Background
The National Department of Health of South Africa has introduced various initiatives to respond
to the HIV and AIDS epidemic and has scaled up all efforts on HIV and AIDS prevention, care
and support, including the provision of antiretroviral treatment.
The Operational Plan for Comprehensive HIV and AIDS Care, Management and Treatment
for South Africa (thereafter referred to the Comprehensive Plan) was approved by the South
African Cabinet in November 2003.1 Subsequently, the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework
was developed to monitor implementation of the plan.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Framework outlines the information requirements of input,
process, output, outcome and impact indicators that were developed through a consultation
process with various stakeholders.
Service providers and managers at all levels of the health system need information in order
to plan and manage HIV and AIDS services appropriately and to monitor and/or evaluate the
implementation of national and local plans. A crucial ingredient of Monitoring and Evaluation
is the availability of good quality, timely and complete data.
It is therefore essential that knowledge and skills on monitoring and evaluation be enhanced
amongst staff at various levels of the health care system both in order to monitor patient care
and evaluate the implementation process of the Comprehensive Plan.
This manual provides an overview of HIV and AIDS, the National ART Treatment Guidelines
and the Comprehensive Plan as background and rationale for the training on monitoring and
evaluation. The monitoring and evaluation component is structured around the information
cycle model and includes data collection, data processing, presentation of information and use
of information for action. |
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