Outline of the Project
Project Name
The Project for Strengthening HIV/AIDS Laboratory Network Services
Country
Zambia
Project Site
Lusaka
Project Duration
June 2007 - May 2010 (three years)
Project Counterpart
Zambia's Ministry of Health
Project Background
The Zambia HIV/AIDS Laboratory Quality Assurance System is a system for monitoring the quality of laboratory testing conducted by hospital laboratories at the provincial, district and health centers facilities in each province. The University Teaching Hospital (UTH) serves as the top referral laboratory for HIV/AIDS laboratories. UTH also serves as a key referral base, while tertiary hospitals (Kitwe Central Hospital and Arthur Davidson Hospital in Copperbelt Province) and provincial hospitals in the nation's eight provinces serve as the quality assurance bases for these activities.
This project supports the establishment of an HIV/AIDS Laboratory Quality Assurance System for the UTH Laboratory and laboratories at various tertiary level hospitals and provincial hospitals, in accordance with the "Operational Plan for the National Laboratory"1 enacted by Zambia's Ministry of Health. The ministry's Laboratory Quality Assurance Unit is the counterpart for this project, which positions the UTH Laboratory and laboratories at tertiary level hospitals and provincial hospital's in the nation's eight provinces as the main laboratories to be targeted by the project (UTH is in charge of Lusaka Province) in order to ensure the reliability and reproducibility of laboratory results. Support for the quality assurance at lower level laboratories is provided by CDC, USAID and other organizations.
*1 This plan was jointly produced by JICA and other related parties in May of 2006 and it has been subdivided into the general areas of Human Resources and Training, Quality and Data Management, Instrument & Infrastructure and Program Management. JICA has been providing support along with America's Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in the area of supporting data quality control.
Project Purpose
Project Purpose :National laboratory QA system for HIV/AIDS is established accordingly based on 'OPERATIONAL PLAN FOR THE NATIONAL LABORATORY'
Project Goal
Quality of the laboratory testing is improved nationwide
Project Activities
| 1-1 | Hold a workshop to create Standard Operating Procedure |
| 1-2 | Develop National QA Guideline |
| 1-3 | Monitor the application of SOP and National QA Guideline |
| 2-1 | Develop Provincial Action Plan for improving QA |
| 2-2 | Develop checklist & tools to evaluate QA implementation |
| 2-3 | Produce curriculum and materials for training on QA procedures |
| 2-4 | Conduct trainings on QA procedures to provincial laboratory technicians |
| 2-5 | Hold workshop to disseminate QA procedures to provincial health planners |
| 2-6 | Monitor and supervise QA activities in each province |
| 2-7 | Monitor equipment maintenance at national reference laboratory |
| 3-1 | Enroll and participate in EQA programme |
| 3-2 | Monitor and supervise QA activities in each province |
| 4-1 | Facilitate regular meetings among National QA Sub-committee members |
| 4-2 | Conduct monitoring for implementation of national operational plan among stakeholders |
Outputs
- Manuals and guidelines are developed and monitored in order to standardize testing procedures
- Internal laboratory quality assurance systems are established and strengthened
- External QA systems are strengthened at national and provincial level
- The stakeholders at national level are well coordinated for smoothful implementation of 'OPERATIONAL PLAN FOR THE NATIONAL LABORATORY'
Input Summary by Japanese Side
Approximately 150 million yen
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