On 19 January 2022, APTN held the first Trans COMP Community-based Monitoring Training with our community partners in Thailand. This 2 hours training is facilitated by a country partner and then presented by Emily Rowe as APTN’s CBM tool consultant. It was ended by a Q&A session at the end of the training. A translator is present at the entire event to ensure accessibility of the training. This is a part of an ongoing series of training and will be held in 7 more countries, including Lao PDR, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, and Papua New Guinea.
Communities occupy a central position in effective health systems, notably through monitoring of health service quality by giving community recipients of a care a voice. There are existing CBM tools and community-led monitoring mechanisms that is implemented and piloted in the region, however, none has focused on looking at trans-competency of healthcare services that are most relevant to the trans community. This is why APTN developed a Trans COMP community-based monitoring (CBM) tool, that is administered and led by community members, to measure the availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality (AAAQ) of healthcare services provided to trans people. This would include: sexual and reproductive health, HIV and STI-related services, gender-affirming care, mental health and general healthcare. This is an essential tool that communities will be able to use to advocate for better healthcare systems and services and to hold government and healthcare providers accountable.
The Trans COMP CBM tool development process included reviewing existing CBM tools and CLM processes that are being used by country partners/country sub-recipients and CBOs, and possibly adapting it for these projects. Country partners/country sub recipients and CBOs were involved in providing inputs, reviewing, finalisation and implementation of the CBM tool in their respective countries. Selected healthcare providers were involved in the design/review of the CBM tool to ensure greater involvement and accountability from healthcare providers on responding proactively to the results of the assessment.
The upcoming final report of this project will be available soon!
This project was executed under the EpiC Project with support from Key Population Investment Funds (KPIF), and the Global Fund – Sustainability of HIV Services for Key Populations in Asia (SKPA) Program.