Exploring Financial Data as a Proxy for Monitoring Community-Led HIV Response
This discussion focuses on the use of financial data to monitor the effectiveness of community-led HIV response efforts, specifically in relation to the 30-18-60 targets. The conversation builds upon a previous discussion in March, where Deepak presented initial findings on using financing data for monitoring. This session delves deeper into the results, tracking methods, and potential avenues for using financial data as a proxy measure for the 30-18-60 targets.
Timeline and Financial Flows
Deepak begins by outlining the timeline of monitoring financial flows through community-led HIV response. He highlights key milestones, including:
- 2021: National assessments were pending, with no differentiation between community-based and facility-based modalities.
- 2022: Six pilot projects provided valuable insights into resource tracking for community-led response, leading to the development of guidelines and updates to the UNAIDS spending assessment (NASA) framework.
- 2024: Several countries began implementing community-led response resource tracking at a micro level.
- 2025 and beyond: The goal is to provide standalone resource tracking modules for communities.
Deepak then presents data on international funding channeled to communities, showing a decline from 31% in 2013 to 25% in 2023. He emphasizes the lack of data on domestic financing and the need for disaggregation by community-led organizations (CLOs) versus other civil society organizations (CSOs).
NASA Dimensions and Vectors
Deepak explains the three dimensions of the NASA framework:
- Financing: Tracks funding sources, entities, schemes, and fees.
- Provisioning: Tracks service providers and production factors.
- Consumption: Tracks spending categories, service delivery modalities, and beneficiary populations.
He then presents data on the percentage of funding channeled through community-based and home-based service delivery modalities, highlighting a decline from 17% to 8% over the years. This data is based on 17 countries and should be interpreted with caution due to variations in reporting across regions and years.
Pilot Projects and Lessons Learned
Deepak discusses the six-country pilot project on community-led resource tracking, which aimed to:
- Track community-led organizations’ own resource use.
- Include non-monetary contributions, such as volunteer time and in-kind donations.
The pilots helped shape guidelines for resource tracking and highlighted the need to consider both CLOs and other CSOs in the tracking process.
NASA Implementation and Data Collection
Deepak describes the implementation of a full NASA in Pakistan, which included:
- Mapping and screening of CSOs and CLOs.
- Self-administered questionnaires for identified CLOs.
- Virtual interviews and data collection using NASA templates.
- Valuation of non-monetary contributions, such as volunteer time and donated goods.
The Pakistan NASA revealed that almost 80% of funding for community-led organizations came from international sources, with a small proportion from domestic financing. The data also showed that a significant portion of the funding was directed towards prevention services for key populations.
Future Directions and Next Steps
Deepak outlines the future direction of community-led resource tracking, including:
- Expanding the use of standalone resource tracking modules for communities.
- Conducting NASA assessments in more countries, with a goal of reaching 30 countries by the end of 2026.
- Further disaggregating data to track funding through both CLOs and CSOs.
The discussion concludes with a focus on the importance of aligning resource tracking with costing guidelines for community-led response. Participants emphasize the need for both financial and non-financial data to advocate for increased funding and support for community-led service delivery. The group acknowledges the challenges of data collection, particularly for smaller organizations, and the need for capacity building in record-keeping.
