventions are implemented in all ten regions, but not in all districts and health facilities. Political commitment has been obtained for Blood safety, but the community based approach and the rationale utilization of blood and blood products are still a concern. The integration of PMTCT in Family planning services is supported by many partners, but with a limited geographical coverage. The prevention of HIV among ‘Most At Risk Populations’ (MARPs) is still a major problem, because partner interventions are still limited to inmate’s population in the prevention of TB and HIV co-infection.

Thus, Madam Marie F. Mc LEOD noted that progress have been made, but all these achievements could lead to better results if they are complementary to PEPFAR and Global funds supported programmes. She hopes to receive suggestions on how best the funds provided by the Global Fund and other institutions could be utilised. She reassured partners of the willingness of PEPFAR to complement these efforts towards obtaining the envisaged results.

The partners had an in-depth discussion on diverse topics such as the improvement of the national coordination mechanism towards greater efficiency, the monitoring of the quality of services offered, the distribution of roles and responsibilities within the CCM, and the most effective approach for interaction between the Government and partners for better results.

Since 2010, PEPFAR has been giving substantial support to the Cameroon Government in the fight against HIV/Aids. For the year 2013, up to USD 29 millions (14.5 billions Fcfa) is being provided to support several activities including PMTCT, Blood safety, laboratory capacities strengthening and Prevention among most at risk population (MARPs).

In Cameroon, WHO and PEPFAR are linked since 2012 by a Cooperative agreement covering the period October 2012- September 2013. The areas of intervention include: advocacy and technical support to the Ministry of Public health in the domain of Blood safety and Laboratory capacity strengthening

Madam Marie F Mc LEOD was accompanied by some officials from PEPFAR and CDC Headquarters, the PEPFAR coordinator in Cameroon, and other Directors of American agencies (CDC, USAID, Peace Corps) involved in the implementation of programmes funded by PEPFAR. Also present at the meeting were many financial and technical partners such as the unicef Representative in Cameroon, Mr Geoff Wiffin, UNFPA, UNAIDS, GIZ and some international NGOs.