Activities
The Centre is composed of a core management team, and a research and teaching group and managed in partnership with the UNDP Office in Croatia. The work of the Centre has been funded by WHO EURO, GTZ, the European Commission, UNDP and WHO EMRO.
The work strategy of the Centre is built around responding to national and regional needs and achieving capacity development in HIV surveillance by:
- Developing innovative teaching programme and organising training courses
- Providing technical assistance
- Conducting surveillance-related research
- Development of partnerships and collaborative networks with national and international institutions
- Bringing together a wide range of expertise
- Adapting surveillance guidelines and tools
Training courses
Thirty training courses organised by the Centre since September 2004 were attended by more than 600 participants from 54 countries in Europe, North and Central Africa and the Middle East. Twenty-one courses were organized in Croatia and nine outside Croatia. Some courses, such as the courses on respondent-driven sampling and monitoring and evaluation of HIV programmes were held several times in Zagreb, Croatia, and elsewhere.
Innovative processes:
Extensive training materials with case studies and practical exercises on HIV surveillance have been developed and implemented, mainly to settings characterised by low-level and concentrated HIV epidemics. All modules have been extensively evaluated. Training is based on interactive methods and 30-50% of time is spent on practical exercises, in particular on a protocol for the surveillance system development. Participants are encouraged to reflect upon and apply their knowledge to their own country settings and some have organised such training courses in their own countries.
Scholarship programme:
A unique feature of the teaching programme since 2006 has been the provision of scholarships. Enrollment on the scholarship programme is based on applicants' CV, the completed application form and their letter of interest. The primary requirement is the work on HIV surveillance and an outline of future plans for work on HIV surveillance. Scholarships were provided since 2006 to 49 participants from eastern Europe and the Middle East.
Technical assistance included carrying out various activities related to the work on HIV surveillance and HIV prevention development, such as design and implementation of HIV surveys, systems of monitoring and evaluation and writing-up proposals for the GFATM. Technical assistance was provided to 11 countries: Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, FYR Macedonia, Iran, Lithuania, Montenegro, Pakistan, Serbia, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. We also work continuously as advisors to WHO EURO, WHO EMRO, UNDP and UNICEF on carrying out various research projects and consultancy missions, and development of HIV surveillance tools and guidelines.
Research
Our interest in implementation and evaluation of various research methodologies in surveillance help us in devising high quality surveillance systems and understanding the factors that enable or hinder their successful implementation.
We have carried out the following surveillance-related research activities:
- a bio-behavioural survey using respondent driven sampling among MSM in Zagreb in 2006. This was the first study conducted among MSM using a probabilistic sampling method in Croatia, and one of the first such surveys in eastern Europe.
- a general population cluster-based sexual health survey among young people carried out on a national sample in Croatia in 2005
- bio-behavioural respondent-driven sampling surveys in IDUs in three cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2007.
- the assessment and interpretation of the HIV epidemics and the policy responses among MSM in eastern Europe for WHO EURO, and this work is expected to be completed in July 2008.
Adaptation of Surveillance Tools and Guidelines
Guidelines for implementation of HIV/AIDS surveillance systems in low-level and concentrated epidemics have been developed for WHO EMRO to assist surveillance officers and programme managers in the planning, design and implementation of various components of HIV surveillance. The Guidelines are planned to be translated by WHO EMRO Office in Arabic and French.
The Centre has also conducted the adaptation of the CDC training module on respondent-driven sampling for the WHO EMRO Region, and participated at the workshop on the adaptation of the HIV surveillance training manuals for WHO EMRO in Luxor, February 2008. We have worked on adaptation of the behavioural questionnaires for groups-at-risk in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Azerbaijan and Yemen.
