IeDEA Southern Africa is part of the IeDEA initiative and includes cohorts from Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia.

This IeDEA initiative will establish international regional centers for the collection and harmonization of data and the establishment of an international research consortium to address unique and evolving research questions in HIV/AIDS currently unanswerable by single cohorts. High quality data is being collected by researchers throughout the world. This initiative provides a means to establish and implement methodology to effectively pool the collected data—thus providing a cost effective means of generating large data sets to address the high priority research questions. Combination of data collected under various protocols is frequently very difficult and not as efficient as the collection of pre-determined and standardized data elements. By developing a pro-active mechanism for the collection of key variables, this initiative will enhance the quality cost effectiveness and speed of HIV/AIDS research.