Independent evaluation highlights Alliance success
01 September 2006
The International HIV/AIDS Alliance has supported an “impressive scaling up of community action against HIV and AIDS”, according to an independent, joint donor evaluation of its performance undertaken by the consultancy firm ITAD. The evaluation also highlights the “substantial and important role” that the Alliance has played in influencing policy and in ensuring that civil society has a voice and a place in the HIV/AIDS policy environment.
“The findings are generally very positive,” said Alliance executive director Alvaro Bermejo, “but as well as highlighting important achievements, we recognise that the evaluation challenges us to improve in key areas of our work. The evaluation clearly shows that unrestricted funding will be central to addressing these challenges and we welcome the input of our donor partners in identifying strategic priorities and next steps for improvement.”
The Alliance commissioned ITAD to undertake an evaluation of its organisational performance since 2000, in response to interest from donor governments keen for more evidence to inform their decisions about future funding for the Alliance. The objectives of the evaluation were to assess the performance of the Alliance; examine its success in influencing the political landscape both nationally and internationally; review how successfully lesson learning, research, reporting and publications are contributing to its programming and policy making; and assess whether its current strategy is fit for purpose.
The report says the Alliance and its partners have made a significant contribution in key areas including:
- building social capital of key populations;
- lobbying for a variety of issues such as antiretroviral treatment;
- ensuring access to essential services in a holistic manner;
- improving coordination among local actors; and
- enhancing the role of community organisations in the AIDS response.
The evaluation also states that the Alliance’s linking organisation model has been critical to this success, enabling it to develop sustainable national capacity, to identify and engage effectively with grassroots groups, and to channel appropriate resources and capacity building support to communities.
Through its wider activities the Alliance has also “supported information-sharing and networking at community, national and international levels”. The Alliance has played “a particularly important role” in giving communities a voice through its policy and advocacy work. However, the evaluation also states that the Alliance’s contribution at both national and international levels could be better documented and researched.
Many of the report’s recommendations reflect the need for the Alliance to invest more in cross-cutting and thematic work. The costs of this are often not covered by restricted donor funding, so greater unrestricted funding will be needed. The report states that the Alliance has “a duty to demonstrate more clearly the strategic value that comes from unrestricted funds”, while donors “must take more account of the need for increased unrestricted funding to pay for the important added value of this wider work”.
The full report and recommendations from the independent evaluation undertaken by ITAD, plus a summary of key findings, and the Alliance management response, are available on the Alliance’s website: Joint donor evaluation of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance’s organisational performance.
