HIVCORE and EGPAF: A New Partnership

Posted by Jane Coaston
Washington, D.C.
January 21, 2013

EGPAF is taking part in a new partnership focused on improving the scale and speed of HIV care and treatment and prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) efforts.

According to EGPAF’s own Godfrey Woelk, Technical Advisor for the partnership, HIVCORE is being carried out by a consortium of The Futures Group, the University of Washington, and EGPAF, and led by The Population Council. “The goal of the Task Order is to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, scale and quality of HIV and AIDS treatment, care, support and prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programs by conducting operations research (OR) and program evaluation, promoting the utilization of results, and building local capacity to conduct this work,” said Woelk.

What is “operations research?” Woelk explained that operations research (OR) applies scientific research principles to health programs in order to improve the operations of these programs. “In the context of this partnership, it means emphasizing relatively short term projects, which attain a level of scientific rigor through balancing expense, time, and outcomes, with practical and meaningful results that can impact program operations.”

In the partnership, EGPAF will focus on applying operations research principles to prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) efforts and treating HIV-positive infants.