Credit: UNAIDS/L.Taylor
In the context of decreasing international funding for HIV responses, policymakers in many middle- and low- income countries are trying to contain the increasing costs for service delivery, commodities, drugs and other costs, while at the same time scaling up HIV prevention, treatment and care services.
In order to help countries monitor and evaluate the economic aspects of HIV service provision, UNAIDS has produced a generic HIV facility costing document titled Manual for Costing HIV Facilities and Services.
The manual, together with an accompanying Workbook for collection of Cost Information of HIV Services, have been produced to provide standardized guidance for countries to collect cost data in their facilities that provide HIV prevention or treatment services.
A major problem in middle- and low-income countries continues to be a lack of basic information on the use of services, their cost, outcome and impact; those few costing studies which are performed are often not implemented in a standardized fashion
Eddy Beck, UNAIDS Senior Technical Advisor
“A major problem in middle- and low-income countries continues to be a lack of basic information on the use of services, their cost, outcome and impact; those few costing studies which are performed are often not done so in a standardized fashion,” said Eddy Beck, UNAIDS Senior Technical Advisor.
The new publications aim to provide policymakers and implementers with the tools to provide robust and contemporary strategic data, which can inform their national strategic plans. This includes financial information on expenditure and costs to help the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of HIV services that are sustainable in the long term.
Efficiencies can pre-empt increasing costs such as the future number of people requiring second- or third-line drugs thanks to the success in closing the gap in treatment access. These guidelines are therefore designed to help countries achieve such much-needed efficiency gains that will allow them to efficiently scale up and deliver all HIV services required.
