Supported by PEPFAR, the government of Uganda has implemented the Determined Resilient Empowered AIDS-Free Mentored and Safe (DREAMS) Initiative. DREAMS is a package of biomedical, social and economic interventions offered to adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) aged 10–24 years with the aim of reducing HIV incidence. The DREAMS Core Package of interventions goes beyond the health sector, addressing the structural drivers that directly and indirectly increase girls’ HIV risk, including poverty, gender inequality, sexual violence, and lack of education, with the goal of reducing HIV incidence in females ages 10 to 24 by 40 percent.
METS conducted a DREAMS Project data audit to determine the quality of data reported for FY19 for the period ending August 2020. To do this, the filed teams assessed the quality of DREAMS data entered in the UDOTS in terms of accuracy, consistency and completeness.
An AGYW client audit was conducted in order to establish the service Layering given to AGYW and the impact of Covid-19. And finally, the teams provided guidance on service provision for AGYW
The DREAMS Program is implemented in 11 districts, across 170 sub counties in CDC supported districts. The METS Filed teams reached a sample of 33 sub counties during this assessment. Sub-counties were proportionately selected basing on the number of sub-counties within each district. A total of 250 AGYW were interviewed and these were distributed proportionately per sub county sampled.
The Audit focused on the following:
- Beneficiaries receiving Social Economic Strengthening (SES) services; completed all three components of financial literacy, village loan and saving association and asset financing
- AGYW completing Steppingstones (considered when AGYW had completed 10 sessions)
- Eligible beneficiaries completing SINOVUYO/Parenting (considered when AGYW had Completed 10 of 14 sessions)
- AGYW completing School based HIV and Violence Prevention (Journeys plus)
- AGYW completing full primary package of DREAMS service intervention
