Provision of Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC) for HIV Prevention in the Republic of South Africa under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) | CDC RFA GH22 2265

Opportunity Information: Apply for CDC RFA GH22 2265

This funding opportunity, titled "Provision of Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC) for HIV Prevention in the Republic of South Africa under PEPFAR," is a CDC cooperative agreement designed to help the South African Government (SAG) accelerate and strengthen voluntary medical male circumcision services as a core HIV prevention intervention. The program is aimed at expanding VMMC in 27 districts with a high HIV burden, especially in locations where male circumcision coverage remains low. The overarching intent is to support rapid progress toward the SAG target of reaching 80 percent VMMC coverage among males ages 15 to 29, a priority age band often emphasized because it can have a meaningful impact on reducing new HIV infections at population level when coverage is high.

On funding, the notice sets an unusual parameter: the Year 1 award ceiling is listed as 0 (meaning no stated maximum per award), while CDC indicates an anticipated approximate total funding amount of $50,000,000 for the first fiscal year, dependent on the availability of funds. CDC expected to make about five awards under this announcement. Because this is structured as a cooperative agreement rather than a standard grant, recipients should expect substantial involvement from CDC in planning, implementation, and performance monitoring, with collaboration and coordination being a central feature rather than an optional add-on.

Eligibility is described as unrestricted, meaning it is broadly open to many entity types as long as applicants meet any additional eligibility clarifications contained in the full announcement. The opportunity is administered by the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), under CFDA number 93.067, within the health funding activity category. The opportunity number is CDC RFA GH22 2265. The notice was created on December 22, 2021, and the original closing date was February 22, 2022, with electronic applications due by 11:59 pm Eastern Time on the deadline date.

Programmatically, the award focuses on both increasing demand for VMMC and ensuring service delivery is safe, high-quality, efficient, and scalable. One major expectation is that recipients implement effective and innovative demand creation approaches that motivate eligible males to seek VMMC services. In practice, this can include tailored community outreach, age-appropriate messaging, involvement of local leaders or influencers, targeted campaigns in districts with low uptake, and approaches that address practical barriers like clinic hours, transportation, or misinformation. The emphasis on innovation signals that CDC is looking for strategies that move beyond routine messaging and can measurably improve uptake among priority groups, particularly men 15-29.

On service delivery, recipients are expected to use evidence-based modalities that can deliver high-volume VMMC while maintaining quality and controlling costs. That typically implies standardized clinical protocols, efficient client flow models, appropriate site staffing patterns, and continuous monitoring of outcomes and adverse events. The notice explicitly highlights the need for high-quality and high-volume services, which reflects the reality that coverage targets require throughput, but not at the expense of safety, client experience, or adherence to clinical standards.

Another central component is integrating VMMC into a broader comprehensive HIV prevention, care, and treatment package. This means VMMC services should not operate in isolation; they should link clients to HIV testing services where appropriate, prevention counseling, condom promotion, STI screening and management when applicable, and referral pathways for treatment services for those who test positive or need additional care. Integration also generally implies aligning data systems, referral systems, and service delivery planning so that VMMC contributes to district-wide HIV goals and is not treated as a separate vertical program.

The opportunity also places strong emphasis on workforce capacity. Recipients are expected to build the skills of all VMMC service delivery personnel through quality training, mentoring, hands-on skill building, and ongoing education. This includes ensuring providers maintain competency in clinical procedures, infection prevention and control, adverse event recognition and management, counseling, client confidentiality, and quality improvement practices. The focus on continuous mentoring and education suggests a push for sustained performance and consistency across sites, not just one-time trainings.

Supply chain and commodity management are also explicitly called out. Recipients must strengthen forecasting, procurement, quality assurance, storage, and distribution of VMMC surgical kits and related commodities. In operational terms, this is about preventing stockouts, ensuring correct kit selection and quantities by site, maintaining proper storage conditions, monitoring expiration dates, and ensuring commodities meet QA standards. Since VMMC scale-up depends heavily on reliable supplies, the grant is signaling that supply chain weaknesses are a critical risk area and a major target for technical strengthening.

Finally, a key strategic expectation is technical assistance to support the transition, integration, and monitoring of direct VMMC services to the South African Department of Health (DoH) and public health facilities. This reflects a sustainability and country-ownership approach: moving more delivery responsibility into government systems over time, strengthening public-sector service capacity, and ensuring that monitoring and quality oversight are institutionalized. Technical assistance in this context commonly involves helping DoH and facility teams adopt standardized guidelines, strengthen supervision and QA systems, improve data quality and reporting, and use performance data for planning and continuous improvement.

Overall, the opportunity is structured to push VMMC coverage upward in the highest-need districts while reinforcing the underlying systems required to sustain gains: demand generation that reaches priority men, efficient and safe service delivery models, integration with broader HIV services, a well-trained workforce, a reliable commodities pipeline, and a deliberate transition pathway that embeds VMMC capacity within the public health system.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control - CGH in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Provision of Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC) for HIV Prevention in the Republic of South Africa 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 Dec 22, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Feb 22, 2022 Electronically submitted applications must be submitted no later than 1159 pm ET on the listed application due date.. (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 5 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

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