HIV Open Data Project: National HIV Prevention Program Monitoring and Evaluation (NHM&E) - Agency Level

CDC has partnered with community-based organizations (CBOs) for many years to expand the reach of HIV prevention efforts. This partnership is important because CBOs often have access to at-risk populations and maintain relationships with communities to which health departments may not have direct access. Currently, CDC funds approximately 153 CBOs through three program announcements to provide HIV prevention services to the following critical target populations who are at high risk for HIV transmission: - Young men of color who have sex with men and young transgender persons of color (PS11-1113) - Racial/ethnic minority communities, MSM, IDU, and HIV-infected persons (PS10-1003) - Persons at risk for HIV in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands (PS08-803) In December 2011, CDC developed a National HIV Prevention Program Monitoring and Evaluation (NHM&E) framework for monitoring HIV prevention programs at CBOs across all three program announcements. To address the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) and the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention (DHAP) strategic plan, CDC developed monitoring and evaluation (M&E) questions that align with the goals defined by NHAS and DHAP. The NHM&E reporting requirements for CDC directly funded CBOs began with an in-depth analysis of NHAS goals, DHAP strategic plan goals, program announcement objectives, accumulated experiences from working with CBOs, and lessons learned from those experiences. M&E questions were developed from this analysis and reflect the objectives outlined in the three program announcements. Process indicators were developed to assess the M&E questions, and, lastly, variables were developed to directly measure the process indicators. The NHM&E reporting requirements provide a new approach to evaluating HIV prevention programs. The focus has shifted to emphasize priority program processes and only collecting data that are needed to answer critical M&E questions. As a result, there is a significant reduction in data reporting burden on CBOs-an approximate 65 percent reduction in reporting requirements. Also, CDC is obtaining a data entry system that allows CBOs to have real-time access to their data to help improve program processes. The new data system will calculate NHM&E process indicators. CBOs will be able to generate reports based on their data.