Project Management
Start-up Tools
Thank you for completing the module on Project Management: Start-up Tools. Please complete this brief anonymous survey so we can learn about your experience and make any necessary improvements.
Having a desired result like "GFPA will integrate Family Planning services and HIV/AIDS services" would not be specific enough. They still weren't closer to having their measurable result as a percent or a number, so they decided to do some scanning with their local and international partners. One international partner sent them to a website where they found a curriculum for training providers in integrated VCT and family planning counseling. In talks with other stakeholders at the Ministry of Health they received a lot of support and decided that they would join up with the four government sponsored VCT clinics near their clinics to offer family planning services- in effect to create "one-stop centers" for integrated family planning counseling and HIV testing. The first draft of their desired measurable result was formulated as follows
Four VCT centers will have providers trained in integrated family planning and VCT, and will see a 50% increase in the number of visits for HIV counseling and testing that integrate Family Planning.
To ensure the result was measurable, the team had to identify indicators that would be used to measure the result. To determine if the desired result had been achieved, they would use the same indicators in December and compare their results to their baseline data collected six months earlier in June. They were sure they could measure if the providers received training, but they realized that they had to decide how many providers from each center would be trained. The MOH offered to support 2 providers from each center to be trained so they changed the beginning of their measurable result to read \'\' 4 VCT centers will have 2 providers each trained in integrated family planning and VCT.\'\' They knew for their action plan they would have to find indicators for \'\'integrated family planning and VCT.\'\' They decided they would count the number of visits in which clients are asked about reproductive intentions and are counseled about family planning options. Visits would have to demonstrate both components to be counted. They decided they would measure the increase in provider knowledge scores about family planning after training as an indicator of the effectiveness of their training curriculum.
Once again the GFPA team asked themselves if this challenge was critical to their mission, and they decided that it was. They also agreed that they as a team had the power to make such a change happen and they had the support of the MOH. They would have liked to measure how many new family planning users they had reached or how many HIV positive clients who wished to prevent pregnancy were using a modern method of contraception, but they knew that kind of impact was not appropriate for the short time frame of the VLDP. They decided they would work towards being able to measure that kind of impact after this pilot project demonstrated that integration was a success.
The team thought long and hard about whether they could realistically achieve a 50% increase in the number of visits for HIV testing in which clients are asked about reproductive intentions and are counseled about family planning options. One of their difficulties was that they didn\'t know how many visits were currently being made to the VCT centers and where clients were also interested in family planning. They only knew from MOH data how many visits included counseling about condoms to prevent HIV transmission. That figure was about 40%. It seemed a lot for a 6 month result to achieve a 50% increase. Because they would also have to train the providers and equip the VCT centers, they decided to lower the percentage to 20%.
The GFPA team targeted the month of December, 6 months after the end of the VLDP, as the end date, to see if they had achieved their measurable result. Their measurable result was becoming longer but much SMARTer.
