Sustaining the HIV Response in the Dominican Republic

In the Dominican Republic, SHOPS Plus has supported NGOs providing HIV services to integrate into the national HIV response. In this video, SHOPS Plus chief of party Nassim Diaz Casado and senior advisor Andrea Bare explain how the project strengthened the efficiency and sustainability of four NGOs by supporting their transition to social enterprise business models and their access to new revenue sources. Mina Halpern, executive director of Clinica de Familia speaks about collaborating with SHOPS Plus to work toward this transition.

In the Dominican Republic, NGOs serve nearly 40 percent of people living with HIV on treatment under the national HIV care program and have historically relied on donor funding to provide these services. As donors prepare to withdraw their financial support for the national HIV response, NGOs have to identify new domestic revenue sources from the public and private sectors. Social enterprise models provide a potential solution, but they require a rethinking of core business and service delivery practices. SHOPS Plus has successfully helped four NGOs in the DR begin to transition to more sustainable social enterprise models and helped identify a path for other NGOs to potentially follow in the country.