The HIV/AIDS Programme Management Team is currently receiving technical assistance from Dr. Ansari Ameen of the Caribbean Health Research Council (CHRC) as it relates to developing indicators to monitor and evaluate the National HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan and to assist with the development of a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) plan for the HIV/AIDS Programme Management Team.
Dr. Ameen is also doing some work for the upcoming mid-term review of the National Strategic Plan for which he will return to St. Maarten on August 24 for one week. Dr. Ameen has been on the island during the last week of June gathering his data from various stakeholders for the M&E plan.
Based on the HIV/AIDS Programme Management Team’s Work Plan for 2009, one of the priority areas for this year is surveillance and research, and under this priority area one of the activities is the development of a monitoring and evaluation plan to measure the progress and impact of St. Maarten’s HIV programme response. Also scheduled for this year is a mid-term review of the implementation of the National Strategic Plan.
Suzette Moses-Burton, HIV/AIDS Programme Manager stated: "The conduct of the mid-term review is very important as it will help us to determine what progress we have made since 2007 and identify any challenges being faced by stakeholders. This information will enable us to make any amendments to the programme for the next two years that may be required based on the outcomes of the evaluation and also help us to determine which areas are working well and what we must do to ensure that we continue to make progress."
Dr. Ansari Ameen is a Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) Specialist, working with CHRC since 2003. He plays a leading role in all M&E projects in the Caribbean by providing capacity development and other technical support to country programmes and regional agencies.