Strategic Information and Introduction to the Country Response Information System By Geoff Manthey, Chief CRIS Unit, UNAIDS.

Strategic Information used for National Strategic Plans Situational assessment –Policy index –Resources –Prevention –Care –Treatment –Knowledge and behaviour –Impact

Questions for national responses How can we ensure that lessons learned are not lessons lost? How do we begin to have greater access, synergy and cohesion vis-à-vis strategic information? How to coordinate a variety of information sources? How do our information systems work together?

What is Strategic Information? lessons learned – in countries of Southern America, globally Knowledge of “what works” among and between partners Indicators – input, impact, outcome, etc Inventories – partners, research, activities Resource tracking Policies and legislation

What strategic information is needed? Does it have relevance to NSP and the national response Can the data be collected according to agreed guidelines? Are there resources available to collect the data Will the data used? Will it be made available to all partners? Collect what will be used for your program management.

Information for a strengthened AIDS program Sustained expanded national response Improved data collection and strategic information Strengthened policy and planning Improved analysis and synthesis of information

National Strategic Plan (including National M&E Plan) National Reporting to UNGASS or partners Programmatic data with core and local Indicators

CRIS – the system Questions to answer! How will it work in your country? Where will it be, where will it live? Who will use it? What indicators and other information will be contained within the system?

Issues we considered when developing CRIS How to improve flow of national and sub-national data for national AIDS responses? How to prepare NAC information systems (if they exist) for the Internet? What analytical tools are required by NACs / NAPs? How do we leverage existing applications and their analytical tools for NACs / NAPs?

CRIS An information system for National AIDS Councils – allows systematic (1) collection, (2) storage, (3) analysis, (4) retrieval and (5) dissemination of information on a country’s response to HIV/AIDS

What does CRIS look like? Indicator database (Version 1.4 available) Project / resource tracking database (end 2003) Research Inventory database (end 2003)

Who can use CRIS? 1.National entities including National AIDS Councils & National AIDS Programs 2.NGOs and civil society 3.GFATM (Global Fund) 4.Regional entities 5.Donor/bilateral agencies (CDC GAP) 6.The UN system (World Bank MAP)

Immediate benefits of CRIS Rapid establishment of an information system at country level Strengthening of existing systems Enhanced ability to monitor National Strategic Plan and the national response Improved ability to report to funding sources e.g. GFATM, WB and UN

Other benefits….. Supports global indicator standardization process, transmission format and prioritisation Supports next generation indicator development process Manages large volumes of information Streamlines information flows and greater local access

Where will the principle CRIS live? Negotiated with each country National AIDS Commission / Council recommended Consider technical and human resource capacity available and/or planned Can have a “temporary” home Can be installed as “peer” systems in line Ministries, sub-national and/or NGOs

Introduction to the GRID Global Response Information Database available via the UNAIDS website

links via the GRID….. AIDS Programme Indicator Survey AIDS Programme Effort Index HealthMapper / Global Atlas (WHO) EpiFact Sheets DHS Key documents Contacts

Indicator Database 1 st available component of CRIS Core indicators (UNGASS) that are consistent across all CRIS Ability to add indicators specific to national AIDS responses Ability to add regionally specific indicators

Indicator Database V1.4b Multilingual capability (EN,FR,RU,SP) It could easily be translated into Asian languages including Indonesian PivotTable and charting capability Indicator management, e.g. status Data import/export of data and definitions Comments field to support report making

Features of CRIS IND? Allows countries to load all global data Ability to share indicator definitions Demonstrated that minimal training required Immediate use – rapid installation via CD-Rom Leverages the functionality of other information systems through data exchange

More features Application is browser based Configured as stand alone, but in future network and web-enabled HTML technology allows for ease of addition of screens to the system SQL Server 2000 Desktop allows for migration to SQL Server

Project / resource tracking database Available end 2003 Allows data collection in a hierarchical fashion Project – Intervention – Activity Project level data (summary information) exportable

PRT Data to include: –Sub-national functional level i.e. province or district –Executing/implementing organization –Resource provider (donor) –Planned or actual start and/or end dates for projects –Target populations' sex, age group, occupation and/or ethnicity –A variety of activity descriptions or keywords that more fully describe projects –How a project fulfills the goals in the National Strategic Plan.

Project/resource tracking database Project Intervention Activity Intervention Activity

Research Inventory Database To be released by end of 2003 Existing systems evaluated Database design in progress Compatibility with PRT database Harmonization with existing systems, e.g. NIH, USAID Data from funding agencies & from the country level Information available on GRID Analysis on gaps and opportunities (research and partners)

Research Inventory Database

RID Pilot in a number of priority countries National Research Institution to partner with National AIDS Council / Commission Match global research award data with national research data

Current issues CRIS complements & leverages other information systems – how to communicate this message well CRIS can be used to leverage the establishment / improvement of a basic M&E system – how do we do this? Need for “model” countries where CRIS / M&E is functioning – which countries and in what time frame? Developing capacity among (cosponsors’) country based staff for M&E and CRIS – joint action required

CRIS endorsed by: UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board UNAIDS Committee of Cosponsoring Organizations Monitoring and Evaluation Reference Group (MERG) and its members USAID CDC DfID Governments of Japan, Norway & Portugal.

Things to remember before installing CRIS Does your Hardware meet the documented requirements You will need to have administrator rights to computer for installation Your computer Operating System must be Windows 2000 not an earlier model

A User Guide has been developed to guide you through the installation process as well as other functionality.