Monitoring and Evaluation of the Operational Plan for Comprehensive HIV and AIDS Care, Management and Treatment for South Africa - TRAINING MANUAL FOR PARTICIPANTS

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.