6 Programme Management and Organizational Capacity-building
C. Programme data from routine direct contact between sex workers and programme services Data on contacts by sex workers with outreach workers, outreach services and clinical services are key to monitoring programme coverage. Ideally, this information should be collected at the point of contact and aggregated upward to the NGO, district, state and central levels, with minimal transcription to minimize errors. Depending on the community outreach workers’ level of education, pictorial tools may be used. In this case, the role of the community outreach worker’ s supervisor / manager is to capture this information anonymously in a format that can be made electronic( e. g. number of new and repeat contacts, number of condoms distributed, number of referrals, etc.).
In addition to data associated with routine outreach activities, some data the programme may want to monitor are generated more irregularly, such as data on incidents of violence or access to entitlements. Because these events are not routine and usually require an additional form to be submitted, they are more difficult to track. It is recommended that sites submit reports routinely even if there are no events to report, in order to understand whether low numbers reflect reality or represent a failure to report the information.
Tracking mechanisms. Sex workers may be highly mobile, moving from one area to another within a country or even migrating across borders. This makes it difficult to monitor the total number of sex workers receiving services, because as they move into areas serviced by a different team or implementing organization they may be counted as a“ new” sex worker to the programme. One way to address this is to ask sex workers who appear new to the programme whether they have received services before and from where; another is to provide some sort of anonymous, non-stigmatizing ID card that indicates that the sex worker has received services from the programme. A local NGO or service unit might record new contacts, new-to-area contacts and previous contacts as a way to distinguish this while capturing the degree of mobility.
Biometric markers, such as electronically recorded fingerprints, have sometimes been proposed as a way to identify programme participants. The expense associated with installing electronic data collection devices at all service points and establishing and maintaining a centralized database makes this unfeasible for most programmes. However, even where the cost is not an issue, the use of biometric data is considered an infringement of sex workers’ rights, because of the potential for the abuse of the identifying data by law enforcement authorities or other groups. Therefore the use of biometric data is not recommended in programmes with sex workers.
D. Administrative data related to services, including drugs, consumables and referrals Drugs and consumable supplies are managed with appropriate stock management policies and procedures. The importance of these administrative data is to: ensure consistent, uninterrupted supply of drugs, consumables and commodities; monitor consumption / distribution as a marker of coverage( e. g. condoms distributed compared to the estimated gap); and corroborate clinic reporting( e. g. STI drugs and syndromes reported).
Referral outcomes( i. e. whether a sex worker referred to a service attended the service, not the clinical outcome) should be assessed through an established communication channel with the referral service.( Clinical outcomes, such as the result of an HIV test or undetectable viral load, are important outcomes to monitor, but collecting this type of data is not the responsibility of sex worker interventions.)
144