METHODS OF WORK

Several different methods were employed during the meeting: presentations of technical updates and documents, presentations of country experiences followed by discussions, group discussions on key issues, a field visit to PMTCT pilot sites in Gaborone, and country-specific group work on monitoring and evaluation plans. To summarise by day:

Day 1:

After the official opening, technical updates were presented on drugs and infant feeding, followed by discussion. Countries were then requested to share experiences, concentrating on a specific topic, with discussions at the end of the session. In the last session of the day, recently developed materials, guidelines and training courses were briefly introduced.

Day 2:

During the second day, group discussions on priority topics highlighted lessons learned in the pilots in the areas of communication, VCT, infant feeding, care and support, antiretroviral (ARV) drugs and HIV tests.

Day 3:

In the morning, participants split up into groups and visited health facilities in Gaborone. The afternoon was spent in three groups, further discussing communication, VCT and infant feeding, referring to the observations in the field.

Day 4:

This day was entirely devoted to monitoring and evaluation, with presentations of country experiences and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) documents, country-specific group work on M&E plans and presentations from selected countries.

Day 5:

The last day looked at the way forward, scaling up and resource mobilisation in the framework of the IPAA. Countries listed their needs for support, and representatives of UN agencies at regional and global level discussed how coordination of support could be improved. In the final session, the participants agreed upon the conclusions and recommendations from the meeting.