The Avahan Experience in India

Conversations on Sustainable Financing for Development

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Results for Development Institute (R4D) have launched a new event series, Conversations on Sustainable Financing for Development. The series digs deeply into questions surrounding the process of countries transitioning away from external assistance for health and development.

Transitioning Programs from Donor Support to Government: The Avahan Experience in India

As middle-income countries increasingly transition away from external donor assistance for health, the challenges of sustaining the gains achieved will be formidable. To help capture valuable lessons learned from recent transition processes, R4D is hosting a series of panels. This upcoming panel will discuss the rationale and strategy behind the Avahan transition in India, its execution, and results to date.

Avahan, a large-scale HIV prevention intervention in India, was transitioned over a period of four years from funding and management from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and its partners to local ownership. This transition involved substantial coordinated efforts from BMGF and its implementing partners, and federal and state government agencies. Was this transition successful? How did the planning and alignment efforts undertaken in preparation for transition support the process? What have been the after-effects of transition for programs and the communities they serve? Are the lessons from Avahan’s scale up and transition experience relevant to HIV prevention implementation programs at scale in other countries?

Speakers and panelists

Dr. Sara Bennett, Associate Professor, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Dr. Neeraj Dhingra, Deputy Director, National AIDS Control Organisation, India
Matangi Jayaram, Senior Program Officer-Avahan, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Dr. Robert Hecht, Managing Director, Results for Development Institute
Lisa Carty, Director, US Liaison Office, UNAIDS (Moderator)

Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies
Thursday, May 28, 2015
10:00 am – Noon