localization
Evaluation intermédiaire du projet « Féministes en Action » 2021-2023
Description of the document:
L’évaluation intermédiaire du projet « Féministes en Action » intervient près de trois ans après le début du projet et deux après le démarrage effectif des financements aux organisations féministes. Couvrant la période 2021-2023, elle poursuit plusieurs objectifs :
∇ Un objectif d’apprentissage et de capitalisation, alors que Féministes en Action est le premier consortium financé au titre du FSOF, l’un de ceux cherchant à atteindre directement les OSC féministes les plus fragiles et celui ayant le périmètre thématique le plus large (les autres sont construits en général autour d’une thématique d’intervention). Le consortium constitué, avec la présence d’ONG internationales et de fonds des « Suds » est lui aussi inédit.
∇ Un objectif stratégique et prospectif, avec une réflexion portant à la fois sur les changements visés et l’architecture globale du projet alors que le projet devrait disposer de nouveaux fonds à mettre en oeuvre après 2023. L’évaluation doit notamment permettre d’accompagner une réflexion sur les objectifs du cadre logique du Projet dans l’optique d’une redéfinition afin d’assurer la cohérence avec les objectifs réellement visés par le Projet et les indicateurs prévus difficilement renseignables.
∇ Un objectif de redevabilité, tourné avant tout vers les sociétés civiles féministes que Féministes en Action cherche à renforcer. Il s’agit de s’assurer que l’action menée apporte une valeur ajoutée (« do not harm ») et que les conditions de mise en oeuvre sont cohérentes avec les valeurs féministes promues tout en tenant compte des exigences d’un bailleur de fonds publics.
Read More...
L’évaluation intermédiaire du projet « Féministes en Action » intervient près de trois ans après le début du projet et deux après le démarrage effectif des financements aux organisations féministes. Couvrant la période 2021-2023, elle poursuit plusieurs objectifs :
∇ Un objectif d’apprentissage et de capitalisation, alors que Féministes en Action est le premier consortium financé au titre du FSOF, l’un de ceux cherchant à atteindre directement les OSC féministes les plus fragiles et celui ayant le périmètre thématique le plus large (les autres sont construits en général autour d’une thématique d’intervention). Le consortium constitué, avec la présence d’ONG internationales et de fonds des « Suds » est lui aussi inédit.
∇ Un objectif stratégique et prospectif, avec une réflexion portant à la fois sur les changements visés et l’architecture globale du projet alors que le projet devrait disposer de nouveaux fonds à mettre en oeuvre après 2023. L’évaluation doit notamment permettre d’accompagner une réflexion sur les objectifs du cadre logique du Projet dans l’optique d’une redéfinition afin d’assurer la cohérence avec les objectifs réellement visés par le Projet et les indicateurs prévus difficilement renseignables.
∇ Un objectif de redevabilité, tourné avant tout vers les sociétés civiles féministes que Féministes en Action cherche à renforcer. Il s’agit de s’assurer que l’action menée apporte une valeur ajoutée (« do not harm ») et que les conditions de mise en oeuvre sont cohérentes avec les valeurs féministes promues tout en tenant compte des exigences d’un bailleur de fonds publics.
Read More...
Harmony in Crisis: Unveiling Lessons of the Humanitarian Partnership Platform in Philippine Disaster Management
CARE launched the Philippines Humanitarian Partnership Platform (HPP) in 2016, which serves as an avenue to strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of CARE and its partners’ humanitarian and development plans and work. This initiative focuses on strengthening coordination, decision- making, and collective action. Comprising 14 active member organizations including CARE and with a presence in all regions of the Philippines, the HPP has adeptly assessed and responded to 32 disasters since its inception. In FY 2022, coinciding with the devastation caused by Super Typhoon Rai—the second costliest typhoon in Philippine history after Typhoon Haiyan—the HPP supported 2,201,920 participants, both directly and indirectly. In FY 2023, it supported nearly 400,000 people in crises. Fifty percent of those directly assisted in the last 2 years are women and girls.
IN A NUTSHELL: STRONGER PERFORMANCE
1. Rapid responses with flexible funding: 76% of humanitarian funding in the Philippines goes to local partners, compared to the wider sector's average of around 1.2% in 2022.
2. Gender at the center: 88% of responses mainstreamed GBV protection, surpassing the 67% in CARE’s global project portfolio.
3. Better coordination, broader reach: By coordinating across diverse actors, including corporations and local governments, local organizations can help more people faster.
4. Enhanced Learning and Accountability: All projects (100%) feature Feedback and Accountability Mechanisms, exceeding the 79% in CARE’s global project portfolio. These mechanisms are vital for rapid learning and ensuring accountability to the communities served.
5. All projects met or exceeded reach and impact targets, based on a rapid analysis of available project reports. Read More...
IN A NUTSHELL: STRONGER PERFORMANCE
1. Rapid responses with flexible funding: 76% of humanitarian funding in the Philippines goes to local partners, compared to the wider sector's average of around 1.2% in 2022.
2. Gender at the center: 88% of responses mainstreamed GBV protection, surpassing the 67% in CARE’s global project portfolio.
3. Better coordination, broader reach: By coordinating across diverse actors, including corporations and local governments, local organizations can help more people faster.
4. Enhanced Learning and Accountability: All projects (100%) feature Feedback and Accountability Mechanisms, exceeding the 79% in CARE’s global project portfolio. These mechanisms are vital for rapid learning and ensuring accountability to the communities served.
5. All projects met or exceeded reach and impact targets, based on a rapid analysis of available project reports. Read More...
Best Approaches from the Disaster READY Project Phase II to be Replicated at Scale by Government and/or Other Partners
This report analyzes best practices in Disaster Risk Management (DRM) derived from the second phase of the Disaster READY Project (DRP II), implemented by five agencies under the Australian Humanitarian Partnership (AHP). It identifies approaches that can be effectively scaled by the government and other partners in Timor-Leste, focusing on the inclusion of vulnerable populations. The evaluation investigates the effectiveness, inclusiveness, and localization of various project implementation strategies. Among the highlighted activities, Community Action Planning (CAP), Small Scale Disaster Mitigation Activities (SSDRMA), and Participatory Community Risk Assessment (PCRA) emerge as the most successful, showcasing a significant impact on community resilience and disaster preparedness while emphasizing the importance of local engagement and support for vulnerable groups.
Donor: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Australian Government
Total Page Count: 39
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Donor: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Australian Government
Total Page Count: 39
Read More...
Integrating Local Knowledge in Humanitarian and Development Programming: Perspectives of Global Women Leaders
This report examines local knowledge integration in the context of global development and humanitarian aid work. It builds upon a recently published report by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) called "Integrating Local Knowledge in Development Programming". That report sought to “share knowledge of how development donors and implementing organizations leverage local knowledge to inform programming.”2 This study aims to extend the original methods to better understand grassroots actors’ own interpretations of local knowledge and its integration into programming in their communities. It examines the perspectives of 29 grassroots leaders from women-led organizations around the world, looking deeply at the ways in which they conceptualize local knowledge and local knowledge stakeholders, their approaches to designing their own projects based on local knowledge, and their experiences sharing knowledge with international actors and donors. This builds the broader evidence base on integrating local knowledge to incorporate the perspectives of grassroots actors into the same conversation as the original study.
Key takeaways from this research span two broad categories – how local leaders conceptualize local knowledge and what the effective use of local knowledge in practice looks like to them. Within these categories, interviewees explored the many challenges they face in identifying and sharing knowledge; their various approaches to designing projects based on local knowledge; some of the tensions they often find themselves balancing; unique ways of measuring the contribution of such knowledge to the success of an intervention; and experiences with and strategies for sharing their knowledge with non-local actors.
In terms of how women leaders tend to conceptualize local knowledge, the research reveals three distinct but interconnected definitions of the term: 1) knowing what a community is like; 2) knowing what a community needs and where the solutions lie; and 3) having a profound connection with the community. The first definition indicates knowing a community well enough to understand the dynamics within it. The second goes a bit further to say that local knowledge means knowing both the specific needs present in a community as well as the relevant solutions for addressing them. As one respondent told us, “Contextual expertise is having experience in a certain context and being able to solve problems based on it.” And the third conceptualization indicates having a deeply rooted connection with the community or the grassroots. Some described this as “having your heart” in the community. Key to this third definition appears to be both consistency and the ability to perceive change over time. Interviewees said that local knowledge depends on people having gone through different “contexts, histories, processes, and experiences” together, and having learned from them collectively. Therefore, it is difficult, if not impossible, for international actors to acquire the same level of investment in communities that is quasi-synonymous with local knowledge unless they have lived, worked, and built relationships within them long enough to meet this consistency standard. Instead, this level of knowledge of a community and its context is fairly unique to local actors. Read More...
Key takeaways from this research span two broad categories – how local leaders conceptualize local knowledge and what the effective use of local knowledge in practice looks like to them. Within these categories, interviewees explored the many challenges they face in identifying and sharing knowledge; their various approaches to designing projects based on local knowledge; some of the tensions they often find themselves balancing; unique ways of measuring the contribution of such knowledge to the success of an intervention; and experiences with and strategies for sharing their knowledge with non-local actors.
In terms of how women leaders tend to conceptualize local knowledge, the research reveals three distinct but interconnected definitions of the term: 1) knowing what a community is like; 2) knowing what a community needs and where the solutions lie; and 3) having a profound connection with the community. The first definition indicates knowing a community well enough to understand the dynamics within it. The second goes a bit further to say that local knowledge means knowing both the specific needs present in a community as well as the relevant solutions for addressing them. As one respondent told us, “Contextual expertise is having experience in a certain context and being able to solve problems based on it.” And the third conceptualization indicates having a deeply rooted connection with the community or the grassroots. Some described this as “having your heart” in the community. Key to this third definition appears to be both consistency and the ability to perceive change over time. Interviewees said that local knowledge depends on people having gone through different “contexts, histories, processes, and experiences” together, and having learned from them collectively. Therefore, it is difficult, if not impossible, for international actors to acquire the same level of investment in communities that is quasi-synonymous with local knowledge unless they have lived, worked, and built relationships within them long enough to meet this consistency standard. Instead, this level of knowledge of a community and its context is fairly unique to local actors. Read More...
WOMEN LEAD IN EMERGENCIES Global Learning Evaluation Report
CARE’s Women Lead in Emergencies (Women Lead) model has been developed to operationalise CARE’s commitment to women’s leadership as one of our four focal areas for Gender in Emergencies.1 Women Lead supports women within communities at the frontline of conflict, natural and climate-related hazards, pandemics and other crises to claim their right to a say over the issues that affect them, and to participate in emergency preparedness, response and recovery.
The Women Lead model looks to address fundamental gaps in humanitarian response that result in the exclusion of women from meaningful participation and leadership in the decisions that affect their lives.
Since 2018, CARE has piloted Women Lead in 15 locations in Colombia, Mali, Niger, the Philippines, Tonga and Uganda. In 2020, Women Lead worked directly with 804 women’s groups. Through piloting this approach in diverse locations and within different types of humanitarian crisis, Women Lead has sought to understand challenges, barriers and enablers regarding this kind of programming in different contexts.
Women’s confidence, knowledge and self-efficacy: The evaluation identifies considerable qualitative evidence of increases in confidence, knowledge and capacities. Participants identified the Women Lead model as being relevant to their needs and accessible to them. We can see evidence of women identifying Women Lead as an important enabler of collective action – supporting women to raise their voice, advocate for their needs and engage more effectively with stakeholders. Quantitative surveys support these findings. In Niger, 88% of Women Lead participants feel confident in their knowledge of their rights compared with 58% of non-participants. In Uganda, 58% of Women Lead participants reported ‘confidence in accessing services’ compared with 40% of non-participant women who said the same.
2. Women’s presence and meaningful participation in decision-making: The evaluation finds that Women Lead increases women’s presence, regularity of attendance, and meaningful and effective participation in decision-making community settings. In Niger, 91% of women who participated in Women Lead had attended formal community meetings and almost 60% said they had attended these meetings regularly compared with only 34% of non-Women Lead participants. This had occurred despite men in the community previously challenging women’s presence at these meetings. The Women Lead model appears to normalise women’s presence in decision-making spaces, and we see some evidence of women forming their own decision-making forums and creating opportunities for themselves to make decisions, take action or hold leaders to account. In Uganda, the South Sudanese Refugee Women’s Association has formally registered to become the first recognised women's community-based organisation in Omugo settlement. We also see the incorporation of Women Lead groups in Colombia, where groups have formally registered and started to offer services to other women.
3. Women’s informal and formal leadership: We see strong evidence of women feeling empowered to take up leadership positions within their community, both formally and informally. In Niger, women are significantly more likely to be leaders in their communities than non-participants (31% of Women Lead participants compared with 9% of non-participants). In Uganda, 22% of Women Lead participants hold leadership positions in their communities compared with 14% of non-participants. In Colombia, for which we have pre- and post-comparison data available for this indicator, before Women Lead 21% of members held leadership positions within their community. This had increased to 40% by the time of this evaluation. However, there is scope to enhance this work further and for there to be more consistent promotion of women’s leadership through work around political representation, leadership style and horizontal/inclusive decision-making processes.
September 2022 – Global Evaluation Report vii
4. Women take collective action: The Women Lead approach both helps empower women and serves to address complex barriers to their meaningful participation. Women Lead action plans are a useful tool to mobilise women for collective action to advocate for women’s needs and wants, organise peer support and solidarity activities, and improve their communities by engaging power-holders. Action has also frequently been taken to tackle the preconditions for participation and, in the action plans available for analysis, 42% of actions related to livelihood and income generation. This highlights the importance of women being free to prioritise according to their needs, to ensure they can tackle the preconditions of participation where necessary. We can also see clear qualitative evidence of women taking collective action to make change within their communities. This includes:
• Influencing humanitarian actors and local authorities to address the needs of women and the community: In Uganda, group members successfully advocated for humanitarian response actors to move the food distribution site closer.
• Advocating to address an injustice: In Niger, women had difficulty accessing maternity services owing to high costs. The Women Lead groups advocated to the district medical officer and the head of the hospital – and achieved a considerable reduction in the cost of accessing hospital services.
• Connecting and complementing community actors: In Uganda, Women Lead groups took a lead in addressing community tensions. For instance, when there were tensions around access to land and firewood, women worked with leaders from different communities to put in place agreements on the use of natural resources.
• Direct delivery and problem-solving: We see examples of women working to respond directly to the needs of their peers. In the Read More...
The Women Lead model looks to address fundamental gaps in humanitarian response that result in the exclusion of women from meaningful participation and leadership in the decisions that affect their lives.
Since 2018, CARE has piloted Women Lead in 15 locations in Colombia, Mali, Niger, the Philippines, Tonga and Uganda. In 2020, Women Lead worked directly with 804 women’s groups. Through piloting this approach in diverse locations and within different types of humanitarian crisis, Women Lead has sought to understand challenges, barriers and enablers regarding this kind of programming in different contexts.
Women’s confidence, knowledge and self-efficacy: The evaluation identifies considerable qualitative evidence of increases in confidence, knowledge and capacities. Participants identified the Women Lead model as being relevant to their needs and accessible to them. We can see evidence of women identifying Women Lead as an important enabler of collective action – supporting women to raise their voice, advocate for their needs and engage more effectively with stakeholders. Quantitative surveys support these findings. In Niger, 88% of Women Lead participants feel confident in their knowledge of their rights compared with 58% of non-participants. In Uganda, 58% of Women Lead participants reported ‘confidence in accessing services’ compared with 40% of non-participant women who said the same.
2. Women’s presence and meaningful participation in decision-making: The evaluation finds that Women Lead increases women’s presence, regularity of attendance, and meaningful and effective participation in decision-making community settings. In Niger, 91% of women who participated in Women Lead had attended formal community meetings and almost 60% said they had attended these meetings regularly compared with only 34% of non-Women Lead participants. This had occurred despite men in the community previously challenging women’s presence at these meetings. The Women Lead model appears to normalise women’s presence in decision-making spaces, and we see some evidence of women forming their own decision-making forums and creating opportunities for themselves to make decisions, take action or hold leaders to account. In Uganda, the South Sudanese Refugee Women’s Association has formally registered to become the first recognised women's community-based organisation in Omugo settlement. We also see the incorporation of Women Lead groups in Colombia, where groups have formally registered and started to offer services to other women.
3. Women’s informal and formal leadership: We see strong evidence of women feeling empowered to take up leadership positions within their community, both formally and informally. In Niger, women are significantly more likely to be leaders in their communities than non-participants (31% of Women Lead participants compared with 9% of non-participants). In Uganda, 22% of Women Lead participants hold leadership positions in their communities compared with 14% of non-participants. In Colombia, for which we have pre- and post-comparison data available for this indicator, before Women Lead 21% of members held leadership positions within their community. This had increased to 40% by the time of this evaluation. However, there is scope to enhance this work further and for there to be more consistent promotion of women’s leadership through work around political representation, leadership style and horizontal/inclusive decision-making processes.
September 2022 – Global Evaluation Report vii
4. Women take collective action: The Women Lead approach both helps empower women and serves to address complex barriers to their meaningful participation. Women Lead action plans are a useful tool to mobilise women for collective action to advocate for women’s needs and wants, organise peer support and solidarity activities, and improve their communities by engaging power-holders. Action has also frequently been taken to tackle the preconditions for participation and, in the action plans available for analysis, 42% of actions related to livelihood and income generation. This highlights the importance of women being free to prioritise according to their needs, to ensure they can tackle the preconditions of participation where necessary. We can also see clear qualitative evidence of women taking collective action to make change within their communities. This includes:
• Influencing humanitarian actors and local authorities to address the needs of women and the community: In Uganda, group members successfully advocated for humanitarian response actors to move the food distribution site closer.
• Advocating to address an injustice: In Niger, women had difficulty accessing maternity services owing to high costs. The Women Lead groups advocated to the district medical officer and the head of the hospital – and achieved a considerable reduction in the cost of accessing hospital services.
• Connecting and complementing community actors: In Uganda, Women Lead groups took a lead in addressing community tensions. For instance, when there were tensions around access to land and firewood, women worked with leaders from different communities to put in place agreements on the use of natural resources.
• Direct delivery and problem-solving: We see examples of women working to respond directly to the needs of their peers. In the Read More...
Localization in Practice: Realities from Women’s Rights and Women-Led Organizations in Poland
During the invasion of eastern Ukraine in 2014, violence against women and girls, especially intimate partner violence and sexual violence, increased rapidly. Since February 2022, the situation has deteriorated to alarming new levels. Exacerbated and pervasive violence against Ukrainian women and girls is a consequence of war, with women and girls continuing to be abused, exploited, and raped in Ukraine and while they flee to other countries. An increasing number of survivors are coming forward, buttressed by additional reports from women’s rights activists, service providers, humanitarian organizations, and UN agencies. As conflict in Ukraine pushes millions of women to seek refuge abroad, those leaving remain highly vulnerable to risks like trafficking, or may face sexual exploitation and abuse when seeking access to accommodation, transportation, or financial resources.
Women’s organizations in Poland, particularly those providing services to survivors of violence and working on women’s rights, are reporting more and more requests for assistance from sexual violence survivors inside Ukraine. Polish civil society has demonstrated their commitment and fitness to respond to the growing humanitarian needs, but the international community must step up with financial and technical support to ensure that a sustainable, localized approach can continue. Read More...
Women’s organizations in Poland, particularly those providing services to survivors of violence and working on women’s rights, are reporting more and more requests for assistance from sexual violence survivors inside Ukraine. Polish civil society has demonstrated their commitment and fitness to respond to the growing humanitarian needs, but the international community must step up with financial and technical support to ensure that a sustainable, localized approach can continue. Read More...
Enhancing Social Protection by Empowering CSOs in Bosnia and Herzegovina
This report is the summary of the findings and recommendations by the team of the evaluators (Zlatko Sarić and Mirna Dabić Davidović) within the evaluation of the project “Enhancing Social Protection by Empowering CSOs in Bosnia and Herzegovina. “The main purpose of the evaluation is to capture findings of the process and make recommendations for potential future programmatic engagement in similar actions. The evaluation was carried out in the period October-December 2020.
The project implementation period is from May 2018 until December 2020 and it was carried out in different geographical areas across Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Project was implemented by CARE International in cooperation with 7 partner Civil Society Organisations that work with different marginalized groups. Read More...
The project implementation period is from May 2018 until December 2020 and it was carried out in different geographical areas across Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Project was implemented by CARE International in cooperation with 7 partner Civil Society Organisations that work with different marginalized groups. Read More...
Tropical Cyclone Gita Response Program Evaluation
Tropical Cyclone (TC) Gita, a Category 4 cyclone, struck Tonga in February 2018. CARE, Live and Learn, and MORDI (‘the partnership’) responded to the immediate needs of communities on Tongatapu and ‘Eua islands, delivering emergency shelter and hygiene kits. In the recovery phase the partnership supported communities with shelter, repairs to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) infrastructure, and food security and livelihood recovery efforts, including a specific project focused on the recovery priorities of seven women’s groups on ‘Eua island.
CARE commissioned this evaluation to assess the assistance provided through the response and recovery program in the first six months (February – August 2018). The evaluation focused on four main areas of enquiry: the partnership, the response, gender and inclusion, and localisation.
This report documents the findings from the evaluation and provides forward-looking recommendations for the partnership and for preparedness and future emergency response in Tonga. Read More...
CARE commissioned this evaluation to assess the assistance provided through the response and recovery program in the first six months (February – August 2018). The evaluation focused on four main areas of enquiry: the partnership, the response, gender and inclusion, and localisation.
This report documents the findings from the evaluation and provides forward-looking recommendations for the partnership and for preparedness and future emergency response in Tonga. Read More...
Mid-term Performance Evaluation of the “Continuum of Prevention, Care and Treatment (CoPCT) of HIV/AIDS with Most at-Risk Populations in Cameroon (CHAMP)” Project
The USAID/West Africa, Cameroon field office requested a mid-term performance evaluation in 2017 to determine which approaches are best contributing towards the USAID-funded “Continuum of Prevention, Care and Treatment (CoPCT) of HIV/AIDS with Most at-Risk Populations in Cameroon (CHAMP)” program’s purpose to “improve the Government’s and civil society technical capacity to implement evidence-based prevention, care and treatment services to key populations (KPs) in Cameroon,” and the extent to which this program purpose will likely be achieved at the end of the program in 2019. This Executive Summary presents highlights of the evaluation findings and summarized recommendations, followed by the full report which includes further detail.
Review of findings from this mid-term evaluation show that the USAID and PEPFAR-supported CHAMP program has made significant strides in expanding services to key populations in Cameroon over the life of the project to date, despite significant challenges and violence directed towards KPs. While CHAMP’s predecessor program, the USAID HIV/AIDS Prevention Program (HAPP), focused on the provision of prevention services from 2009-2013, CHAMP has since 2014 expanded services across the full cascade from HIV/AIDS prevention to treatment and retention. While HAPP had a relatively small budget under $1 million a year, CHAMP is an $18.5 million program over 5 years, with concurrent scale-up of key populations reached with prevention, testing, linkage to, and retention in treatment in Yaoundé, Douala, and Bamenda city clusters. The Global Fund and PEPFAR are the major donors for KPs in Cameroon and have worked closely to align and harmonize efforts and monitoring approaches, including a joint PEPFAR/Global Fund KP cascade assessment in 2016 that was organized through the LINKAGES project working through CHAMP.
Particularly notable advancements are the introduction of enhanced peer education and mobilization (EPEM) models for outreach and extensive microplanning used to identify new individuals and new networks beyond traditional peer to peer contacts for intensified case finding, and key populations living with HIV (KPLHIV) receive extensive support from peer navigators, counselors and linkage and retention agents in both community-based drop-in-centers (DICs) and in linked referral health facilities providing ART initiation and tertiary care. The drop-in center “one-stop shop” model now has added community based ART dispensation at the DIC, and there has been systematic engagement, collaborative training
and partnership between CHAMP and the Government of the Republic of Cameroon, other PEPFAR agencies including CDC and DOD, and the Global Fund, to reinforce the provision of improved quality services to KPs and to build capacity and coverage and data within the national program. Prevention efforts led by CHAMP and the Global Fund have contributed to a documented decline in HIV prevalence among female sex workers in Cameroon in recent years. Moreover, CHAMP’s research initiatives have produced high-quality data to document the KP epidemics in Cameroon, allowing for far more accurate measurement and tracking of results of prevention, care and treatment approaches. Read More...
Review of findings from this mid-term evaluation show that the USAID and PEPFAR-supported CHAMP program has made significant strides in expanding services to key populations in Cameroon over the life of the project to date, despite significant challenges and violence directed towards KPs. While CHAMP’s predecessor program, the USAID HIV/AIDS Prevention Program (HAPP), focused on the provision of prevention services from 2009-2013, CHAMP has since 2014 expanded services across the full cascade from HIV/AIDS prevention to treatment and retention. While HAPP had a relatively small budget under $1 million a year, CHAMP is an $18.5 million program over 5 years, with concurrent scale-up of key populations reached with prevention, testing, linkage to, and retention in treatment in Yaoundé, Douala, and Bamenda city clusters. The Global Fund and PEPFAR are the major donors for KPs in Cameroon and have worked closely to align and harmonize efforts and monitoring approaches, including a joint PEPFAR/Global Fund KP cascade assessment in 2016 that was organized through the LINKAGES project working through CHAMP.
Particularly notable advancements are the introduction of enhanced peer education and mobilization (EPEM) models for outreach and extensive microplanning used to identify new individuals and new networks beyond traditional peer to peer contacts for intensified case finding, and key populations living with HIV (KPLHIV) receive extensive support from peer navigators, counselors and linkage and retention agents in both community-based drop-in-centers (DICs) and in linked referral health facilities providing ART initiation and tertiary care. The drop-in center “one-stop shop” model now has added community based ART dispensation at the DIC, and there has been systematic engagement, collaborative training
and partnership between CHAMP and the Government of the Republic of Cameroon, other PEPFAR agencies including CDC and DOD, and the Global Fund, to reinforce the provision of improved quality services to KPs and to build capacity and coverage and data within the national program. Prevention efforts led by CHAMP and the Global Fund have contributed to a documented decline in HIV prevalence among female sex workers in Cameroon in recent years. Moreover, CHAMP’s research initiatives have produced high-quality data to document the KP epidemics in Cameroon, allowing for far more accurate measurement and tracking of results of prevention, care and treatment approaches. Read More...