Mbn hiv/aids evaluation final report Team of consultants

4.4. To what extent did the counterparts (generalist organisations) cope with HIV/AIDS ?

In an ideal scenario, all organisations working in the context of a generalist HIV/AIDS epidemic should adapt their programmes and activities to the HIV/AIDS context in order to reduce the likelihood of unintended negative impacts on susceptibility and vulnerability of their target groups. They should also modify their activities to correspond to the specific needs of people affected by the impact of HIV/AIDS. This refers to the so-called external mainstreaming process. To analyse the relevance, effectiveness and efficiency of CFA’s funding strategies, policies and practices to the fight against HIV/AIDS, efforts on external mainstreaming processes by counterparts have to be taken into account as well.

Following three judgement criteria have been formulated:

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  JC 1: Counterparts meet the needs of the target groups, including PLWHA and households affected by HIV/AIDS and taking into account gender differences.
  
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  JC 2: Counterparts have modified programmes/activities to ensure full participation of PLWHA and/or households-communities affected by HIV/AIDS, also taking into account gender differences.
  
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  JC 3: Adequate awareness raising activities and prevention have been integrated in the overall programme.
  

To assess this evaluation question a difference had been made between high prevalence (Southern Africa) and low prevalence regions (India), hence between a generalised epidemic and a concentrated epidemic. External mainstreaming is relevant, but slightly different for both settings. In low prevalence regions and concentrated epidemics, external mainstreaming is focusing on the integration of prevention activities in the programmes of generalist development organisations, in order to prevent a further escalation of the epidemic. In high prevalence regions and generalised epidemics, external mainstreaming is focussing on the whole prevention to care to impact mitigation activities in the programmes of generalist organisations.

Looking at India, the HIV/AIDS epidemic is classified as being a concentrated epidemic (less than 1 % of the general population is infected), but for the states of India visited for this evaluation, HIV/AIDS is a generalised epidemic (more than 1% of the general population). The organisations included in this evaluation, work in states with a generalised epidemic and are as such comparable to the South Africa context. Where possible, examples of counterparts visited in India have been integrated in the assessment of all three judgment criteria, instead of only on JC 3, as originally planned.
To improve the readability of the text, the order of the three judgement criteria has been changed, describing first the state of affairs of JC 2, followed by JC 1 and JC 3. The evaluators found it important to first give a good overview of the way all generalist counterparts have been modifying their programmes.