Monitoring & Evaluation

This evaluation was commissioned by the Community, Rights and Gender Department of the Global Fund to assess the impact, achievements, and value of investments of the Community Engagement Strategic Initiative 2021-2023 at mid-term. Guided by key performance indicators, recommendations from the final evaluation for the SI from the previous cycle, and triangulating these with in-depth interviews and FGDs with the Coordination Mechanism, the CE team, and grantees from each Component, we found that the CE SI has achieved VfM, with astute increases in investment in TB KVP networks resulting in adoption of essential policy changes and improvement of program design in Eastern Europe and Central Asia and advocacy planning in Africa, and robust community engagement during the pandemic during C19RM calls, as well as equipping communities with situational analyses that allowed better engagements with Global Fund processes.

In summary, the evaluation found that the SI achieved:

• 17 countries with at least one formalized, community-endorsed advocacy agenda for use in influencing decision-making bodies.
• 100,167 individuals from KVP communities and/or civil society organizations accessing timely and relevant Global Fund-related information that is shared by the Regional Platforms
• 22 countries with an increased number of key and vulnerable population constituencies participating with Global Fund-related decision-making bodies and processes, including on CCMs
• 71 countries where communities report or demonstrate their ability to more efficiently and effectively engage in national and regional Global Fund-related processes as a result of Regional Platform capacity strengthening and coordination support

Report undergoing validation.

Drawing upon desk review and analysis of statistical data from 14 countries in the EECA region and triangulated by grantee and key informant interviews, Matahari Global worked with AFI Moldova, to conduct a final evaluation of the Sustainability of Services HIV multi-country grant covering 14 countries in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region, funded by The Global Fund from 2019-2021. The project was led by the Alliance for Public Health, in a consortium with the 100% Life (All-Ukrainian Network of PLWH), the Central Asian Association of PLWH, and the Eurasian Key Populations Health Network with the aid from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.

The evaluation found, inter alia, that project activities resulted in:

• Reduced ART prices across 6 countries (Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, North Macedonia, the Russian Federation, and Uzbekistan).
• A cumulative increase in domestic funding for HIV prevention and care of USD$36 million.
• Valuable operational research including on self-testing among men who have sex with men and people who use drugs in Georgia, and on pricing and procurement mechanisms of HIV tests in Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.
• Increased the registration of PLHIV, reduced the testing gap, and increased percentages of PLHIV on ART.
• Programs adapted through COVID-19, with HIV self-testing being provided at mobile COVID-19 vaccination sites (Moldova) as well as increased mobile provision of HIV services across the region.
• An increased evidence base through operational research projects on the acceptability of self-testing among key populations, acceptability of PrEP, and on socio-demographic and behavioural data of trans people.