Enhancing Partner Performance through Administrative Site Visits

The CDC Haiti CoAg team, TB team, and a representative from implementing partner GHESKIO visited the Sanatorium de Port-Au-Prince. The team was able to tour the new addition to the Sanatorium.

During the 2017 fiscal year (FY17), CDC Haiti visited 71 of its 88 President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)-funded health facilities – marking the first time CDC Haiti completed such a high volume of administrative site visits in a single year. The visits took place from March 2017 to September 2017 throughout all ten geographic departments in Haitian. The purpose of these visits was to conduct an administrative and technical review of the clinics and hospitals supported by PEPFAR funding.

CDC Haiti partners with eight local and international organizations, including the government of Haiti, to implement a diverse set of PEPFAR-funded activities focused on HIV prevention, testing and counseling services, the provision of treatment, and support to laboratory and health information systems. In an effort to monitor partner progress at the site level, CDC conducts annual administrative reviews. Over the past two years, CDC Haiti conducted administrative desk reviews with the implementing partners in lieu of site visits due to travel restrictions. To perform administrative desk reviews, the Cooperative Agreement (CoAg) team and the prime partners requested electronic copies of a site’s documents to evaluate its operational and financial performance. As travel restrictions were lifted, the CDC Haiti team were able to conduct in-person administrative site visits.

Figure 1. The map indicates the CDC Haiti sites that were visited during the FY17 initiative.

The administrative site visits complement technical visits. During administrative site visits the CoAg team reviews items pertaining to the administration of the program office such as management records, financial reports, technical assistance, human resources, accounting systems, and inventory. Previously, the CoAg team and technical teams conducted site visits separately. To enhance efficiency and comprehensiveness, CDC initiated joint administrative and technical visits in FY17.

With the participation of key members of the partner organizations, the CoAg team and sites were able to address immediate issues, which included accounting systems training needs and assessment of equipment needs. Meetings with physicians, staff, and patients provided a clear perspective of challenges facing the program and allowed for an innovative exchange of ideas to overcome the identified barriers. These visits facilitated subsequent strategic meetings with the site personnel and the prime partners to address unresolved recurrent issues.

While there were some postponements, this site visit initiative has equipped the CDC Haiti staff with comprehensive site-level knowledge that will allow them to provide more expeditious and efficient technical assistance to the prime partners and support the work of the PEPFAR program. This effort was accomplished due to the participation of the CDC motor pool, logistics, administrative, technical, regional, and management teams.