Monitoring and evaluation of programmes to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV in Africa Many countries are expanding the coverage of programmes to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV. Richard Reithinger and colleagues are concerned that without true measures of effectiveness we may not be making the best use of much needed resources

1Prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV is therefore a priority for agencies fighting the global HIV epidemic, but many questions remain about the effectiveness of the current programmes. We use the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief 2 as an example to examine how programmes to prevent mother to child transmission are monitored and evaluated and to highlight the problems.