The path from a volunteer initiative to an established institution: evaluating 15 years of the development and contribution of the Lighthouse trust to the Malawian HIV response

Background The HIV epidemic has triggered the development of new health institutions with a special focus on HIV care. The role of these relatively new institutions within the health systems of low-income countries like Malawi is not clearly determined. We evaluate and describe the development of one example, the Lighthouse Trust (Lighthouse), over a period of 15 years (2000–2015).