Antiretroviral therapy (ART) has tremendous potential to prevent HIV-associated morbidity, mortality and transmission. With reliable ART supply and monitoring, the life expectancy of HIV-positive persons in southern Africa is comparable to that of HIV-negative persons. However, HIV-associated mortality continues to be high among HIV-positive persons not diagnosed and not engaged in care. Of the 35 million persons worldwide who meet WHO (World Health Organization) guidelines for ART, only 15 million are on ART. For already burdened health care systems faced with more than doubling of persons on ART, effective and efficient ART initiation and monitoring strategies are needed. First line ART regimens are once daily oral regimens and well-tolerated, which increases the simplicity of ART delivery in general, including community-based ART delivery a feasible alternative to clinic-based delivery. A priority for optimization of ART delivery is to directly compare and evaluate the impact and cost of community-based ART initiation and resupply to clinic delivery of ART in high prevalence settings in Africa, in order to expand capacity to provide ART coverage.