The Leadership Development Program in Cote d'Ivoire yielded successful collaboration between multiple ministries. As a result of participating in the program, four ministries worked together to develop and publish a compendium of harmonized and validated HIV/AIDS indicators for monitoring the national HIV response. This accomplished the goal of establishing high quality, timely, and accessible national HIV/AIDS data to inform policy in Cote d'Ivoire.

1. Collaboration works:
Leadership Development
Collaboration is a key element in the successful
Program Yields Results
collection, dissemination and use of national HIV/AIDS
data. In Cote d’Ivoire, multiple ministries are responsible
for Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) tasks related to
the country’s HIV/AIDS response.
in Côte d’Ivoire
Before participating in a Leadership Development Program,
Results from the Leadership Development Program
these ministries worked without established, harmonized and Four ministries worked together to develop and publish a compendium of harmonized and validated HIV/AIDS indicators for
validated national indicators because of a lack of coordination monitoring and evaluation of Cote d’Ivoire’s national HIV/AIDS response.
and collaboration.
As a result of the Leadership Development Program, the
four ministries worked together to develop and publish
a compendium of harmonized and validated HIV/AIDS
indicators, marking the accomplishment of the first of
several previously elusive goals. This step definitively moved
the country toward having high quality, timely and accessible
national HIV/AIDS data for informing the national
HIV/AIDS response.
Cote d’Ivoire LDP participants LDP Team discusses M&E indicators Quality data collected on meaningful
indicators inform quality HIV/AIDS services
PROCESS RESULTS
The MEASURE Evaluation project, which began in The results presentation was held on October 6th and
1998, is USAID’s flagship Monitoring and Evaluation In February 2010, the LDP was launched with a Senior
Alignment Meeting attended by members of the four included among the attendees PEPFAR Coordinator
project and was established based on the premise Jennifer Walsh, USAID Technical Advisor Bijou Muhu-
that generating demand for and improving the use ministry cabinets and Directors of the M&E units within
the ministries. At this meeting, the senior group developed ra, and CDC Director Anna Likos, as well as cabinet
of data in policy formulation, program planning, members, technical advisors, directors and other repre-
monitoring and evaluation improves health systems a shared vision for the future:
“The fight against HIV/AIDS in Cote d’Ivoire is sentatives from the four ministries.
which in turn affects health outcomes.
coordinated by a Strategic Information Group that meets
regularly and produces quality data for better monitoring The results highlighted in the meeting included the
The project is now in Phase III and is led by the published compendium of the harmonized and validat-
University of North Carolina – Carolina Population and evaluation.”
ed indicators representing the fulfillment of the desired
Center. The partners include Futures Group, ICF The first workshop of the LDP was held with teams of
measurable result, as well as a testimonial by one of the
Macro, John Snow, Inc., Management Sciences for M&E specialists from the four ministries. The shared
participants who related the impact of the LDP pro-
Health, and Tulane University. This activity in Cote vision the participants developed was one in which
gram on his particular team at the Ministry of Health.
d’Ivoire and the results achieved were made possible collaboration was also the central element:
through collaboration and synergies within the “A collaborative group representing an inter-ministerial
partner group. partnership for the regular administration of strategic HIV/ The compendium of indicators was developed
AIDS information is functional and produces high quality with input and collaboration from all of the major
information that is accessible and used by all of the actors stakeholders engaged in collecting HIV/AIDS
in the fight against AIDS to diminish the transmission of information. These organizations included:
BACKGROUND HIV/AIDS in Cote d’Ivoire.”
Given the strong emphasis on collaboration, it was decided ƒƒ Donors, including PEPFAR, CDC, USAID
When the MEASURE Evaluation Chief of Party and her
team identified leadership as the key challenge impeding to have the participants from all four ministries continue ƒƒ Non-governmental organizations, such as EGPAF and
the ministries’ success, MEASURE Evaluation offered a working together as a single team to achieve their desired Alliance CI
Leadership Development Program (LDP) that brought result which they stated as:
together the M&E teams from all four ministries. The need “A compendium of all the national HIV/AIDS ƒƒ Ministries and other government agencies, including
for leadership development was evidenced by difficulties indicators fully harmonized and validated by all of the the Ministry of Defense, the pharmaceutical agency,
bringing the teams together and by a lack of coordination actors in the fight against AIDS within 6 months.” the national program for persons living with HIV/
among the ministries to produce national data. There was AIDS, and the regional hospital authority
a lack of trust and commitment, and a desire on the part
of different teams to “protect” their data and perceived For more information contact:
national M&E positions and roles. The team-focused LDP At the end of the first workshop, Dr. Edwige Bosso, MEASURE Evaluation M&E Advisor, exclaimed, Xavier Alterescu
was an ideal way to address these issues. “We have already achieved one important result. Before this program, we couldn’t even get the participants into the xalterescu@msh.org
Scott McKeown
same room, much less seeking to collaborate with each other!” smckeown@email.unc.edu
Susan Post
spost@msh.org