Data as a moving target: How adaptations to a community HIV program's M&E enabled critical service provision to vulnerable populations in a time of war

What happens when a nascent HIV program working in more than half of Ukraine’s regions is suddenly faced with multiplying service priorities and shifting target groups? How should a M&E system adapt to such extreme changes at a time when accurate and timely data are more critical than ever? This presentation will tell the story of “data as a moving target” from the perspective of M&E leads on Community Action for HIV Control (CAHC)- a five year, USAID/PEPFAR-funded project implemented by Pact Ukraine which focuses on improved HIV prevention, testing and linkages to care among key populations through strengthened capacity of local organizations. CAHC launched just eight months prior to the Russian invasion. Panelists will share practical ways in which the CAHC M&E team together with local health partner organizations adapted an already-complex monitoring system aimed at tracking individual-level HIV services to war-induced shifting populations, geographies, and services. Participants will also hear from community health workers (and from Oleksii Protsenko, Head of Innovation program department, CO "Network 100 percent of Life Zaporizhzhia") on the front lines of the war against HIV, now also on the front lines of war against Russia, about innovations they used to overcome data management and communication system outages by adjusting their collection, reporting and quality assurance tools and processes. This collaborative resilience in the face of war is maximizing reliable, timely and secure programmatic and personal data needed for CAHC to ensure that the “right” services reach the “right” people, despite the current dynamic and complex operating environment.