Mbn hiv/aids evaluation final report Team of consultants

4.3. What has been the counterparts’ contribution (AIDS-focussed organisations) to the fight against HIV/AIDS ?

In the period between 2001 and 2004, the CFAs have included an increasing amount of AIDS-focussed organisations and HIV/AIDS related programmes (executed by generalist organisations) in their portfolio of counterparts. Some of the existing counterparts have started to include AIDS work in their programme by hiring specialised staff, by developing new programme activities besides the core programme, or by establishing an AIDS unit within the organisation (ex. SACBC that has installed a specific AIDS desk to manage HIV/AIDS programmes). These AIDS-focussed organisations and organisations that integrate AIDS work are the subject of this evaluation question. Organisations who have mainstreamed HIV/AIDS through their core business (so-called generalist organisations) are the subject of evaluation question 4. The activities of these organisations constitute in particular, the delivery of HIV/AIDS services linked to prevention activities and activities related to treatment, care or support to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS. Many counterparts support new (or existing) community-based initiatives of citizens who take up responsibility to take care of people who are ill or people affected by the impact of HIV/AIDS. Counterparts also develop lobby activities at a community, regional and national level as a response to the violation of human rights in a HIV/AIDS context.

To analyse the relevance, effectiveness and efficiency of CFA’s funding strategies, policies and practices to the fight against HIV/AIDS, the performance of counterparts and results at target group level will be assessed. In order to find evidence of the counterpart’s ability to implement relevant, efficient and effective AIDS programmes, 31 cases¹⁴ have been analysed (7 in phase 1, by ETC Crystal and 24 in phase 2, by ACE Europe) of which the team categorised 17 organisations as being AIDS-specific and 14 organisations as generalists.
The following judgement criteria have been formulated to assess the contribution of the counterparts to the fight against HIV/AIDS:

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  JC1: The counterpart offers a comprehensive package of HIV/AIDS services geared to the needs of the defined target groups (focus on the CFA strategy on direct poverty alleviation)
  
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  JC2: An AIDS-competent society has emerged (focus on the CFA strategy on civil society building)
  
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  JC3: Counterparts have put HIV/AIDS on the policy agenda of local, regional or national governments (focus on the CFA strategy on advocacy and lobbying)
  

No specific differences have been found between high prevalence regions and low prevalence regions. This is probably because the regions visited in India are high prevalence states and the Indian counterparts are involved in the same kind of activities as are the Southern African counterparts.
To assess evaluation questions three and four, the evaluators don’t differentiate between the CFA’s, because the sample per CFA is too small to generalise and counterparts are too diverse. The evaluation framework wasn’t aimed at making evidence-based comparisons between the counterparts/programmes of the five CFA’s. Conclusions on this evaluation question three will be drawn based on the total sample of 17 AIDS focussed organisations.