Eliminating HIV transmission from mother to child, and providing care and treatment to those already infected remain global priorities in the post-2015 agenda, and are central to the commitment to end AIDS by 2030.
Since 2005, UNICEF has been working to support low- and middle-income countries in the scale up of programmes to prevent new HIV infections among children, provide HIV care and treatment to children and their families living with HIV, prevent and treat new infections among adolescents, provide protection, care, and support to families affected by HIV, and extend HIV services to affected children and their families during emergencies.
Our role
Itad has been contracted to evaluate UNICEF’s efforts to support scale up of prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) and Paediatric HIV care and treatment programs over the past decade. Our work focuses on four particular aspects of UNICEF’s PMTCT and paediatric HIV care and treatment programming efforts, namely (1) thematic leadership, advocacy and partnership, (2) resource mobilization, (3) strategic information, knowledge generation and dissemination; and (4) key aspects of UNICEF’s organization. The evaluation is also directed to pay particular attention to three cross-cutting issues: gender, human rights and HIV, and equity, as well as considering the integration of HIV into humanitarian responses.
Our approach
This evaluation incorporates a mixed-methods approach, utilising case studies, structured document review, key informant interviews and an online survey to unpack and test a reconstructed theory of change. Country visits to Cameroon, India, South Africa, Zimbabwe, as well as remote studies of Cambodia, Haiti and Ukraine have been used to collect more in-depth, qualitative information needed to inform our analysis of the theory and assumptions on causality.
Findings and recommendations
The findings and recommendations generated by the evaluation will be used to guide UNICEF’s implementation strategies (sectoral and crosscutting) to achieve the HIV outcomes specified in its 2014–17 Strategic Plan. In addition, they will also inform UNICEF’s future work within the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – in particular, helping UNICEF position its work on HIV among children as part of a comprehensive UN response, as guided by the UNAIDS 2016–21 Strategy.
Image © Teaching scouts about HIV/AIDS 04. Photo Credit: Pierre Holtz for UNICEF. (CC BY 2.0)
