Virtual Training Workshop on HIV strategic information and programme monitoring in key populations, 13-17 May 2024

Background

The global epidemic of HIV has led to unprecedented attention and commitment from governmements and the international community to improve access to HIV prevention and treatment. The need to better document the effectiveness of HIV prevention and treatment programmes and to do this with the most robust methods possible is widely recognized. Strategic information and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems enable a data-driven HIV response targeted towards populations in greatest needs of HIV prevention and treatment.

Learning Objectives

The aim of this course is to provide participants with practical guidance on how to design and carry out surveillance and programme monitoring and evaluation in various population groups, primarily in key populations.

The course starts with introductory presentations that describe concepts such as M&E framework, logic models as well as components of an HIV surveillance and M&E system.  It will further outline key components of HIV surveillance and types of evaluation (process, outcome and impact) and target-setting process for interventions‘ delivery that takes into consideration various types of data sources and evidence.

The course will present various methods and data sources that are used in surveillance and M&E such as routinely collected data on HIV prevention and treatment, cross-sectional studies and more complex studies based on cohort, step-wedged and randomized trial designs. Presentations will also describe various approaches to analysis of cascade of HIV prevention, care and treatment services and its usefulness in understanding programme performance  The term “cascade” refers to the sequence of services needed to achieve desirable impacts and the gradual attrition of coverage of the eligible population at each step of the sequence.

Key topics: 

• Basic principles and concepts of an HIV strategic information and M&E system
• Approaches and methods used to design HIV programme monitoring systems and evaluation studies (routine programmatic data collection, cross-sectional studies, cohort studies, quasi-randomized trials, randomized control trials)
• Monitoring and evaluation of ART programmes, principles of cohort analysis
• Importance of process evaluation
• Indicators used to assess quality and coverage of HIV prevention, care and  treatment
• Population size estimation methods (geographical mapping, multiplier method and capture-recapture)
• Analysis of the HIV prevention, care and treatment cascade
• Using evaluation to identify missed opportunities (services that are lacking, population groups that are not addressed, geographic areas not covered, etc)
• Effective data dissemination techniques

Teaching Methods

The course consists of lectures, exercises and case studies. It is designed to provide participants with practical skills and knowledge in monitoring and evaluation of various components of comprehensive HIV prevention and treatment programmes.

The key part of the course is group/ individual work which consists of the development of a  draft protocol for evaluation of an intervention/ programme that participants will present at the end of the course. Participants can choose the topic of the evaluation protocol that they can later on use in their work.

Target Audience

Professionals working in HIV surveillance and evaluation of HIV prevention and treatment programmes, partiuclarly in key populations.

Teaching Methods

The course consists of lectures, presentation of case studies, exercises and group work.

Duration

The course will be conducted virtually via zoom, from 13-17 May 2024.

Lecturers

Professor George W. Rutherford, MD, Institute for Global Health Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, USA

Professor Ivana Bozicevic, MD, DrPH, WHO Collaborating Centre for HIV Strategic Information, School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Croatia

Zoran Dominkovic, WHO Collaborating Centre for HIV Strategic Information, School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Croatia