PEPFAR's annual planning process is done either at the country (COP) or regional level (ROP).
PEPFAR's programs are implemented through implementing partners who apply for funding based on PEPFAR's published Requests for Applications.
Since 2010, PEPFAR COPs have grouped implementing partners according to an organizational type. We have retroactively applied these classifications to earlier years in the database as well.
Also called "Strategic Areas", these are general areas of HIV programming. Each program area has several corresponding budget codes.
Specific areas of HIV programming. Budget Codes are the lowest level of spending data available.
Expenditure Program Areas track general areas of PEPFAR expenditure.
Expenditure Sub-Program Areas track more specific PEPFAR expenditures.
Object classes provide highly specific ways that implementing partners are spending PEPFAR funds on programming.
Cross-cutting attributions are areas of PEPFAR programming that contribute across several program areas. They contain limited indicative information related to aspects such as human resources, health infrastructure, or key populations programming. However, they represent only a small proportion of the total funds that PEPFAR allocates through the COP process. Additionally, they have changed significantly over the years. As such, analysis and interpretation of these data should be approached carefully. Learn more
Beneficiary Expenditure data identify how PEPFAR programming is targeted at reaching different populations.
Sub-Beneficiary Expenditure data highlight more specific populations targeted for HIV prevention and treatment interventions.
PEPFAR sets targets using the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Reporting (MER) System - documentation for which can be found on PEPFAR's website at https://www.pepfar.gov/reports/guidance/. As with most data on this website, the targets here have been extracted from the COP documents. Targets are for the fiscal year following each COP year, such that selecting 2016 will access targets for FY2017. This feature is currently experimental and should be used for exploratory purposes only at present.
Years of mechanism: 2010 2011 2012
The Enhancing Strategic Information (ESI) Project will provide a broad program of technical assistance (TA) and other targeted project support to improve the quality, availability and use of Strategic Information (SI) in Swaziland. The SI activity will contribute to strengthening programs, improving accountability and reporting, and sharing information among national stakeholders, including PEPFAR program partners.
The ESI project was awarded at the regional level in mid-2008, but was not established in country until March 2009. The ESI project, managed by John Snow Inc. as prime along with its partners Khulisa Management Services, Health Information Systems Program (HISP) and Tulane University School of Health and Tropical Medicine, aims to strengthen M&E capacity of the SI department in the MOH in the area of M&E planning, data management, data quality, data usage, and basic evaluation techniques through close collaboration and sustained technical support.
The specific goals and objectives of this activity are:
1. Strengthening M&E Capacity
ESI will continue to strengthen the capacity and infrastructure to supply M&E information at national, regional, NGO and health facility levels through short-term training workshops. The implementation of short-term trainings both in terms of participants and topical areas will be guided by the health-sector M&E capacity building needs assessment that was undertaken by MEASURE Evaluation at the request of the SNAP M&E Unit. The training workshops will focus on building capacity in M&E at the regional level and will involve three major areas of support: 1) strengthening current M&E systems; 2) data management systems and 3) data analysis and use. TA under the three SI technical areas will focus on facilitating participants' application of newly acquired M&E skills on the job. ESI proposes to achieve this goal through the development of innovative trainee follow-up mechanisms and the provision of individual mentoring and skills transfer in the workplace.
2. Strengthening Data Quality
Considerable effort will be applied to ensure the current data sets and database in the MOH SI unit meet mutually agreed quality criteria with aim of making these data widely analysed, consulted and quoted in planning, program steering and decision making. See specific strategies under the HVSI budget code.
3. Strengthening the capacity and infrastructure to use information for program improvement
The capacity to 'use' M&E information requires both a clarity of expectations in relation to where and how M&E information is intended to be used within the MOH (e.g. planning, policy or program development; decision-making; budgeting), as well as the capacity within MOH units to actually incorporate and use the M&E information as part of the normal process of business. ESI hopes to achieve this by entrenching a culture of self-evaluation and a commitment to program improvement in all three SI technical areas, largely through targeted training linked to sustained TA.
4. Strengthening Decision Support at PEPFAR Offices
In FY09, ESI provided support to the PEPFAR SI unit in strengthening decision support through the installation of the Project Monitoring System (PMS). In FY10, support from ESI in South Africa will continue to be provided in updating the PMS to accommodate the PEPFAR second generation indicator set as well as supporting the rollout of the PMS to PEPFAR implementing partners. At the request of the RHAP in Pretoria, ESI provided support in installing an accounting database for PEPFAR offices in Swaziland. Support for this software will continue to be provided in FY10 as more updates and customization requests arise to meet the specific needs of the Swaziland PEPFAR office. ESI Swaziland will provide overall monitoring of the quality of TA offered to the PEPFAR offices in Swaziland.
5. Assist national M&E bodies in the rational planning and implementation of data collection activities
In FY09, ESI provided support to NERCHA and other stakeholder bodies in the revision of the national M&E framework and its harmonization with the NSF result framework. ESI will continue to provide assistance as needed to ensure the foundations of national M&E coordination (the third of the three ones) are sustained, and that national survey and surveillance activities are driven by genuine data needs and not donor funding.
6. Sharing of emerging M&E practices
While the focus of the ESI project is on M&E workplace training and mentoring, occasionally capacity building objectives require use of regionalized training, study tours, and conferences/workshops which allow sharing of promising approaches to enhanced M&E from other countries. These selected opportunities are developed in consultation with the PEPFAR Swaziland SI Lead.
The ESI program links to the Partnership Framework by addressing the key intervention area of development of human and institutional capacity to manage strategic information for program improvement. The program provides human resource training and technical assistance to the MOH and other HIV/AIDS program implementers on M&E, data quality, data demand and data utilization. The program will not introduce new SI structures, infrastructures and systems, but intends to strengthen existing ones in a consultative manner in order to create local ownership, support and sustainability.
The program will build sustainable systems at nation level and in the four regions of the country. It is targeted to all HIV/AIDS program implementing partners in the country.
The ESI project adopts a simplified rating mechanism to assess the performance of the project and to provide an overall picture of performance. ESI's performance rating mechanism is yet to be negotiated with MOH to ensure a clear understanding of expectations around performance. Currently, the project proposes a three-part rating mechanism of results that have been achieved, those that are in progress and those not achieved. Overall performance measurement will constitute systematic analysis of performance against goals taking account of reasons behind under/over performance and influencing factors to ensure the project is kept on track.
Several M&E tools are proposed for this activity. They are theMonthly technical report, Annual Performance Report and Quarterly Performance Dashboards for reporting and analysis, Field Visits, Program Review Meetings and Joint Stakeholder Review for validation purposes.
ESI will build the capacity of the MOH and other national and sub-national implementing partners, principally through: targeted trainings, outsourcing of selected M&E functions (to address crucial short-term system needs) and sustained TA at an SI implementation level.
Recognizing the strong foundation that the first-generation M&E training workshops established, ESI plans to implement a second generation training workshop series called "M&E Training: Moving from concepts to practice". This phased series of hands-on workshops (M&E Systems Development, Data Quality and Data Demand & Use) will be conducted at national and regional levels.
With the decentralization of an HIV/AIDS/TB comprehensive care package, planning and M&E will be focused on regional health sector and multi-sectoral HIV/AIDS/TB management units. The credibility of the planning and assessment process depends heavily on the quality of the data support to decision-making and ultimately to program performance. The ESI approach includes but is not limited to:
Reviewing and strengthening the quality assurance standards and procedures regarding data management and use.
Developing, piloting, and instituting data quality standards and procedures at national and regional SI units in the MOH for use in project consultations and routine M&E of HIV/AIDS programs and decision making.
3. Strengthening the human resource capacity and infrastructure to use Strategic Information
TA for strengthening information use will involve several strategies including the development of formal policies or requirements on how performance monitoring & evaluation information gets 'used' by units within MOH, establishing institutional 'incentives' for using M&E information in decision-making and strengthening formal and informal vehicles/mechanisms/forums for reporting and otherwise sharing information products. To further build analytic capacity in the interim, ESI will work with MOH SI unit to leverage analytic expertise from targeted (regional and national) institutions that have established analytic expertise including research bodies, consulting firms and universities. To address longer-term needs in FY10, one professional will be supported by ESI to attend a Master's level course in public health-related M&E, with a focus on biostatistics or epidemiology.
In FY10, ESI will provide support to the PEPFAR SI unit in strengthening decision support through the installation of the Project Monitoring System (PMS). In FY10, support from ESI in South Africa will continue to be provided in updating the PMS to accommodate the PEPFAR second generation indicator set as well as supporting the rollout of the PMS to PEPFAR implementing partners. At the request of the RHAP in Pretoria, ESI provided support in installing an accounting database for PEPFAR offices in Swaziland. Support for this software will continue to be provided in FY10 as more updates and customization requests arise to meet the specific needs of the Swaziland PEPFAR office. ESI Swaziland will provide overall monitoring of the quality of TA offered to the PEPFAR offices in Swaziland.
While the focus of the ESI project is on M&E workplace training and mentoring, occasionally capacity building objectives require use of regionalized training, study tours, and conferences/workshops which allow sharing of promising M&E approaches developed in other settings. These selected opportunities will be developed in consultation with the PEPFAR Swaziland SI Lead.
