The Determinants of Technical Efficiency of a Large Scale HIV Prevention Project: Application of the DEA Double Bootstrap Using Panel Data from the Indian Avahan

Abstract

Background: In 2004, the largest HIV prevention project (Avahan) conducted globally was implemented in India. Avahan was implemented by NGOs supported by state lead partners in order to provide HIV prevention services to high-risk population groups. In 2007, most of the NGOs reached full coverage.

Using HIV self-testing to increase the affordability of community-based HIV testing services

“…Yet, reaching the first 90 target called for innovative methods to reach undertested groups, notably men and young people (aged [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] among whom awareness of HIV positive status was only 76.6% and 67.6% respectively [1,3,6,7] . Following demonstrated success elsewhere in southern Africa, the Lesotho Ministry of Health (MOH) added HIV self-testing (HIVST) to the HTS strategy in 2017 with technical support and funding provided by the STAR (HIV Self-Testing AfRica) Initiative [8][9][10][11][12][13] .…”

“…Provision of multiple services delivered jointly alongside conventional HTS has the theoretical potential to achieve economies of scope [14,15] , through efficiency gains that reflect sharing of overheads, common fixed costs or through joint learning by staff for services provision or demand creation [16,17] . In particular, HIV self-testing can increase total testing numbers, but may also increase the programme's technical efficiency when provided alongside standard testing services if more people are diagnosed at a given cost [18] .…”