BLANTYRE PREVENTION STRATEGY: 
A NEW SUB-NATIONAL HIV PREVENTION SYSTEMS MODEL IN MALAWI

 

The Blantyre Prevention Strategy (BPS) was conceived and co-developed with the Malawian government, local stakeholders at the district and national levels, and global partners. Since 2020, through BPS, an innovative and data-driven HIV prevention model has been fostered in Blantyre District, institutionalizing HIV prevention as a cohesive, effective, and sustainable country-led response with coordinated external support. BPS has supported the district in creating a coherent local management system that is able to deploy HIV prevention services and tools more effectively by:​

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• Detecting risk factors within, and prioritizing and tailoring services to,, individual communities using timely and high-quality data.​

• Generating demand for HIV prevention by collecting community insights and raising local awareness.​

• Effectively delivering quality and accessible prevention products and interventions.​​

• Supporting sustained use of prevention products through periods of risk.

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It is defining and operationalizing key functions necessary for an effective, sustainable, district-led HIV prevention response and has produced rich learnings from Blantyre’s prevention programs that have meaningfully informed national plans. BPS is building a replicable model for district-based HIV prevention and embedding long-term functions for combating HIV for a country-led sustainable response.

 

The capabilities built by BPS are supporting introduction and scale-up of new HIV prevention tools, e.g. injectable pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), and efficiencies within the broader HIV prevention ecosystem. BPS systems investments are underpinning the Malawi Injectable PrEP PathToScale Initiative, which seeks to understand how to deliver injectable PrEP to diverse populations in different delivery settings, and strengthen Malawi’s historic progress in fighting HIV by accelerating its response capacity with current and future prevention products.  In 2023, several BPS program elements were adapted to Lilongwe District to support introduction of injectable PrEP through PathToScale.

 

In addition to breaking down silos within the HIV prevention space, the BPS approach is enabling broader government-led coordination and partnership building and community engagement that is strengthening the whole health sector beyond HIV. Further, BPS is fostering new linkages between partners and within geographies to build multi-sectoral relationships resulting in joint action to address important issues in the community.

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