Field assessment of Emergency Plan centrally-funded HIV prevention programs for youth.

In an effort to mitigate the spread of HIV among youth in developing nations the U.S. Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Emergency Plan) through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funded 14 faith-based and nongovernmental organizations in 2004 and 2005 to carry out multi-country HIV prevention programs that have as their primary objective the promotion of abstinence until marriage fidelity in marriage and sexual relationships and avoidance of unhealthy sexual behaviors among youth aged 10-24. (For brevity purposes these abstinence and fidelity in marriage programs are called ABY programs which refers to the widely-used descriptive phrase: "abstinence and be faithful for youth.") In 2006 to assess and improve the quality of these centrally-funded multi-country ABY programs USAID requested that the MEASURE Evaluation project carry out an evaluation of these partners program activities. The evaluation was divided into two phases: a process evaluation phase (Phase I) and an outcome evaluation phase (Phase II). The primary focus of Phase I was to produce information useful for making recommendations for "mid-course corrections" to the ABY programs to help maximize their potential benefits. This Phase I report provides an assessment of the quality and rigor of centrally-funded ABY partner programs and overall recommendations for strengthening these and other abstinence and partner reduction programs for youth. (excerpt)