Regional Community Treatment Observatory Continues Building Capacity for Community Monitoring

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ITPC Global

This past month, June 2017, ITPC and country partners gathered for three trainings as part of the Regional Community Treatment Observatory in West Africa (RCTO-WA), supported by the Global Fund. The three separate trainings – on governance, finance, and monitoring & evaluation – aimed to further build capacity among the RCTO-WA implementation teams in-country, and provided a forum by which all partners could share lessons learned and best practices.

Strengthening Governance Structures

30 May  – 1 June 2017 | Having carried out initial capacity assessments, the three-day ITPC-led training on governance sought to review and strengthen the capacity of the board members of ITPC West Africa and the sub-recipient organizations to enable them to adequately oversee the roll-out of this project.

By the end of the training, representatives of the sub-recipient organizations and ITPC West Africa board had outlined plans to revise existing structures and operations to adopt good governance practices.

Ensuring Financial Management Capacity

30 May  – 1 June 2017 | Carried out in parallel to the training on governance, ITPC also led a three-day finance training focused on financial management concepts and reporting requirements – critical components to the operation and implementation of programmatic activities.

Building Treatment Knowledge and Monitoring & Evaluation Skills

12 – 16 June 2017 |Following initial baseline data collection and the development of a beta-test version of the regional database, ITPC conducted a technical training with the program focal points from each country. The objectives of the five-day workshop were to:

  • Provide focal points with the latest science on HIV, HIV treatment, and issues along the Continuum of Prevention, Care and Treatment (CoPCT)
  • Enhance country focal points’ project monitoring and evaluation (M&E) skills for effective and efficient project implementation, reporting, and management of the RCTO systems and database
  • Provide country focal point with the M&E knowledge and tools needed to train and manage community data collectors at country level
  • Provide country focal points with understanding about the use of communications tool for research and advocacy.

Following these trainings, the RCTO-WA implementation teams in-country will begin data collection.

“The talking time has come to an end. It’s now time for action. This workshop has helped us clear the path that we take from here” – Martin Ellie, RCTO-WA Focal Point, Sierra Leone

The RCTO-WA will develop 11 national and one regional Community Treatment Observatories. The Observatories will empower networks of people living with HIV to systematically collect and analyze qualitative and quantitative data on barriers to accessing HIV treatment. The goal over the next three years is to increase access to treatment in the 11 West African countries, which are: Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.