The voluntary medical male circumcision Site Capacity and Productivity Assessment Tool (SCPT): An innovative visual management tool to optimize site service delivery.

Given constrained funding for HIV, achieving global goals on VMMC scale-up requires that providers improve service delivery operations and use labor and capital inputs as efficiently as possible to produce as many quality VMMCs as feasible. The Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision Site Capacity and Productivity Assessment Tool (SCPT) is an electronic visual management tool developed to help VMMC service providers to understand and improve their site's performance. The SCPT allows VMMC providers to: 1) track the most important human resources and capital inputs to VMMC service delivery, 2) strategically plan site capacity and targets, and 3) monitor key site-level VMMC service delivery performance indicators.

Estimating the Cost of the Design, Production, and Dissemination of Social Media Videos for Social and Behavioral Change: Evidence From Merci Mon Héros in Niger and Côte d'Ivoire.

Merci Mon Héros (MMH) is a youth-led multi-media campaign in Francophone West Africa seeking to improve reproductive health and family planning outcomes using radio, television, social media, and community events. One component to this project is the development of a series of youth-driven videos created to encourage both youth and adults to break taboos by talking to each other about reproductive health and family planning. A costing study was conducted to capture costs associated with the design, production, and dissemination of 11 MMH videos (in French) on social media in Côte d'Ivoire and Niger.

Estimating male circumcision coverage in 15 priority countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Introduction: Given the importance of voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) in reducing HIV incidence, access to and use of quality data for programme planning and management are essential. Unfortunately, such data are currently not standardized for reliable and consistent programme use in priority countries. To redress this, the UNAIDS Reference Group (RG) on Estimates, Modelling, and Projection worked with partner Avenir Health to use the Decision Makers Program Planning Toolkit (DMPPT) 2 Online to provide estimates of VMMC coverage and to support countries to set age- and geographic-specific targets.

Moving away from the "unit cost". Predicting country-specific average cost curves of VMMC services accounting for variations in service delivery platforms in sub-Saharan Africa.

Background: One critical element to optimize funding decisions involves the cost and efficiency implications of implementing alternative program components and configurations. Program planners, policy makers and funders alike are in need of relevant, strategic data and analyses to help them plan and implement effective and efficient programs. Contrary to widely accepted conceptions in both policy and academic arenas, average costs per service (so-called "unit costs") vary considerably across implementation settings and facilities.

Meta-analysis of average costs of HIV testing and counselling and voluntary medical male circumcision across thirteen countries.

Explore facility-level average costs per client of HIV testing and counselling (HTC) and voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) services in 13 countries. Through a literature search we identified studies that reported facility-level costs of HTC or VMMC programmes. We requested the primary data from authors and standardised the disparate data sources to make them comparable.

Using mathematical modeling to inform health policy: A case study from voluntary medical male circumcision scale-up in eastern and southern Africa and proposed framework for success.

Background: Modeling contributes to health program planning by allowing users to estimate future outcomes that are otherwise difficult to evaluate. However, modeling results are often not easily translated into practical policies. This paper examines the barriers and enabling factors that can allow models to better inform health decision-making.

Voluntary medical male circumcision service delivery in South Africa: The economic costs and potential opportunity for private sector involvement.

Background: In 2010, the South African Government initiated a voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) program as a part of the country's HIV prevention strategy based on compelling evidence that VMMC reduces men's risk of becoming HIV infected by approximately 60%. A previous VMMC costing study at Government and PEPFAR-supported facilities noted that the lack of sufficient data from the private sector represented a gap in knowledge concerning the overall cost of scaling up VMMC services. This study, conducted in mid-2016, focused on surgical circumcision and aims to address this limitation.

Scaling Up Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision for Human Immunodeficiency Virus Prevention for Adolescents and Young Adult Men: A Modeling Analysis of Implementation and Impact in Selected Countries.

Background: The new World Health Organization and Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS strategic framework for voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) aims to increase VMMC coverage among males aged 10-29 years in priority settings to 90% by 2021. We use mathematical modeling to assess the likelihood that selected countries will achieve this objective, given their historical VMMC progress and current implementation options.

Methods: We use the Decision Makers' Program Planning Toolkit, version 2, to examine 4 ambitious but feasible scenarios for scaling up VMMC coverage from 2017 through 2021, inclusive in Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

Correction: Estimating Client Out-of-Pocket Costs for Accessing Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision in South Africa.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Correction: The Cost of Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision in South Africa.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Estimating Client Out-of-Pocket Costs for Accessing Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision in South Africa.

In 2010, South Africa launched a countrywide effort to scale up its voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) program on the basis of compelling evidence that circumcision reduces men's risk of acquiring HIV through heterosexual intercourse. Even though VMMC is free there, clients can incur indirect out-of-pocket costs (for example transportation cost or foregone income). Because these costs can be barriers to increasing the uptake of VMMC services, we assessed them from a client perspective, to inform VMMC demand creation policies.

The Cost of Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision in South Africa.

Given compelling evidence associating voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) with men's reduced HIV acquisition through heterosexual intercourse, South Africa in 2010 began scaling up VMMC. To project the resources needed to complete 4.3 million circumcisions between 2010 and 2016, we (1) estimated the unit cost to provide VMMC; (2) assessed cost drivers and cost variances across eight provinces and VMMC service delivery modes; and (3) evaluated the costs associated with mobilize and motivate men and boys to access VMMC services.