Resources and Tools:A Step-by-Step Methodological Guide for Costing HIV/AIDS Activities

Many developing countries have recognized the need for comprehensive national reforms and comprehensive prevention, treatment, and care and support initiatives to reduce future transmission of and to meet the growing demand for HIV/AIDS services. As a part of these national health reform initiatives, governments are exploring ways to allocate resources in the most efficient and effective way to mitigate the HIV/AIDS epidemic. However, many countries lack information on the level and nature of the costs of HIV/AIDS programs. This document provides an introduction to the procedure for calculating and analyzing the costs of HIV/AIDS programs and describes how to measure directly the actual costs of a program that is up and running. The step-by-step guide is intended to provide project managers in the field with a framework for how to do measure costs for a single, recent year in the life of an HIV/AIDS program. An illustrative activities list in the report annex will assist the user to develop an activities-based framework. The information gleaned from the costing framework will enable policymakers and program managers to make informed resource allocation decisions