Technical Brief: Going Online to Accelerate the Impact of HIV Programs

As of 2018, LINKAGES supports HIV programs in 30 countries across the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia through more than 150 awards to community service organizations (CSOs) and partnerships with governments and the private sector. The project's goal is to accelerate the ability of partner governments, community-led CSOs, and private-sector providers to plan, deliver, and optimize comprehensive HIV prevention, care, and treatment services to reduce HIV transmission among people at risk for HIV and help those who are HIV positive to live longer. To achieve this goal, LINKAGES has developed a tool for HIV programs to collect feedback from populations at risk for HIV using quick online surveys. The survey is designed to be easy to read and take minimal time to complete, and it can be adapted to meet the needs of individual programs. The survey collects information about population and HIV risk characteristics, such as age, gender, sexuality, HIV risk behaviors, and HIV status, as well as data on access to and uptake of HIV services. The survey is shared widely online, promoted through online advertisements and social media influencers, to reach existing program beneficiaries and those not currently engaged with the program. The survey is not narrowly targeted to respondents according to gender, sexuality, drug use, or sexual behaviors, which helps improve the response rate among people who are unlikely to disclose being a member of a stigmatized population. The online survey has been implemented in 17 countries, with 8,300 survey responses globally, and an average of 300 complete responses per country. The survey was implemented in the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia, and the results have been useful for programming, such as identifying that 73% of the audience would be willing to pay for quality HIV services and online booking was the most popular preference for getting linked to those services. In Kenya, the online survey found that among male respondents at risk for HIV, most preferred accessing HIV information through an online search. The program responded with the "I am 1 in 3" social media campaign to raise awareness about HIV risk and lead people to booking HIV tests online. The campaign will launch later in fiscal year 2019. The costs to use this online survey include time from local facilitators/reviewers and remote technical assistance to advise on the process. The field team will need to convene a few group discussions to validate the tool. For rollout, the program should budget for incentives for participation, the cost of a premium SurveyMonkey account, and the cost to advertise the survey online. Non-staff costs may total between $200 and $1,000. The LINKAGES project is the largest global project dedicated to key populations and is led by FHI 360 in partnership with other organizations. The project's goal is to accelerate the ability of partner governments, community-led CSOs, and private-sector providers to plan, deliver, and optimize comprehensive HIV prevention, care, and treatment services to reduce HIV transmission among people at risk for HIV and help those who are HIV positive to live longer.