Population Council Projects | Monitoring HIV Program Coverage in Southeast Asia

PROJECT
Monitoring HIV Program Coverage in Southeast Asia

The goals of this project (formally titled “Technical Assistance to Coverage Plus: Phase II)” are to:

assess the availability and use of a minimum package of HIV/AIDS prevention services for most-at-risk populations; and
examine data collection on the number of clients served in order to improve coverage estimates.

As part of scaling up HIV programming, managers need to monitor programs to ensure that services are being provided as planned and that they are reaching the intended populations targeted. Monitoring geographic coverage of programs is one way to assess whether programs are operating in the sites where most-at-risk populations have been identified. In the context of the minimum package of services, intervention sites can be monitored to assess whether the necessary components of the minimum package are in place. Also important is monitoring whether members of the intended population are being reached by interventions. The percentage of individuals receiving services can be estimated by using program data to determine the number of clients served compared to the size of the target population. Gathering individual data on coverage is particularly important so that program managers can assess whether they are reaching a significant number of the population targeted for interventions. Donors—including The Global Fund, the US Agency for International Development, and The World Bank—are also interested in monitoring coverage as a way to assess program effectiveness in reaching its intended populations.

This study has four phases: (1) a site assessment that identifies projects that target populations most at risk of HIV infection; (2) a project-level survey of program managers; (3) a technical agency reporting assessment; and (4) a client-level survey. These four phases are being undertaken at each of the four sites selected for the study.

The implementation of the study is a collaborative effort between MEASURE Evaluation; the Population Council in Bangkok; the Institute for Population and Social Research (IPSR), Mahidol University, Thailand; and partners in China, Laos, and Myanmar.

Location

Guiju County, Yunnan, China; Vientianne, Laos; Yangon, Myanmar; Bangkok, Thailand

Duration

January–September 2006

Population Council researcher

Philip Guest

Non-Council collaborators

Ruth Bessinger (MEASURE Evaluation)

Aphichat Chamratritirong (Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University, Thailand)

Jason Copeland (Compass Research, Myanmar)

Vanphanom Sycharuen (National University of Laos)

Lichun Tian (Yunnan Reproductive Health Research Association, China)

Donor

Macro International Inc.