Representatives of governmental medical and non-profit organizations take part in the seminar held in collaboration with an independent consulting group “Development of Public Health Care” (PhD Consulting). A competition for participation in this seminar was announced in May. Over 90 applications were submitted.

Selection of candidates was performed by a selection committee consisting of UNAIDS, representatives of The Federal Service of Surveillance Over Consumer Rights Protection and Human Well-Being, and civil society, says Elena Sosnovskaya, UNAIDS staff member.

Among other evaluation criterion, there was that of work experience in the field of monitoring and evaluation, and the likelihood of a participant’s usage of acquired knowledge. As a result, 24 participant were selected, among them 8 representatives of AIDS Centres and 16 NGOs staff. Highly motivated individuals will take part in the training. It is important that we managed to widely represent the geography of our country, including the regions most severely stricken by the epidemic. Professionals from Sibirsk, Privozhsk, Central, North-Western, and South federal districts, including Republic Buryatiaya, Altai, and Tatarstan, Kemerovo, Rostov, Orel, Arkhangelsk, Saratov, and Orenburg regions, Perm district, Moscow and Saint Petersburg will be part of the seminar.

During the training among other issues participants will present and discuss sentinel research on HIV prevalence and risk factors among vulnerable groups, such as injecting drug users, men having sex with men, sex workers. Close attention will be paid to evaluation methods and approaches currently used in Russia.

- The current system of data collection and analysis in Russia requires much inter-departamental and cross-sectoral coordination ,- believes Natalia Korzhaeva, consultant, Deputy Director of the All-Russian Harm Reduction Network. It is necessary to take steps to avoid double calculations and to strengthen financial monitoring.

An important objective of the training is eradicating the myth stating that monitoring and evaluation are carried out at the final stage of a project, while preparing a final report. Monitoring and evaluation are an integral part of any project from the moment of planning.

At present Russian NGOs implement numerous innovative projects and have a great potential. Mastery of the tools of monitoring and evaluation will enhance and broaden their capacity. For this reason there exists a keen interest in monitoring and evaluation issues among the civil society representatives.

Collaborative work of representatives of civil society and governmental health care sector will help to build a joint vision of what a monitoring and evaluation system should be like, says Denis Kamaldinov, consultant, Head of “Development of Public Health Care” (PhD Consulting).- This is also a joint search for the cost effective and efficient approach to monitoring and evaluation from the point of view of optimization of financial and human resources.