APN Plus initiated MATA in 2011 as part of its multi-country proposal under Round 10 of the Global Fund grants implementation. The program assessed HIV treatment related issues like pre-ART care, ART, ART adherence, treatment literacy, high risk behavior, health seeking behavior, etc. and to develop baseline to monitor changes in the key issues in community access to treatment, care and support services.
There were several findings from Phase I of the program that ended in 2013. These included low CD4 at diagnosis; non-accessibility of viral load monitoring in 7 countries which in turn increased the risk of PLHIV morbidity and mortality rates; need to improve access to prevention services like condoms/needles and syringes; as well as, lower than 80% self-reported adherence rate in 4 out of 7 countries.
Based on the findings, several measures were identified as the best ways forward. These were to use data from Community Assessment Tool (CAT)s in refining existing service deliveries, particularly during country’s New Funding Model (NFM) proposal development process; continue expanding database and include stories of the PLHIV community as part of community documentations; continue to facilitate a community platform to interact, share and learn; encourage PLHIV national networks to develop country specific data analysis in partnership with key stakeholders to feed on new strategies towards new UNAIDS 90-90-90; initiate community-led testing in addressing barriers to access HIV test service; and strengthening country’s health system and infrastructure as preparedness to implement full treatment cascade.
The CAT-S Phase II methodology workshop was held in Bangkok from 8-12 August, 2015. It carried forward review of the P.I. study findings. As the new methodology had been finalized, phase II implementation will start with series of trainings to be held in March 2016 in Bangkok, Thailand.
- Training 1: Field data collection micro planning and Training of trainers on data collection, data collection supervision and data entry, Dates: 22 -26 March 2016. It will help develop detailed field data collection and entry plan for each country. The trainers will also be trained on field data collection, supervision and data entry.
- Training 2: Training on Community Documentation, Dates: March 28-29, 2016. This will discuss community documentation approaches, train participants on selected approaches using community documentation guideline, and develop community documentation field implementation plan.
- Training 3: Training in Sub Recipient (SR) Management Manual and Finance Manual, Dates: March 30-31, 2016. This will train participants on the new Finance management manual and financial reporting tools. The updates on the SR Program Implementation Manual will also be discussed.
Please visit http://apnmata.org for more information.
