One of a series of blogs that shed light on how we measure impact and success with our local partners.
(see also Measuring Success of Water Projects in Africa and Data Can Be More Interesting Than You Think.)

As an HIV/AIDS response organization, we love sharing about the effectiveness of local leaders in community-based work. Below, we’ll consider the indicators related to individuals accessing care, treatment.

Individuals Accessing Care, Treatment, & Support

We utilize indicators that the national governments where our partners work and international HIV/AIDS policy-setting organizations consider the most important for program monitoring. Our team collects this data from partners every quarter to track the progress of their work in their communities and see progress over time. We care deeply about clarity of terminology and definitions, making sure there is no confusion about who is counted or how information is gathered.

For example, here are two different indicators of success:

1. The number of adults who are HIV-positive enrolled in ongoing palliative care and support, by sex

2. The number of orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) due to HIV enrolled for ongoing care and support services, by sex
   

Understanding These Indicators

The term palliative care and support is commonly used within the HIV/AIDS sector to refer to HIV-related services that can be provided in the home or out in the community. Blood:Water goes an extra step to ensure quality services are reaching people by requiring that partners only report on these when they meet a “minimum package of need-based services.” This means that they include at least three kinds of services, and that these are chosen and provided based on the person’s specific situation at the time.

There are seven categories that capture the full range of care and support that fit into this umbrella:

1. Medical – home-based care that improves the health of those living with HIV. Ex) treatment adherence support, managing side effects, providing home-based medical services to those who need it, treating other illnesses, distributing mosquito nets, providing transportation to clinics for appointments, etc.
2. Psychosocial – services improving the mental and social well-being of those living with HIV. Ex) individual or family counseling, support groups, spiritual support, disclosure counseling, etc.
3. Food and Nutrition – services to improve nutrition. Ex) food distribution, nutritional monitoring and advice, household gardening, etc.
4. Protection – services to improve the safety and legal protection of those living with HIV. Ex) Help with responding to stigma and discrimination that challenges property ownership, child custody, unlawful eviction or job loss, etc.
5. Economic Opportunity – assistance for improving the economic livelihood of people living with HIV. Ex) vocational training, education, seed grants, savings and loan cooperatives etc.
6. WASH – services to improve access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene for the households of people with HIV. Ex) distributing household water filtration systems and constructing hygiene facilities. Our partners have reached over 30,000 people living with HIV directly with WASH interventions in their homes!
7. Shelter – services to improve living conditions for people living with HIV. Ex) housing placement, rent subsidies, and renovations.

These Indicators in Real Life

Lwala, our first alumni partner and a prolific HIV/AIDS response organization, reached more than 97,000 people with HIV testing and counseling throughout our partnership. They designed and implemented an integrated HIV and WASH program in 2015, and also reached more then 370,000 people with training in sanitation and hygiene. Their health clinic expanded to a health center and then a hospital, which serves the region with important services and care. And their community health worker program ensures the bridge between health facility and the household is consistent and remains strong.

Join us as we continue to equip our partners to serve even more people affected by HIV/AIDS than ever before. We hope this has given you new insight into our partners’ inspiring work!

For more information on indicators in health on the African content used by the global community, check out AfricanHealthStats.org.