Senior Technical Advisor -Systems/Strategic Information (HSS/SI)

The Regional HIV/AIDS Program (RHAP) provides technical expertise and management assistance to USAID bilateral missions in ten southern Africa countries. Countries included in the region are South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Angola, the Kingdom of Swaziland, and Lesotho. RHAP also manages mechanisms which missions can access to support their strategic objectives, and provides management support to the USAID programs in Lesotho and Swaziland. The RHAP team currently comprises 16 staff with technical, management and/or administrative expertise. RHAP adheres to technical approaches, guidelines and policies set by State Department's Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC), which coordinates the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). RHAP works in close collaboration with the Office of HIV and AIDS (OHA) in the USAID/Washington Bureau for Global Health (GH). The region that RHAP serves remains the epicenter of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. According to UNAIDS, in 2013 Swaziland had the highest HIV prevalence in the world at 27.4 percent, followed by Lesotho at 22.9 percent and Botswana at 21.9 percent. Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe have generalized epidemics with adult HIV prevalence of over 10 percent. Angola, an outlier, has a concentrated epidemic with adult prevalence of 2.4 percent. While the rate of new infections is declining in every country, and the number of people living with HIV who are on antiretroviral treatment has increased significantly since 2004, there are still enormous challenges to reaching the goal of an AIDS-free generation. An estimated 12.7 million people in the regional are HIV infected. Children are of particular concern in managing the epidemic, as there are more than 1 million children under the age of 15 infected with HIV, representing 8% of people living with HIV in the region.