Partnerships that anchor our work
HIGHER HEALTH is a venture realised entirely through a complex array of partnerships. Our funding, most of our human resources, and many of the products and services needed to fulfil our mission are contributed by partners who share our vision for the wellbeing of young, bright, ambitious South Africans. Much of our energy and inspiration also derives from these dynamic relationships.
Primary Partnerships
The primary partnerships, upon which the rest depend, are with the institutions comprising the PSET sector: Universities, TVET colleges, and CET colleges and centres. Some of these partnerships were established many years ago, while others have been formed recently.


DHET & NSF
Most critical are our partnerships with the Ministry and Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) and with a range of other funding organisations. HIGHER HEALTH receives substantial funding from the DHET and from the National Skills Fund (NSF), including support for our mobile clinics.
This heightens our sense of accountability to the entire PSET sector and to the taxpaying South African public.

The Global Fund
The Global Fund Adolescent and Young People’s (AYP) Programme to Fight HIV, TB and Malaria has maintained a strong focus on youth around the world and HIGHER HEALTH has had the good fortune to receive several consecutive grants from the fund. There is a strong convergence in our approaches to HIV – with an emphasis on the social and structural drivers of this epidemic – and we have benefited from the Fund’s rigorous approach to monitoring and the training it provides for its implementing partners. HIGHER HEALTH is fortunate to have received a new three-year grant from the Global Fund. This allocation includes both male and female students attending TVET colleges in 14 sub-districts of the country. The grant is channelled through three major NGOs: the Networking AIDS Coalition of South Africa (NACOSA), the AIDS Foundation of South Africa (AFSA), and Beyond Zero.
The objectives of the grant are to:
• Reduce new HIV infections among young people.
• Reduce teenage pregnancy and other unwanted pregnancies.
• Reduce GBV.
• Increase the retention of students in PSET.
• Improve economic opportunities for young people.

European Union
The European Union has funded the development of critical policies, guidelines, protocols and implementation and monitoring tools, including a daily COVID-19 screening digital tool used by more than 1 million students and staff, during the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to support HIGHER HEALTH with key interventions, capacity development and technical guidance for the PSET in core focus areas including mental health, gender-based violence and substance abuse

Department of Health
Among our most valuable implementing partners are the national Department of Health, provincial departments of health, many health districts, and individual health facilities in communities where PSET institutions are located.
Their collaboration and provision of critical health consumables has been fundamental to the expansion of our services to students..

HWSETA
- Civic engagement and Peer Education
- Gender-based violence, Gender Equality, and Sexual and Gender Diversity
- Mental health
- Disability
- Communicable diseases and Sexual & Reproductive Health
- Alcohol and substance abuse

Universities SA
Until September 2017, HEAIDS was managed on behalf of the Department of Higher Education and Training by Universities South Africa (USAf). However, with the inclusion of TVETs, the diversification of funding sources, and the expansion of staff and activities, the establishment of HEAIDS as a standalone non-profit company with a new name, the Higher Education and Training Health, Wellness and Development Centre – HIGHER HEALTH – came into being.
Along with DHET and SAPCO, Universties South Africa (USAf) continues to be a cornerstone for the organisation, providing partnership, oversight, technical guidance, strategic support and close collaborative opportunities, particularly for the university sector.

SAPCO
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SADAG
The South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG) is the operational force behind our helpline and we are grateful to them for three significant years of collaboration. The ongoing guidance of members of our GBV Technical Task Team has been critical to progress made in this area.
Our Trusted Partners
Empowering Post-School Education and Training (PSET) institutions to deliver health and psychosocial programmes takes place in various ways, including offering technical guidance, building capacity among their staff members and student leadership, and providing resources to facilitate programme implementation.
HIGHER HEALTH offers financial and technical support to the 26 public universities to implement a comprehensive health and psychosocial programme based on our model of health promotion In the university sub-sector, institutions generally have greater human resource capacity to provide health and psychosocial services and clinic facilities for the delivery of care. Therefore HIGHER HEALTH supports universities through a monetary grant linked specifically to performance in delivering our programmes
In the TVET College sub-sector, HIGHER HEALTH provides human resources directly to TVET colleges by seconding Campus Health and Wellness Coordinators (CHWCs) from our provincial offices to every college and staffing mobile clinics that service selected TVET colleges on a roster basis. Mobile clinics are staffed by a professional nurse and nursing assistant. The role of the CHWC is to coordinate health and wellness activities on college campuses, to build capacity among staff, peer educators and student volunteers, to maintain relationships with local stakeholders, and to collect data on programme performance.
Support to CET colleges, with their diffuse network of educational centres, approximates the TVET model. The CET sub-sector delivery systems are like those in the TVET sub-sector, in that CHWCs attached to HIGHER HEALTH’s provincial offices are deployed to support a cluster of CET centres and capacity building is offered to staff and students to ensure they are fully involved in organising health days, conducting health promotion campaigns, and mobilising student participation in Co-Curriculum session and health risk screening. The sub-sector has only been included in the HIGHER HEALTH programme for the past three years and the partnership is still evolving.