Background

This workshop was born out of the importance of monitoring HIV prevention results. This is needed to know if HIV prevention programming is leading to more people having access to and using appropriate, prioritised, person-centred and effective combination prevention options.

In 2022, the Global HIV Prevention Coalition Secretariat convened a diverse group of global experts and partners for a think tank series with the aim to increase precision, pragmatism, availability, and use of national data. However, there are still many gaps in the data on the results of prevention investments / services, especially in terms of assessing whether these investments are leading to changes in proxy outcomes for new infections, such as more people using HIV prevention options like condoms or PrEP. 

During the SSLN Pan Prevention Workshop conducted in 2023 it became clear that prevention monitoring is not easy. However, new guidance and tools to effectively and efficiently monitor HIV prevention services are emerging that may assist with this effort. Hence a need was expressed to share an overview of these approaches with countries to improve national systems’ ability to conduct sustainable prevention monitoring. 

To that end, the SSLN and the Global Prevention Coalition, together with UNAIDS, the Global Fund, WHO, PEPFAR and the Government of Botswana, hosted this workshop to bring together countries, stakeholders, and global technical experts involved in HIV prevention outcome monitoring.

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Objectives

The objectives of the HIV Prevention Outcome Monitoring Workshop were to:

- Provide an overview of guidance and tools that are available for HIV prevention outcome measurement

- Share and learn from country experiences with HIV prevention monitoring

- Draft country prevention outcome monitoring plans

- Kick-start implementation of one of the tools included in the Prevention Outcome Monitoring Toolkit (POMT) *Specifically for the Global Fund Principal- and Sub-recipients (PR/SR) 

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Event details

This workshop took place over 2.5 days from 16-18 September 2024 in Gaborone, Botswana.

There were over 150 participants with representatives from 21 countries in Africa and Asia, as well as representatives from global organisations.

Event highlights

The event was opened by Prof Sheila Tlou from the Global Prevention Coalition (GPC), capturing the importance of HIV prevention outcome monitoring.

We can accomplish great things, but if we don’t document then we can’t learn and share for future generations to see what we did

The opening address by Goitsemang Morekisi (Ministry of State President from Botswana) gave appreciation to the South to South Learning Network for being a convenor for discussions such as these.

SSLN has become a necessity in our HIV agenda, especially as connecting us as a global community.

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Over the next 2.5 days, participants engaged in:

Plenary and panel discussions on monitoring HIV outcomes for key populations and community considerations for HIV prevention monitoring

Group work around action planning for the development of country prevention outcome monitoring plans as well as developing WHO data dictionaries

Skills building sessions on different prevention outcome monitoring techniques, such as polling booth surveys, prevention cascades, and calculating denominators for prevention outcome monitoring.

A country marketplace during which countries had the opportunity to learn about country efforts in prevention outcome monitoring and best practices

Informal social activities to promote networking, collaboration, and the sharing of experiences among participants.

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A full workshop report is currently available in English, French and Portuguese.

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