CORE 1 is a Five-Year Cooperative Agreement with performance period from June 9, 2021 to September 30, 2026. The Award aligns with Malawi’s HIV and AIDS program focus on interventions that are expected to have the greatest impact on achieving and sustaining epidemic control and are supported by a strong evidence base. The Program’s primary goal is to reduce HIV incidence, and HIV-related morbidity and mortality. PIH is implementing CORE 1 in collaboration with a local community and faith-based partner, Lilongwe Catholic Health Commission (LCHC) and an international partner, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). LCHC is working in four (4) districts supporting community HIV activities while UCLA supports Implementation Science with particular focus on innovations that inform Program performance. 

The Program is being implemented in nine (9) districts, namely: Mulanje, Chikwawa and Nsanje in the southern region; Lilongwe, Dowa, Kasungu and Nkhotakota in the central region and Karonga and Chitipa in the northern region. CORE 1 Program has a workforce of close to 1,000 employees, 90% of whom are Health Care Workers (HCWs) providing Direct Service Delivery in the 123 facilities across the 9 supported districts. PIH deployed diverse staff support provision of direct service delivery through HIV testing services, participating in antiretroviral therapy (ART) provision, Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) provision, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) screening and treatment, Cervical cancer screening and treatment, Psychosocial Counseling as well as provision of several HIV Differentiated Service Delivery models.

Beyond the facilities, PIH also supports the national program in the development and review of HIV policies, guidelines and training curricula. PIH’s CORE 1 clinical team also supports management of HIV drug resistance through a network of Clinical partners. In addition to the services described above Partners in Hope Moyo Centre of Excellence provides advanced Cervical Cancer screening methods and treatment, Hepatitis B screening and management, Integrated HIV and Non-communicable Diseases screening, treatment and monitoring, Integrated HIV and Older People living with HIV (OPLHIV) services, and, Drug Resistant TB screening and management, among others.

As of March 2026, PIH supported Program had over 207,000 People Living with HIV (PLHIV) alive on the lifesaving antiretroviral therapy 9ART) which is about 23% of the Malawi National Cohort. 

To see Client Oriented Response for HIV Epidemic Control (CORE 1) implementing districts and sites click link here