Detailed Mechanism Funding and Narrative

Years of mechanism: 2010 2011 2012

Details for Mechanism ID: 10545
Country/Region: Ethiopia
Year: 2010
Main Partner: International Rescue Committee
Main Partner Program: NA
Organizational Type: NGO
Funding Agency: USAID
Total Funding: $120,000

As is clearly reflected in the Federal Ministry of Health's (MOH) new HIV plan, Accelerated Access To HIV/AIDS Prevention, Care And Treatment In Ethiopia: Road Map 2007-2008, the national response to HIV/AIDS is being intensified with the following thematic areas serving as guiding lights: speed, volume and quality. Currently, a number of major donor agencies support HIV/AIDS programs through many domestic and international implementing partners. Coordination among all these stakeholders is critical for the success of the national program. This can occur at different phases of a program including design and implementation. Joint planning will ensure effective allocation and utilization of resources thereby maximizing the overall impact of the national response.

Geographical representation and spatial analysis of program-related geographical data is a multipurpose tool in HIV/AIDS programming. This activity supports a geographical information systems and geospatial data analysis by: 1) Supporting PEPFAR to present mapping products; 2) Conducting spatial analyses of existing PEPFAR activities and socio-economic, epidemiological, physical and infrastructural variables related to HIV/AIDS; 3) Maintaining maps of updated USG activities to determine programming synergies across technical portfolios; and 4) Responding to requests from US Mission for specialized geospatial analyses to ensure PEPFAR programming efficiencies.

This activity will assist in stakeholder outreach, standardization of program implementation, and performance tracking of facility and community services. It will also be critical in the analysis of program expansion, looking at important factors such as equity, disease epidemiology, and coverage of services.

When used together with other surveillance, survey, and program data, geographic information systems (GIS) data will result in a more comprehensive understanding of the epidemic and the status of interventions towards it. It provides information to questions such as the areas where HIV is more prevalent, whether the number of ART sites in a particular area is commensurate with the HIV prevalence for that area, and which partners are working where.

This activity will also organize training workshops on basic GIS topics for staff at the US Mission, relevant implementing partners, and the host government. The training aims to build the in-country capacity on GIS and spatial analysis as well as to build advocacy by Government of Ethiopia (GOE) policymakers to enhance their monitoring and evaluation systems. The list of participant organizations will include: the Ethiopian Mapping Authority, the Federal HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office (HAPCO), and the MOH's Planning and Programming Department, among others. This GIS activity will strengthen the strategic information capacity in the country through human-capacity building as well as availing key information for planning and monitoring of activities. Related to this, this activity will also sponsor a joint mapping workshop with the host government and other donors to develop a common partner base map that includes HIV/AIDS programming as well as tuberculosis, nutrition, and other key interventions.

Some of the outputs of this activity will be instrumental in using spatial reference for data de-duplication. Understanding where implementing partners in a given program area function in the same geographic location is a precursor towards efforts to minimize double counting/reporting at the national level.

Finally, as PEPFAR is working closely with other USG programs on several PEPFAR activities that require targeting of peri-urban sites, the need to clearly define and identify these sites has become increasingly important. In collaboration with the Central Statistical and the Ethiopian Mapping Authorities, the activity will provide support to help define and identify peri-urban sites in Ethiopia, which are poorly defined conceptually and operationally. As part of this process, PEPFAR will provide further guidelines to define the parameters of the site location during the implementation planning process.

This activity will conduct mapping in accordance with the recommendations contained in "Geographic Information System Guidance for United States Government In-Country Staff and Implementing Partners within PEPFAR." Facility identifying data will conform to the signature domain outlined in "The Signature Domain and Geographic Coordinates: A Standardized Approach for Uniquely Identifying a Health Facility.

Funding for Strategic Information (HVSI): $120,000

International Rescue Committee (IRC) will continue to support USAID/Ethiopia Mission and its partners with specialized geospatial data collection, presentation and analysis. IRC has been working with USAID and its partners to collect, present and conduct spatial analysis of existing PEPFAR's implementation patterns, HIV related epidemiological data and other variables; respond to requests from HAPN and the program office for specialized map products and geospatial analysis, and provide technical assistance or professional training when required to selected USAID/Ethiopia staff for conducting Geographic Information System (GIS) activities.

Specific activities in this program include the production of paper and electronic copies of mapping products, geospatial analysis reports of major implementation programs and background variables across USAID/Ethiopia's and PEPFAR Ethiopia's technical offices, technical reports containing methodology and geospatial analysis as requested, and provide basic GIS training to relevant SI or M&E personnel who can implement the use of GIS in their day today program management. Trainees are from implementing partners of PEPFAR/USAID, the host government, and other stakeholders. IRC has a plan of training 100 SI personnel in basic GIS which includes: how to use Global Positioning System (GPS), how to transform GPS data to a map, and the basic applications of ARC GIS software using already available geo data base and practical public health program examples.

IRC has been using satellite images, digitized maps, aerial photographs and data collected in the field with GPS units to enhance its program of work. IRC possesses the necessary software and equipment for digitizing and analyzing spatial and non-spatial data, and scanning up to A3 size and printing up to A0 size map products.

IRC will collaborate with the United States Government (USG) to identify relevant information and support secondary data collection from the USG, the Government of Ethiopia and implementing partners as instructed by USAID/Ethiopia. Where possible, IRC will provide supplementary background information from its own GIS database.