Reflections

Collecting PEPFAR Level 2 Monitoring, Evaluation, and Reporting (MER) Indicators: A Supplement to the Orphans and Vulnerable Children Survey Tool Kit

This document was prepared by MEASURE Evaluation at the request of the PEPFAR OVC Technical Working Group and reflects a legislative mandate to monitor and evaluate programs funded by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

As part of its new monitoring, evaluation, and reporting (MER) guidance,  launched a set of outcome indicators for PEPFAR OVC programs. These outcome indicators reflect internationally-accepted developmental milestones and collectively measure holistic wellbeing for children and their families over time. Indicators track the ways OVC programs gain from and contribute to the broader HIV and child protection response. These outcome indicators are designated as “level 2”, meaning that PEPFAR requires countries to collect Level 2 indicators biennially. These indicators are held in country to be used to inform program planning and…

Findings from the Case Study to Measure M&E Systems Strengthening in Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria

A case study to document monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems strengthening in Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria sought to (1) document the M&E system strengthening interventions and investment from 2007 to 2012 and (2) identify M&E system strengthening progress and the need for future interventions.

Analysis of the qualitative findings focused on providing understanding in four key areas: (1) national commitment to HIV M&E system strengthening, (2) performance of the HIV M&E system, (3) national capacity to strengthen the HIV M&E system, and (4) integration of HIV M&E systems with national health information systems. A summary of conclusions is provided.

Access the brief.

Strategies for More Effective Monitoring and Evaluation Systems in HIV Programmatic Scale-Up in Resource-Limited Settings: Implications for Health Systems Strengthening

Program monitoring and evaluation (M&E) has the potential to be a cornerstone of health systems strengthening and of evidence-informed implementation and scale-up of HIV-related services in resource-limited settings. The authors discuss common challenges to M&E systems used in the rapid scale-up of HIV services as well as innovations that may have relevance to systems used to monitor, evaluate, and inform health systems strengthening.

The article appears in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

HIV Scale-up and the Politics of Global Health
Kenworthy, Nora J. and Richard Parker, editors. New York: Routledge, 2015.

Within the past decade, the race to treat and prevent HIV resulted in a global scale-up of programs and policies which served as the launching point for further global health initiatives. This text examines the political dimensions and legacies of the expansion of HIV and health programming throughout the globe.

Nigerians have an understandable—if somewhat childish and sometimes nasty—habit of singling out a trait in one of their rulers and examining critical arguments from the perspective of that trait every time. Take the Jonathan administration, for example: when critics raised an issue, Jonathan apologists would direct the argument to “But he is a nice (or good, meek, humble) person” or worse: “You are saying this because he is from an ethnic minority”. Or in Lagos, when Fashola’s spending was criticised: “But he is working, compared to others.”

This social behaviour is generally amusing, but it becomes dangerous when it starts to repress the space for critical thought.

And now, with the budding sycophancy of the Buhari regime, this attitude continues. Buhari apologists tend to review every criticism of current Nigerian politics and government from the perspective of: “But he is fighting corruption”.

Hey, Buhari is disregarding the rule of law. “But…