To review the progress made by the project partners
To visit the field sites and meet with key stakeholders
To review progress on the activities undertaken and set priorities for future scale up.
During his visit to Nepal he visited all of the project partners who are currently implementing interventions at 11 sites in Nepal (1 Prison, 3 street children, 4 Peer-led intervention and 2 IDU partners).
Mr.Gunashekar also met officials from the Drug Control Program, Ministry of Home affairs, Nepal and apprised them of the progress made by the project in Nepal.
At each project site, Mr.Gunashekar met with management and staff of the partner agencies (NGOs), community members, trainers, peer outreach workers and peer volunteers.
Key Recommendations:
A detailed analysis on the effective implementation of the 'PLI approach' would be helpful in shaping up the future implementation strategies.
Encouraging efforts across the border by NGOs towards networking with NGOs and government counterparts on the issues related to drugs and HIV would be crucial.
Expectations from the peer volunteers should be better defined and be more realistic.
It is important to work with those NGOs who possess prior experience of working with the vulnerable groups.
A country specific preliminary needs assessment should be conducted before starting any intervention.
More IEC materials for conducting outreach work and materials for the beneficiaries are required.
Overall preparedness towards conducting activities for street children were limited. Efforts have to be undertaken towards making available the appropriate data on the vulnerability of the street children, mechanisms to effectively intervene with street children would help in better programming and effective implementation.
Additional mechanisms for monitoring the progress have to be devised for efficient implementation of the project activities by partner NGOs.
