THE PROBLEM

In the last decade, many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have experienced economic growth with a simultaneous reduction in their HIV burden. Assisting the Dominican Republic in this context, the Global Fund engaged Pharos to develop a Transition Readiness Assessment and a Sustainability and Resilience Strategy for the Dominican Republic.

THE PHAROS SOLUTION

In collaboration with the National HIV Council, the Sustainability and Transition Commission in the DR, Pharos used its global expertise to facilitate the development of the Sustainability and Resilience Strategy Report that contains the main risks to sustainability of the HIV Program and the specific strategies and activities needed to mitigate those risks. The Sustainability Strategy is part of the National Strategic Plan for HIV/AIDS 2019-2023 and includes a roadmap to guide the country to achieve sustainability in the next five years.

To conduct this project, the Pharos team created and followed a four phase methodology:

Preparation phase:
We created high-level teams including local consultants with HIV expertise in the countries where we work and members of the core Pharos team with experience in the Latin American and Caribbean region and program management. We completed a desk review of the key national and regional documents, followed by interviews with the Global Fund and key country stakeholders to draft a preliminary set of risk hypotheses.

First country visit:
The team traveled to the country to interview and facilitate focus groups with the main stakeholders: the CCM, CSOs, government officials of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Health, think tanks, and other bilateral and international agencies.

Second country visit:
After synthesizing the epidemiological, financial and programmatic status and challenges in the country, the team returned to the Dominican Republic to present the main risks that emerged from the background review and the first country visit. Moreover, we organized workshops with the main stakeholders to validate and prioritize the identified risks and to outline the main strategies that would help the country to overcome those risks in the near future.

Final products:
In the final phase, we delivered a Transition Readiness Assessment (TRA) or Sustainability and Resilience Strategy (SRS) to the country. This includes a roadmap with the specific strategies and activities that the country needs to carry out in the upcoming years, informed by the key lessons of the project and inputs from the workshop participants. All the products are validated by the key stakeholders to guarantee country ownership and achieve our client’s satisfaction.

LOOKING AHEAD

Building on our work with local stakeholders with the support of leaders in civil society, politics, and government, the Dominican Republic has the opportunity to strengthen its HIV program to reach the most vulnerable groups and meet the 90-90-90 goals.

Status: Completed

Team members: Diana Gonzalez, Robert Hecht, Claudia Valdez

For more information, contact us at [email protected].