The end of year and final bi-monthly meeting of the Health Chiefs of Party with the USAID health team took place at the U.S. Embassy on December 6, 2017.  Thirty-one persons were in attendance.

The meetings theme was the Missions expanding health agenda with a focus on the enhancement of collaboration and coordination between partners and with USAID. It also served as an end of year celebration of our joint successes. Presentations were made by the health team on the activities they manage on Family Planning, Malaria, Neglected Tropical Diseases, Global Health Security, and Supply Chain.   The highlights from the APR 17 and COP16 were presented and recognition was given to the great achievements in the last quarter of the USAID HIV/AIDS partners. Achievements included increased testing yield in the Orphan and Vulnerable Children program, implemented by USAID' REVE project , from 0.5% in Quarter 1 to 47% yield in Quarter 4 and increased testing  yield among Key Populations, implemented by Linkages,  from 1.9% in quarter 1 for female sex workers to 22% in Quarter 4 and from 1.6% in Quarter 1 for MSMs to 23.2% yield in Quarter 4.

As previous meetings focused on the missions HIV/AIDS activities and successful work of the implementing partners, this end of the year agenda focused on introducing the new activities and in particular the Emerging Pandemic Threats 2 Program (EPT-2) partners and their work and lessons on engaging with each other and multiple  ministries.

As  everyone remarkerd, there is a lo of potential for engaging effectively with each other, especially in the cross cutting areas of monitoring and evaluation, health systems strengthening and social behavior change and communication.   Based on the information from the presentations, the meeting concluded with a series of recommendations that built on the recommendations of the October HIV/AIDS joint Chiefs of Party meeting which focused on strengthening partnerships and work between the HIV/AIDS partners.   The recommendations for follow up included:

• EPT-2 partners sharing their lessons learned on engaging with multiple ministries and overcoming barriers in creating effective collaboration

• Need for USAID to develop guidelines/tools and timing  on  the development of joint work plans

• Developing with IPs ideas for formal/ non-formal technical working groups among implementing partners based on thematic interests/expertise (i.e. cross-cutting interventions and establishing a coordination platform like the one that exists for One Health which is led by FAO).

• Given the small USAID staff, IP’s should be proactive in recommending which meetings with government are important to have their presence.