On January 20-21, the Eurasian Regional Consortium* hosted in Vilnius the final reflective meeting based on the results of the Community-led monitoring conducted by the community in Ukraine, Russia and Kyrgyzstan within the framework of the project “Thinking outside the box: overcoming challenges in community advocacy for sustainable and high-quality HIV services”.
Youth Public Movement “Partner” from Odessa (Ukraine) and Public association Kyrgyz Indigo from Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) used a “secret client” method to assess the quality of HIV testing among MSM and level of homo- and transphobia in health facilities. ANO “The Right of Everyone” together with the Association “E.V.A” conducted a survey on “Sexual and reproductive health of women living with HIV in Russia, gender equality and human rights, gender-based violence” among 312 women in the Orenburg, Leningrad and Nizhny Novgorod regions. This survey was based on the “Access to sexual and reproductive health services” tool, developed by the Eurasian Women’s Network on AIDS.
Charity organization “VOLNA” presented the results of a pilot study of satisfaction with the services of the substitution therapy program in Kiev and Kiev region. It carried out according to the methodology developed with the EHRA’s support, together with the Support Research, the Development Center and 4 organizations of the Ukrainian community.
In addition to the results of the study, participants discussed further advocacy plans and the necessary resource support for 2020, as well as they completed the table with the #Life hacks from research practitioners (available in Russian).
“Definitely, such methodologies help both in developing the community’s potential and in changing the quality of services in general.” – Igor Kozak, representative of Charity organization “VOLNA”. “Participation in the monitoring is very inspiring and provides the basis for further advocacy.”
“Community-led monitoring of satisfaction with services is a unique tool, which was created not just to teach communities how to conduct researches and write projects, but to interact with the government and make community services more effective.” – says Elena German, Program director of the Eurasian Coalition on Male Health (ECOM).
* The Eurasian Regional Consortium joined efforts of Eurasian Coalition on Male Health (ECOM), Eurasian Women’s AIDS Network (EWNA) and Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (EHRA) to respond funding insecurity for HIV services (prevention, care and treatment programs) for key population in countries of EECA.