Our talent

The department executes its mandate through a team of diverse professionals in Research, M&E, Statistics, Demography, Information Technology, etc.

Our annual achievements

During the year 2016, ACHAP through the department of Research Monitoring and Evaluation realised a number of achievements in line with its mandate of delivering evidence to guide policy, and program planning and implementation decisions.

M&E system strengthening

ACHAP further strengthened its Monitoring and Evaluation system by developing and updating M&E project- specific plans, including data management and reporting systems. ACHAP also added M&E of the TB in the Mines in Southern Africa (TIMS) to its growing portfolio of projects it is supporting.

Development of M&E plans

During the year ACHAP updated project specific M&E plans with indicator protocols that met the requirements for the Global fund and CDC as well as ACHAPs internal requirements. These are expected to enrich the scope and quality of reports generated and shared with both ACHAP Management and funding partners.

Development of data bases

ACHAP managed to develop two databases, one for the CDC VMMC programme build on a DHIS 2 platform and the second one for the Global fund project. The latter is however still to be finalized and deployed.

Development of dashboards

The department also successfully developed project-specific dashboards based on an intensive information prioritization consultative process with ACHAP Management and Sub Recipients.

Development of performance reports

During the period under review, the department managed to develop and submit all the required quarterly and bi annually reports hence meeting the reporting obligations for its 2 major funders, The Global Fund and CDC.

Resource Mobilization

The M & E Department continued to play a critical role by participating in proposal development as a key part of ACHAP’s resource mobilization strategy. It is recognized that ACHAP’s future depends heavily on the organization’s ability to build its portfolio of unrestricted funds.

Research

In 2016, ACHAP conducted a ten (10) country Study on Human Rights and Gender Barriers to Access of TB, TB/HIV and Occupational Health diseases and Compensation services in the mining sector, which pitched ACHAP’s visibility in the SADC region. This study was funded by The World Bank and DFID, it covered 10 countries in the Southern Africa Region. The study was successfully completed in 9 of the 10 countries, while the 10th country (Mozambique) was only partially done due to delays in ethical approval. “The other 9 countries were Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Swaziland, TaThe objectives of the study were to determine:

• Human rights and gender barriers to accessing to TB, TB/HIV and occupational health services, including those that are common across the 10 countries in the SADC region and those that are specific to each of the 10 countries of interest.
• Key civil society actors undertaking initiatives to address human rights and gender barriers to accessing TB/HIV and occupational health services in the mining sector in 10 countries.
• Human rights and gender barriers to accessing compensation services in the mining sector in countries in Southern Africa.
• Health inequities in relation to the 3 diseases (TB, HIV and AIDS, and Silicosis) among study participants.
• Human rights and gender issues that contribute to the spread of TB/HIV within communities around the mines.

The findings from the survey were aimed at providing recommendations to inform the design, development and implementation of relevant and appropriate TB in the mines interventions. ACHAP has been given the opportunity to participate in formulating some of these interventions by being selected as the sub-recipient of the Global Fund to lead the TB in the mines Community Systems Strengthening component in the same ten (10) countries.

Study population

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Evaluations

During the year the department also conducted and/or participated in some evaluations as described below:

• In 2016, provided free technical support to the Ministry of Health to evaluate the counsellor support supervision (CSS) initiative, commissioned by Ministry of Health (MOH)’s Department of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care. ACHAP successfully conducted this mapping of counsellor support supervisors who were trained on the CSS curriculum to ascertain where they are, what they are currently doing and what they have done post training and make recommendations forward. The evaluation report was completed and presented to the Ministry within agreed timelines. It was officially accepted by both Technical Working Group and ultimately the Department of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care of MOH.


• Towards the end of the year, the ACHAP also started a process of conducting a Mapping and size estimation study of key populations; namely female sex workers, Men who have sex with men (MSM), Transgender (TG), and people who inject drugs (PWIDs). The goal of this mapping and size estimation exercise is to establish the geographic location and estimate population size of key populations in Botswana. This information is required to complete the Performance Framework (PF) of Botswana’s TB/HIV grant, for which ACHAP is one of the two principal Recipients (PRSs), the other being Ministry of Health and Wellness. Specifically, the exercise is aimed at providing much-needed baselines for some of the key indicators in the PF. The grant identifies the key populations listed above to be targeted with tailor-made interventions as part of Botswana’s expanded TB and HIV preventive strategy. The mapping and size estimation exercise will also produce a sampling frame for a larger behavioural survey (BBSS) among key populations, expected to be undertaken by FHI 360 and Ministry of Health and Wellness later in the year. The mapping and size estimation will be limited to a total of 12 districts, consisting of ten (10) districts are where The Global Fund is currently working and two districts are where the previous mapping and size estimation exercise was conducted in 2012. Francistown falls under both categories, hence the total is 12 instead of 13. The results of this study will update and expand findings of the last one done in 2012.

Consultancies

Consultancy to review and updating the current NACA Basic M&E Curriculum

At the beginning of 2016, ACHAP finalised a consultancy to review and update the current NACA Basic Monitoring and Evaluation of HIV/AIDS curriculum into a more comprehensive health curriculum that addresses the wider needs of the health sector and not limited only to HIV/AIDS. The curriculum and the companying Facilitator Guides and PowerPoint slides were developed as a joint and collaborative effort of National AIDS Coordination Agency (NACA), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Institute of Development Management (IDM) and African Comprehensive HIV AIDS Partnership (ACHAP).

HRDC consultancy work

In 2016, ACHAP finalised and disseminated a consultancy to develop a 5 year national plan on the Human Resource Development Plan for Health, contracted by the Human Resource Development Council. The project consisted of two parts, first ACHAP had to conduct a situational analysis which involved secondary data analysis and key informant interviews.

The second component of the consultancy was the developed of the 5 year Human Resources Development Plan informed by the Situational Analysis and statistical modelling.

The overall goal of the Health Sector HRD Plan is to ensure that Government’s national priority on “Human Capital Development” is archived during the National Development Plan (NDP) 11. The Plan is therefore, expected to facilitate the Government’s strategies of matching the supply and demand of human resources, improving employment prospects, supporting economic diversification as well as facilitating the country’s transition to a knowledge economy. In the overall, the country is expected to have a globally competitive human resource.

The development of this plan involved profiling of the sector, identifying strategic direction of the sector through the use of the PESTEL analysis, determining the current skills in demand and analysing what impact future changes will have on the demand for skills, analysing the factors influencing the supply of human resources coming into the sector, analysing the main priority areas for human resource development and at the end, developing a response strategy for skills development.

The analysis, therefore, indicated that there is a serious shortage of health professionals in the health sector and as such, there is a need for training. Furthermore, there is a need for specialisation in different health disciplines.

Technical support to MOH

BAIS V and the Botswana Prevalence Survey Support

In 2016 ACHAP participated in the TWG that supported the National AIDS Coordinating Agency (NACA) and the Ministry of Health merge the Botswana AIDS Impact Survey and the Botswana Prevalence survey study design and protocol. The study field work is scheduled for mid-next 2017 and the merged protocol has been developed. It is hoped that the merging of the two surveys will lead to reduced cost and cost sharing.

Publications and conferences

In 2016, the department developed abstracts and presented them at the 21st International AIDS Society (IAS) conference and 6th Botswana International AIDS conference. ACHAP had two of its abstracts accepted and presented at the 21th International AIDS Conference held in Durban South Africa in July 2016. The accepted abstracts were titled “Economic and Epidemiological Impact of a public private Partnership - the case of the African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnership (ACHAP)” and the “Sampling design alternatives in population based survey - for HIV programming”. In addition ACHAP also developed and presented 5 abstracts presented as posters at the 6th Botswana International AIDS conference in August 2016.