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Promoting Leadership and Mitigating the Negative Impacts of HIV and AIDS on Human Development: An outcome evaluation of UNDP's HIV Programme in the Philippines 2009-­2011
Commissioning Unit:Philippines
Evaluation Plan:2012-2018
Evaluation Type: Others
Completion Date:12/2012
Unit Responsible for providing Management Response: Philippines
1. Recommendation: Focus on policy advocacy to strengthen multi-sector approach. There is the need to focus the next UNDP HIV Programme on results that may shed light on the roles and responsibilities of state institutions for more effective and efficient national response, and on measures to establish the National HIV and AIDS Plan with clear strategies, targets, operationalization framework and funding. Also, there is a need to remove all barriers to AIDS-related services and eliminate the climate of stigma that surrounds the epidemic and the people directly and indirectly affected by it.
Management Response: [Added: 2013/12/26] [Last Updated: 2014/01/06]

The PMU agrees that in order to strengthen national and local responses on HIV and AIDS in the country, policy reform should be an integral part of the response. Particularly, new policy and legislation addressing stigma and discrimination against key populations at higher risk and PLHIV, and harmonization of some provisions of the AIDS Law with other laws (e.g., the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act, Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, Vagrancy Act, etc.) needs to be crafted. Moreover, there is a need to lobby for increase in domestic public investment on AIDS in order to support implementation of programmes and services.

Key Actions:

Key Action Responsible DueDate Status Comments Documents
1.1. Under the new CPD 2012-2016, one of the major outputs of the HIV and AIDS Programme is related to policy reform, particularly putting up of policy agenda at the national and local levels to address critical gaps.
[Added: 2014/01/06] 		HIV and AIDS unit No due date No deadline established Bills amending the Philippine AIDS Law have been passed in Senate and Congress (i.e., SB 3072 and HB 5312) seeking to restructure the legal framework on AIDS and harmonizing it with evidence-based strategies and approaches following the principles of human rights, gender equality, and meaningful participation of affected communities. They also aim to clarify the roles and responsibilities of state institutions for more effective and efficient response, and establish the National HIV and AIDS Plan with clear strategies, targets, operationalization framework and funding. Also, they seek to remove all barriers to AIDS-related services and eliminate the climate of stigma that surrounds the epidemic and the people directly and indirectly affected by it.
2. Recommendation: Enhance evidence-based approach with quality research to inform policy; disseminate results of the studies. Evidence-based information is seen as a critical element in policy advocacy and development. Information on MSM and transgender persons was integral in the Programme?s contributions to the 5th National AIDS Medium Term Plan, and also informed the drafting of a specific strategies targeting these two key populations ? the National Comprehensive Strategic Plan for MSM and Transgender Populations. It is thus recommended that UNDP focus on its comparative advantage to link different stakeholders in conducting multi-sectoral studies and in disseminating results of these studies for enhanced awareness of issues surrounding HIV and AIDS.
Management Response: [Added: 2013/12/26] [Last Updated: 2014/01/06]

This recommendation will be considered in the design of the Programme in the next cycle (2012-2016).

Key Actions:

3. Recommendation: Focus on key issues (e.g., prevention, harm reduction, PLHIV TCS, rights-based approaches, stigma and discrimination). There is a call for more emphasis on issue-specific interventions especially in the context of sexual transmission and injecting drug use as possible preventive strategies to reverse the growing trend of infection in the country. This can translate into national and local responses that adequately address gaps in prevention services and programmes among identified most-at-risk populations, including MSMs, young and female key populations at high risk, and other vulnerable groups. Other critical issues include: harm reduction; PLHIV needs for treatment,care and support; and rights-based approach.
Management Response: [Added: 2013/12/26] [Last Updated: 2014/01/06]

This recommendation will be taken on jointly by the different Co-Sponsors of UNAIDS based on their comparative strengths and mandates, taking into account the UN technical support division of labour on HIV and AIDS in the Philippines. With HIV and AIDS as one of the sub-outcomes under the new UNDAF 2012-2018, UNDP will be focusing support on the following areas: (a) empowering MSM and transgender people to protect themselves from HIV infection, and to fully access antiretroviral therapy; (b) reducing sexual transmission of HIV among mobile and migrant populations; (c) removing punitive laws, policies, practices, stigma and discrimination that block effective responses to AIDS; and (d) localization of the AIDS response.

Key Actions:

Key Action Responsible DueDate Status Comments Documents
Continued support for capacity development of community-based MSM and transgender groups for a meaningful participation in the national and local response to HIV and AIDS.
[Added: 2014/01/06] 		HIV and AIDS Unit No due date No deadline established A national network of MSM and transgender has been established; capacities of MSM and TG groups on advocacy, organization and programme development.
Development of the operational framework of the National Strategic Plan for MSM and Transgender Populations, which serves as the roadmap outlining priorities and activities to assist the Government to interrupt the transmission of HIV and ensure timely access to HIV treatment, care and support for MSM and transgender people.
[Added: 2014/01/06] 		HIV and AIDS Unit 2012/12 Overdue-Initiated The Philippine National AIDS Council has endorsed the National Strategic Plan for MSM and Transgender Populations in April 2012, while its costed Operational Plan has been developed and validated by stakeholders in December 2012.
4. Recommendation: Facilitate a harmonized national coordination It is recommended that UNDP capacitate both PNAC and LAC to facilitate a harmonized, government-led coordination in formulating policies, implementing them and monitoring their impact on the beneficiaries. Building the capacity of PNAC and LAC entails a comprehensive assessment of the gaps especially in the linkages of PNAC with the RAATs and the LACS. This assessment may thus provide a firm baseline to which targets of closing response gaps are monitored and evaluated against. Conditionally, the chances of this strategy to become more achievable are based on the premise that coordination between national and sub-national agencies and stakeholders is enhanced. Finally, the ?Three Ones? approach also has to be enhanced so that opportunities for advocacy and resource mobilization can be tapped.
Management Response: [Added: 2013/12/26] [Last Updated: 2014/01/06]

This recommendation will be considered in the design of the Programme in the next cycle (2012-2016).

Key Actions:

5. Recommendation: Continue HIV and AIDS as a separate and full portfolio. Considering the need and urgency to respond to the growing epidemic, HIV and AIDS has earned a separate sub-outcome in the new UNDAF 2012-2018. This emphasis is consistent with UNDP?s departure from a previous project-based perspective of HIV and AIDS into a more integrated approach within a general framework of equal access to basic social protection services. In the last HIV Programme, there have been several opportunities that were tapped because of UNDP?s multi-sector response to the growing trend of HIV infections in the country; this was mainly due to the shift from being subsumed by a bigger Poverty Portfolio of the country office into its standing as a separate Programme with smaller projects of its own. There is a need to continue this thrust by mobilizing resources to keep HIV and AIDS as a full and separate portfolio in order to be consistent with the structural arrangements of UN agencies participating in the UNDAF 2012-2018 and of the Philippine government?s AMTP5.
Management Response: [Added: 2013/12/26] [Last Updated: 2014/01/06]

This recommendation will be considered in the design of the Programme in the next cycle (2012-2016).

Key Actions:

6. Recommendation: Review UNDP capacity needs for HIV and AIDS. With the MDGs drawing to its deadline in 2015 amid the country?s poor performance in keeping HIV and AIDS under control, UNDP needs to actively urge the government to comply with its MDG commitments to the international community. However, UNDP can only prompt these actions from the national government by ensuring that it promotes the UN Reform of delivering as one and by enriching its comparative advantages, such as its neutrality and positive relationship with GPH; its strengths in capacity development and advocacy; and its access to an international network of experts, who may provide valuable contributions to policy formulation and to the sharing of best practice. With the Post-2015 Agenda taking shape, UNDP?s role as the lead in promoting HIV/AIDS and other sectoral concerns of MSM and TG in the national development agenda is critical in the coming years.
Management Response: [Added: 2013/12/26] [Last Updated: 2014/01/06]

This recommendation will be considered in the design of the Programme in the next cycle (2012-2016).

Key Actions:

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