On June 6, a round table was held in Yerevan to present the results of the analysis of procurement of test systems for HIV diagnosis and monitoring in the Republic of Armenia for 2021-2022. This was the first time such an analysis was conducted in Armenia. The event was jointly organized by the “Right to Health Coalition” (HAC), “International Treatment Preparedness Coalition for Eastern Europe and Central Asia” together with the NGO “Armenian Network of Positive People”.
The event was held with the financial support of the 100% Life Foundation and Alliance for Public Health within the framework of the SOS_project 2.0 project supported by the Global Fund. The meeting was attended by representatives of “National Center for Infectious Diseases”, CCM Secretariat, UNAIDS and representatives of non-profit organizations in Armenia.
Within the framework of the #SOS_project 2.0. project, a community-based monitoring on the availability of test systems for HIV diagnosis and monitoring in Armenia was conducted. After presenting the main results of the analysis and recommendations, the participants discussed such important topics as data availability issues, decentralization of testing services, NGO-based testing and availability of rapid tests in the pharmacy network. Also, representatives of international organizations voiced the problem of closed data on public procurement, including prices, volumes and manufacturers, not only in Armenia, but also in the whole Eastern Europe and Central Asia region, not only on tests, but also on ARVs, which significantly complicates the process of data collection and interpretation.
During the final discussion, further recommendations were made, including improving the methodology of data collection for analysis, improving the quality of data by providing access to public information resources in order to implement a public control mechanism, and improving the work aimed at providing rapid tests to the pharmacy network.
Anahit Harutyan, NGO Armenian Network of Positive People, shares: “This was the first time we did such a report and it did not turn out exactly as we had planned because the Ministry of Health provided us with data that was difficult to interpret. In addition, we faced the fact that the public procurement website does not allow us to get all the data we needed. But during the discussion we outlined further steps to verify the data and improve the analysis.” Anahida Papikyan, representative of the Country Coordinating Mechanism, in her turn proposed to present and disseminate this report through the Country Coordinating Mechanism.
The report will be finalized soon and published on our website.
