News & insights

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 58 million people suffer from HCV globally. In support of the global goal to eliminate viral hepatitis as a public health problem by 2030, and with particular attention to more vulnerable populations, such as those living in low and middle-income countries, Unitaid has invested to make essential medicines available, simplify testing and treatment, improve diagnostic tools, bring care closer to the people at risk, and raise awareness of treatment programmes with affected communities and governments.

CEPA is pleased to have provided Unitaid with a portfolio-wide evaluation of its investments in hepatitis C along with end of grant evaluations of the FIND HEAD-Start and Coalition PLUS grants. The publication of our report coincides with the build up to World Hepatitis Day (28 July), which is observed annually to help raise awareness of viral hepatitis.

The overall objectives of our evaluation were to assess:

• the extent to which Unitaid has established an environment to catalyse the HCV diagnostic and treatment markets; and
• the extent to which Unitaid investments have contributed to creating conditions and tools for scale-up and the potential for scale-up going forward.

The methodology employed a theory-of-change based approach and was based on a mixed-methods comprising desk-based document review; stakeholder interviews; country case studies; impact modelling; and quantitative data analysis. The evaluation also conducted a workshop on preliminary findings with some of the key stakeholders.