Wa, Nov. 30, GNA - The Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC), on Monday, donat= ed seven desktop computers to the Upper West Regional Coordinating Council (RCC), at Wa, for distribution to seven District Assemblies in the Region= .. The seven computers, valued at GH¢13,300.00, was made available wi= th funds from DANIDA. They would be used in facilitating the HIV and AIDS data management system and also facilitate timely reporting to GAC.

Mr Samuel Dery, Management Information System Officer of the Commission, who presented the computers to Alhaji Issahaku Salia, the Upp= er West Regional Minister, on behalf of the Director General, Dr. Angela El-Adas, thanked the Regional and District AIDS Committees for their wonderful contributions to the national HIV/AIDS response. He said GAC had over the years been at the forefront in strengthenin= g the monitoring and evaluation system for effective national response. He however stated that the recent review of the National Strategic Framework (NSF II) identified some key challenges in the data management systems at the decentralised level. These he said include poor data quality, late submission of reports by most MMDAs, multiple vertical reporting systems as well as inadequate monitoring by Regional and District AIDS Committees, among others. He said the Commission had moved from the next phase of the national=

response, under the National Strategic Plan (NSP 2011-2015), stressing th= at, there was the need to put in place stronger monitoring and evaluation sys= tem to help measure the success or otherwise of the national response for the=

next five years. Mr Dery said there was the need to also ensure solid coordination an= d monitoring at the Regional and district levels. He said to achieve this; GAC had decided to set up Regional and District level Technical Support Units to further strengthen coordination=

and management of the decentralised response and facilitate the identification and provision of Technical Assistance in areas of need in the regions and districts.

Alhaji Issahaku Salia commended GAC for the donation and said it was=

necessary to monitor information on HIV/AIDS, to curtail its spread and reduce its devastating effects. He assured the Commission that the computers would be immediately released to the beneficiary districts for effective work to begin. Alhaji Tamimu Zaidu, a Deputy Director, at the RCC, who is also the Regional Focal Person on HIV and AIDS, charged the District Focal Persons= to ensure that they presented quality and timely data with the aid of the computers. 30 Nov. 10