Policy Implications of the first Systematic Tracking of Financial Flows for HIV/AIDS in Ukraine is presentation delivered by the nine health care experts in Toronto in August 2006.The presentation looks at background information of HIV/AIDS like prevalance, HIV/Aids statistics, HIV/AIDS spending, finances sources, expenditures by functions, comparison with other countries in the scope of expenditures by functions etc. Authors of the presentation: Yuriy Chechulin, George Gotsadze,Catherine Chanfreau, Liudmila Husak,Vinay Saldanha, Anastasiya Nitsoy, Viktor Galayda,Manjiri Bhawalkar, Tania Dmytraczenko. View the full version of the presentation.
Category: Europe & Eurasia
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Premium Estimates for the 2008 State Health Care Benefit Program for the Poor
As a result of technical assistance provided by the CoReform project the Government of Georgia in 2007 introduced targeted (to poor) health care benefit program in two pilot regions (city of Tbilisi and Imereti region) of Georgia covering approximately 180,000 individuals below poverty line. This program is aimed at paying for health care insurance coverage that population obtains from private insurance companies on the market. During fall 2007, the GoG made decision and announced to public that it will gradually expand program coverage to approximately 1.2 million individuals over the course of several years. In order to estimate reasonable monthly premium costs for people living below the poverty line, children and the elderly, and allocate budgetary resources accordingly, the MoLHSA requested USAID for assistance, through CoReform, to estimate Monthly Premium for the State Insurance Program to inform the State budget allocations for 2008. It is estimated that during 2008 up to 800 000 poor individual will receive such benefits. The project has developed a plan for immediate assistance with the calculations required for the 2008 budget spending.Monthly Premium estimations done by CoReform/CIF hired actuaries in December 2007 have already informed 2008 State Budget allocations approved on December 28, 2007 and reflected in the Government of Georgia (GoG) Decree #92, dated April 08, 2008, namely: a) average premium 11 Gel per month per person that makes 132 Gel per person per annum informed Article 6 (3) of the Decree in question and b) different premium coefficients estimated for different age groups and these coefficients are reflected in the Article 6 (4) of the said Decree.
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Premium Estimates for the 2009 State Health Care Benefit Program for the Poor
It is estimated that during 2009 up to 900 000 poor individual will be covered by the Program. Monthly Premium estimations done by CoReform/CIF hired actuaries in September 2008 have already submitted to the MoLHSA to inform 2009 State Budget allocations, namely: a) average premium 12.64 Gel per month per person that makes 151.68 Gel per person per annum; b) different premium coefficients estimated for the following scenarios: i) age and sex; ii) different age groups (age 0-49; age 50-74; age 75 and above); iii) age, sex and family size; iv) age, sex and region; The premium estimations informed GoG Decree #32 dated February 19, 2009, where average premium exceeds 12.64 GEL and equals 15 Gel per month, largely because of Government’s policy decision to further expand insurance package for the Poor.
Premium Estimates for the 2009 State Health Care Benefit Program for the Poor (ENG)
Premium Estimates for the 2009 State Health Care Benefit Program for the Poor (GEO) -
Calculation of Funds Spent by the State and Donors on TB Treatment and Prevention
The purpose of this document is to estimate the costs incurred by the government and donors on tuberculosis prevention and treatment in Georgia in 2001-2005. The document does not address private spending of the population on tuberculosis, since there is no reliable information (household surveys) presently available on private household expenditure on the treatment of the disease. Expenditures of the Georgian government and donors on tuberculosis treatment and its prevention in Georgia for the period 2001-2005 were calculated by Curatio International Foundation for project, “Cooperation for the Transformation of Georgian Health Care System” (CoReform) funded by the USAID/Caucasus Mission. View the full version.
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Statement for the Media-The Study on Injected Drug Users Completed
Only 1/4 of Intravenous Drug Users are getting tested for HIV, putting their wife’s and girlfriends and the rest of the Georgian population at risk for a widening epidemic
Curatio International Foundation, a Georgian think tank, says “motivating IDUS to get tested is the key to prevention.”
According to a recent study by Curatio International Foundation and Public Union Bemoni, the Injecting Drug Users (IDUs) can put their regular sex partners at risk of HIV infection by having unprotected sex with them.
The study, which was conducted in 2009 in five different locations in Georgia (Tbilisi, Batumi, Zugdidi, Telavi and Gori) found that only 25% of intravenous drug users have been ever tested for HIV through their lifetime -even though the testing is free and available in their communities.
The IDUs especially in Tbilisi are well educated and half are married. The majority of them started drug injection in their late teens. The most frequently injected drug by Tbilisi IDUs is subutex, while Batumi IDUs favor heroin.
The IDUs are quite knowledgeable on HIV transmission routes, however they still commit behaviors that pose risk to their sexual or needle partners.
About half of married IDUs have occasional sex partners and every second of them did not use condoms with such partners. This is particularly unconscionable because in most of cases IDUs do not use condoms with their wives, girlfriends.
Highest HIV rates and risky behavior were found among Batumi IDUs compared to other cities.
“Low uptake of testing services indicates that a large proportion of IDUs is unaware of their HIV status, which leads to high risk behaviors,” says Ketevan Goguadze, project manager, “Motivating IDUs to get tested is the most effective way to prevent spread this infection.”
The study was undertaken in 2009 under the Global Fund supported project implemented by Curatio International Foundation, a local think tank working on the health care issues, and its partner organizations.
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National and subnational HIV/AIDS coordination: are global health initiatives closing the gap between intent and practice?
The research article prepared by the international experts and representatives of Curatio International Foundation was published in the international journal Globalization and Health web site. The article is available at US National Library of Medicine as well.
The paper identifies residual national and subnational obstacles to effective coordination and optimal use of funds by focal GHIs, which these GHIs, other donors and country partners need to collectively address.
Follow the link to view the abstract and the full version of the article.
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Assessment of HIV/AIDS Surveillance System Pilot is Already Available
Curatio International Foundation has provided Assessment of HIV/AIDS surveillance system pilot. The operations research of HIV/AIDS surveillance pilot in Georgia was conducted in the framework of the project “Establishment of evidence-base for national HIV/AIDS program by strengthening the HIV/AIDS surveillance system in the country” funded by the Global Fund, as a preparatory stage for revision of HIV/AIDS surveillance national guidelines. The operations research aims to assess the performance of a new design of HIV/AIDS routine and sentinel surveillance system, developed in the frames of the project in pilot regions of Tbilisi and Adjara; to reveal the factors hindering effective performance of the system, standard operational procedures and limitations of registration, notification, and reporting forms and to develop recommendations for their revision for countrywide implementation of the new design of the system.Full version of the report is available in English and Georgian languages.
Get full report (English version)
Get full report (Georgian version) -
Findings of Behavior Surveillance Surveys (BSS) Endorsed
Curatio International Foundation in collaboration with Infectious Diseases, AIDS and Clinical Immunology Research Center and Public Union Bemoni and association Tanadgoma has carried out Behavior Surveillance Surveys with biomarker component among Injecting Drug Users (IDUs), Commercial Sex Workers (CSWs), and Prisoners. As a result of endeavor 1100 IDUs from capital Tbilisi plus 4 regional cities, 210 prisoners, and 280 CSWs have been interviewed.
The project is funded by the Global Fund and implemented by the Curatio International Foundation in partnership with Georgian Infectious diseases, AIDS and Clinical Immunology Research Center, Public Union “Bemoni” and Association “Tanadgoma”.
Follow the link to view the full versions of the documents.
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Internship at Curatio International Foundation is challenging for John Hopkins University Students
Throughout 2 weeks Curatio International Foundation will be hosting interns from Public Health School at John Hopkins University Sudit Ranade and Mollie Werlieb.
Having the opportunity to undertake internship at Curatio International Foundation for the first ever time, students are challenged and motivated to help the organization in analyzing the data from the Bio Behavioral Surveillance Survey for injection drug users and write the article for scientific journal submission.
Mollie Werlieb has an extensive NGO experience both in US and in former Soviet Union, specifically in Russia and Ukraine. Her particular interest lies in behavioral determinants of health and healthy life style. She seeks and hopes to learn more about health status of people in Georgia, explore people’s attitudes and ideas about health. Working on Injection Drug Users project is especially challenging since she hopes that they may develop some recommendations for effective intervention and have impact in elaborating adequate policy.
Sudit Ranade is the family physician in Canada and is doing his Masters in Public Health with the focus on international health and child health. This internship opportunity poses him the challenge to learn how organizations like CIF deal with large volumes of data and where do all these data go afterwards. “We are working to analyze all the data. We want the report to be applicable to increasing scientific knowledge but also have practical applications. It is challenging to see how organizations use this kind of data to potentially impact the world’s scenario”.
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The Art of Crafting Policy Briefs
High quality research evidence is one of the critical preconditions for employing the evidence by policy makers into policy making. However, high quality research evidence itself is not sufficient; it must be communicated in ways that make it compelling.
On February 5-6 alliance of Georgian NGOs attended the training in designing policy briefs. The course took place in the framework of the Strengthening Capacity of Civil Society for Promoting Research Evidence into Policy Development in Georgia and was led by Ketevan Chkhatarashvili, the President of Curatio International Foundation.
The course on policy briefs is designed to enhance participant’s skills in writing policy brief in a way that will enable them to adapt/summarize a more reader-friendly research and to disseminate research findings. Research evidence is one important consideration in the decision-making process. However, one common complaint from policy makers is that they have little time to read full research reports. Therefore, well structured, concise and easy to read policy brief is an important tool for researchers to effectively communicate research findings to policy makers.
The course gave the clear insight of why is the policy brief important, who can be the target audience of the policy brief and how the messages should be conveyed in order to influence the reader and trigger the interest of the policy maker to choose a particular policy alternative or course of action in a current policy debate.
Participants discussed some common and well known policy briefs and practiced in criticizing as well as finding positive sides. At the final session participants were requested to choose the policy topic and draft a policy brief in accordance with the knowledge obtained.
“This course was very timely. The topic is very relevant and lecurer led it exactly to the point. I found training extremely interactive and full of energy. It will really help organizations to acquire the knowledge and technique of writing policy briefs and thus raise the quality and effectiveness of their communication with policy makers”, noted Tamar Karosanidze, Director of Transparency International.
“There is a rich experience, knowledge and information accumulated over many years on public policy issues, although we find it hard to put together all these components and use them effectively. Training provided by CIF was timely and precisely responded to this need”- Nikoloz Loladze, Director of United Georgia Professional Network said.
Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research (HPSR) and Open Society Georgia Foundation (OSGF) support this effort.