Community Led Monitoring (CLM) & FCC

Project Overview

SEND Ghana is implementing a-five-year project on the USAID Community-Led Monitoring (CLM) of HIV Services in health facilities in seven districts in three PEPFAR supported regions namely, Western (Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis, Ahanta West Municipal, Wassa East and Ellembelle Districts), Western North (Sefwi Wiawso Municipal, and Bodi District), and Ahafo Regions (Asunafo North Municipal). Results from the CLM Activity are intended for the Government of Ghana (GOG) and PEPFAR implementing partners to better understand the Community members’ perceptions of quality of services, and care being provided to their members including human rights violations, stigma, and discrimination (S&D) and commodities availability and accessibility. The knowledge and insights gained will be feedbacked to improve health service delivery to PLHIV, KPs and TB patients throughout the operational communities.

The purpose of this activity is to ensure the provision of quality services that beneficiaries want to utilize, and guarantee that PEPFAR minimum requirements are achieved, whilst World Health Organization (WHO) quality standards are also maintained. The goal is to strengthen regional, district and local government health systems to promote the delivery of quality HIV services, institutionalize equity and responsiveness to the needs of PLHIV, and strengthen transparency and accountability, especially at the service delivery level.

Objectives

The CLM Activity is organized into two components which were formulated as objectives in the notice for funding opportunity (NOFO):

1. To provide regular and systematic information on community needs to guide the HIV planning and improvement process at facility and community levels. The CLM will accomplish this by implementing two objectives:
   • to educate and mobilize PLHIV, KP and TB patients to demand health rights
   • to support PLHIV, KP and TB patients to monitor the quality of healthcare and services being delivered to them.
2. To provide feedback on the status of fulfillment of rights, service gaps and levels of community satisfaction, to facilitate corrective actions. Towards this end, the CLM specific objectives are:
   • To enable PLHIV, KPs and TB patients to engage service providers to improve the quality of healthcare services and
   • To empower PLHIV, KPs and TB patients to hold service providers accountable for their commitments to improve quality of care and services.
3. In addition, a third component to address the global 10-10-10 societal enablers under the Focal Country Collaboration (FCC) are incorporated into the Activity:

To reduce S&D against PLHIV, KP and TB patients by strengthening coordination, collaboration, and planning of governmental agencies including health and human rights service providers in the HIV/AIDS sector to address gaps in anti-stigma and discrimination programming.

Focal Country Collaboration (FCC)

In collaboration with stakeholders such as PEPFAR, UNAIDs, Global Fund (GF) and GoG agencies have developed the FCC plan with activities outlined to eliminate stigma and discrimination against PLHIV, TB and KP (MSM and FSW). It was developed from findings from Stigma 2.0 and State of Human Rights in Ghana Report. The FCC activity is implemented at the national by the national institutions: Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC), Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and National AIDS Control Programme (NACP).

Objectives of FCC:

1. Enforce policies on stigma and discrimination against PLHIV, KPs and TB patients.
2. Sensitize and empower PLHIV, KPs and TB patients on their human rights.
3. Empower PLHIV, KPs and TB patients to report on Human Rights violation.
4. Increase advocacy capabilities and empowerment of PLHIV networks in addressing rights abused.
5. Support service providers to adhere to national quality standards and reduce stigma and discrimination.
6. Improve community mobilization programs against stigma and discrimination.

Implementing Partners

Focal NGOs: SEND partnered with focal NGOs to implement the CLM activity in each district. In addition, in each of the 7 districts, the District Monitoring Committees were formed to monitor HIV/TB services at health facilities and hold monthly meetings to plan and sensitize their members to demand quality health services and address community health issues. The CLM also works with Ghana Health Service (GHS), District Assemblies, Social Welfare, Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) at the community, district, and regional levels to support the CLM implementation process to address health gaps.

Project Duration: 5th December 2022 – 4th December 2027

Donor