A key strategy for maximizing financial resources and strengthening human resource capacity within and across countries is south-to-south technical assistance, defined as an exchange of expertise and resources between two or more developing countries on a bilateral, regional, subregional, or interregional basis. This framework and toolkit serve to guide PEPFAR country teams to facilitate the planning and implementation of south-to-south technical assistance to advance PEPFAR’s Human Rights and Partnership agendas through a cost-effective approach that builds capacity of local organizations in the PEPFAR gender strategic areas to improve HIV outcomes and strengthen efforts to control the HIV epidemic.

This document is comprised of two parts:

• Part 1: Framework outlines a dynamic, step-wise process for facilitating S2S technical assistance in the PEPFAR gender strategic areas that builds on existing strengths and new knowledge to contribute to a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship between south-based organizations. The ultimate goal of this technical assistance is to improve HIV outcomes by addressing harmful gender norms and inequalities that hinder full realization of HIV prevention, care, and treatment. This Part is organized into four steps, that provide guidance throughout the S2S technical assistance process.
• Part 2: Tools provides the 15 tools that are referenced in Part 1.

This framework and toolkit were piloted in 2012-2013 in Botswana, and an assessment of the pilot is available at this link.