Epidemiological Trends for HIV in Southern Africa: Implications for Reaching the Elimination Targets.

Southern Africa is the region worst affected by HIV in the world and accounts for one third of the global burden of HIV. Achieving the UNAIDS 90-90-90 target by 2020 and ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 depend on success in this region. We review epidemiological trends in each country in southern Africa with respect to the prevalence, incidence, mortality, coverage of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) and TB notification rates, to better understand progress in controlling HIV and TB and to determine what needs to be done to reach the UNAIDS targets.

Monitoring obstetric services: putting the 'UN Guidelines' into practice in Malawi: 3 years on.

The maternal mortality ratio is difficult to use for monitoring short-term progress in safe motherhood programs. UNICEF/WHO/UNFPA have proposed alternative process indicators monitoring the availability, utilization and quality of obstetric services. There is little experience in the large-scale use of these indicators as part of routine health information systems in developing countries.

Monitoring obstetric services: putting the UN guidelines into practice in Malawi. I: developing the system.

The UNICEF/WHO/ UNFPA "Guidelines for Monitoring the Availability and Use of Obstetric Services" was published in 1997 as a guide for implementing process indicators. The Malawi Safe Motherhood Project covers 5 million people and was the first large project to introduce the new indicators as part of a routine monitoring system. A rigorous process of needs assessment, tools development, operations research, field testing and training was conducted.