Mitigating HIV/AIDS Impact on Education Systems:

Planning and Management Checklist

Peter Badcock-Walters

MTT 2004 Winter School

Sica’s Conference Centre, Durban

10 August 2004

Funded and Supported by USAID

Background• Growing acknowledgement that HIV/AIDS is a

systemic management problem for education and that response must:– be located within the system at every level, and

– address issues of prevention, treatment, care and support and mitigation – including workplace issues and response management;

• Many MoEs have initiated response but often limited to prevention, treatment and care, without attention to sector policy or comprehensive planning and management;

• Need for a flexible strategic response framework to guide such policy and action plan development and a checklist of issues requiring attention.

Key Points of Departure

• HIV/AIDS is a development issue and one of the

largest management challenges facing

education;

• The primary impact of HIV/AIDS is to increase the

scale of existing systemic and management

problems in education;

• Lack of reliable data makes it difficult to know

where ‘routine’ system problems stop and

HIV/AIDS systemic erosion starts;

• Attrition, service ratios, enrolment, drop-out and

transition rates, quality, output and budgeting

will all be adversely affected.

Key Themes• Growing understanding that a comprehensive

response is required which addresses three key

themes: – Prevention

– Treatment, Care and Support

– Mitigation: a) Workplace issues

b) Management of the response

• MoEs have also recognised that HIV/AIDS

response must be sustainable over the long term

and must:– Be integrated into every level of the education

management system and involve all sectoral partners, and

– Be within the means of the recurrent education budget,

irrespective of short-term donor or other funding.

Systemic Problem & Response• Increasing systemic erosion and linked

management problems will compromise ability to

meet EFA, UNGASS and other international goals

• Necessary to move planning beyond narrow

sectoral focus on prevention, treatment, care

and support, and accepts HIV/AIDS as long-term,

sector-wide management problem;

• Systemic response requires comprehensive,

prioritized plan of action, from assessment and

sector policy development, to decentralised

planning and implementation;

• Must be based on dependable data, monitoring,

evaluation and regular review.

AIDS: Opportunity in Crisis• In every aspect of planning and management, it

should be remembered that while HIV/AIDS is a

long-term human and development catastrophe,

it is also a unique opportunity to address any

number of long-standing problems in the

structure and function of education;

• In every step of the mitigation response we

should be asking ourselves what opportunities

this action provides for concomitant system

improvement or reform;

• Planners and managers must proactively look for

system reform synergies and promote them.

Strategic Response Framework• Need for Strategic Response Framework (SRF) to

contextualize and locate systemic response;

• SRF flexibility required to accommodate country

system diversity and recognize progress made in

planning/initiating sector HIV/AIDS programs;

• Spans 3 development phases, which include:

– Understanding Impact (assessing, benchmarking

and measuring impact);

– Planning Mitigation (action planning and costing

prioritized activities required to mitigate impact);

– Implementation, Monitoring & Review (initiating

and implementing planned activity, monitoring progress

and reporting outcomes and response).

Planning & Management Checklist:

• SRF provides the ‘big picture’ within which a comprehensive checklist of action phases and steps can be located;

• Allows MoEs to recognize achievements as well as missing or incomplete activities to date, and plan rationally for the future;

• Checklist of steps can be customized to MoE requirements to prioritize strategically important steps and need not be sequential;

• Resultant framework and checklist of steps meets donor need for prioritized and achievable plans, implementation, monitoring and reporting;

• 3 Phases and 12 steps include:

Phase One: Understanding Impact

• STEP ONE: HIV/AIDS Situation Analysis, Response Review and Impact Assessment –– Identify and agree key HIV/AIDS impact and

vulnerability indicators;– Develop objectives and TOR for impact

assessment/activity review;– Commission independent sector impact

assessment/activity review; or– Undertake interactive rapid sector

appraisal/activity review;– Consider findings and establish impact and activity

benchmarks.

Phase One: Understanding Impact

• STEP TWO: Management Information and Research Review – – Review MoE data history, quality and reliability;– Review and audit data systems/capacity, including

collection, access to HIV/AIDS impact indicators, analysis and decision support systems;

– Review other sector data/information sources;– Review education sector research agendas inside

and outside MoE;– Aggregate all available data/information to provide

single consolidated source and develop preliminary proposals for system reform and extension;

– Develop national, prioritized research agenda.

Phase One: Understanding Impact

• STEP THREE: Education Sector HIV/AIDS Policy and Regulation Audit – – Review national HIV/AIDS policy framework and

implications for education sector policy development;

– Review education sector HIV/AIDS policy where it exists, and check coverage of Prevention, Treatment, Care and Support and Mitigation, including workplace and management issues;

– Review/audit relevant MoE legal procedures and regulations and identify shortcomings and issues for policy review;

– Advocate to create ‘champions’ for education sector HIV/AIDS policy development and dissemination.

Phase One: Understanding Impact

• STEP FOUR: Education Sector Capacity Audit – – Review national and sub-national MoE systems and

HR capacity at all levels to respond to and manage HIV/AIDS impact;

– Review education sector capacity and program coverage, cooperation agreements and protocols with national and international development partners;

– Identify and estimate financial resource availability to support HIV/AIDS response and agree access and other protocols;

– Integrate capacity audit, impact assessment/sector appraisal, data and policy information to provide strategic overview for decision-making.

Phase Two: Planning Mitigation

• STEP FIVE: Establish HIV/AIDS Management Unit (HAMU) – – Identify education sector needs for full time

coordination structure (HAMU) through policy development and strategic planning process;

– Develop sectoral agreement on national and sub-national form, function, structure and commitment of permanent/dedicated HAMU;

– Establish HAMU with appropriately high levels of access and reporting;

– Commit to adequate capital and recurrent resources to equip and sustain HAMU in long-term;

– Ensure commitment and access to appropriate, regular training and support for HAMU personnel.

Phase Two: Planning Mitigation

• STEP SIX: Education Sector HIV/AIDS Policy Development –

– Agree guiding principles, goals and objectives for adaptive education sector HIV/AIDS policy;

– Develop draft education sector HIV/AIDS policy in accordance with agreed principles and national/ international policy frameworks and guidelines;

– Address key policy themes of Prevention, Treatment, Care and Support and Mitigation, with special attention to workplace issues and managing the response;

– Agree and entrench process for regular policy review and adaptation based on implementation experience at national and decentralized levels.

Phase Two: Planning Mitigation

• STEP SEVEN: National HIV/AIDS Policy Implementation Planning –

– Develop prioritised HIV/AIDS policy implementation planning framework by goal and objective;

– Segment plan by policy theme to cover Prevention, Treatment, care and Support and Mitigation;

– Address legal issues and development of enforceable regulations to give effect to policy implementation;

– Ensure planning framework includes:• capacity building for effective HIV/AIDS response at all levels

of the system;

• system review and reform to improve functional efficiency.

Phase Two: Planning Mitigation

• STEP EIGHT: Decentralized HIV/AIDS Policy

Implementation Planning –

– Locate sub-national planning within national

implementation planning principles and framework;

– Develop specific, measurable, achievable, realistic,

time-bound plans for sub-national levels reflecting

regional variance, needs and priorities;

– Address reality check of regional/district

constraints and difficulties and factor these in

planning;

– Consolidate decentralized plans to update and

strengthen national education sector framework.

Phase Two: Planning Mitigation

• STEP NINE: Implementation Budgeting and Resource Development –– Cost national/sub-national implementation plans

over 5 years, with defensible assumptions; – Analyze MoE capital and recurrent budget

availability and confirm access protocols;– Confirm external/donor resource availability;– Develop partnership and program delivery

database to support coordination and identify available country TA capacity;

– Hold donor conference to present comprehensive, costed education sector HIV/AIDS policy implementation plan to mobilize external resources.

Phase Three: Implementation, Monitoring & Review

• STEP TEN: Monitoring and Evaluation –– Monitor quantitative implementation of policy at all

levels, against agreed target dates and outputs;– Monitor HIV/AIDS impact indicators via national and

sub-national data capture and analysis;– Monitor system and sector capacity in relation to

observed management and delivery; – Establish and evaluate qualitative indicators of

policy implementation success against agreed targets and outputs;

– Design and introduce M&E and supplementary data capture systems to support this activity.

Phase Three: Implementation, Monitoring & Review

• STEP ELEVEN: Reporting –– Report progress/outcomes of education sector

HIV/AIDS policy implementation at agreed intervals to all national and international constituencies, stakeholders and development partners.

Phase Three: Implementation, Monitoring & Review

• STEP TWELVE: Policy Implementation Review –

– Convene inclusive annual HIV/AIDS policy and implementation strategy review and report progress, performance and vulnerability assessment;

– Revise/adapt national and sub-national strategies and implementation activities, based on impact indicators, implementation monitoring, evaluation and reporting;

– Develop/publish revised implementation plans for the following year, based on review/adaptation of revised targets, priorities and goals;

– Assure education stakeholders/development partners of effective M&E and implementation planning.

MTT Support Tools

• A Resource Kit of ‘tools’ has been developed to support this 12-step process;

• Ownership of this, with training, is transferred to the MoE and its sector partners. Includes:– Rapid Appraisal Framework/Assessment TORs

– Data Analysis Criteria and HIV/AIDS Impact Indicators

– Policy Development Framework/Country Samples

– Prioritised Implementation Planning Templates

– Budget Planning & Implementation Costing Tools

– Partnership/Program Database Template

– District Education Management & Monitoring Information Systems (DEMMIS)

– Monitoring and Evaluation Options

– Educator Mortality/Attrition Research Models & Templates

– Educator Demand & Supply Modelling

Summary

• No MoE has completed every one of these steps but several have made great strides and serve as international exemplars of good practice ;

• Issue is recognition of what could and should be done and prioritization of these activities to suit local conditions and resource constraints;

• Checklist should guide planning, confirm commitment to EFA & mobilize donor support;

• MoEs committed to action must establish full-time coordinating and management structures to roll-out and monitor HIV/AIDS mitigation plans;

• Regular monitoring & review means that response will require continuous coordination and be a routine, day-to-day activity of every manager.

Exercise 1: Checklist Review

• 30 minutes: No presentation required at this point;

• Method: Break into country groups & use Checklist to review your MoE accomplishments

to date; • Against each item, put a tick if you collectively

feel that the step has been comprehensively dealt with and is complete;

• If not, estimate the % achievement against each item – in other words, if your MoE is half-way to completing this step, put 50% in the column;

• On completion, put Checklist in your file to use as a point of reference throughout the course.

Exercise 2: Using the Checklist

• 30 minutes: 3 selected groups will have 5 mins

each to present 5-point plan for strategic use of

the Checklist and its likely impact on MoE

decision-makers;

• Method: In country groups, consider strategic

use of this Checklist within MoE to alert decision

makers to need for comprehensive approach &

identify issues yet to be tackled;

• Also consider what affect this might have and

how you might capitalize on this to advance the

mitigation agenda.

Mitigating HIV/AIDS Impact on Education Systems

Planning and Management Checklist

WEBSITE: www.mttaids.com

CONTACT: peterbw@eastcoast.co.za