The Washington Post (HIV funds bypassing areas in need) reports on HIV funding in Washington, DC, citing programs that have had (1) “little lasting impact,” (2) “financial and operational problems,” and even (3) outright fraud. Focusing on the “disparity in AIDS dollars in the District” is one major part of the fiscal equation, but the article doesn’t discuss how parity in funding would address 1, 2, and 3. These are symptoms to a disease which is not specific to HIV or AIDS and falls under the label of mismanagement.
Program Evaluation, which monitors progress and is a watchdog for quality, clearly connects the dots between the goals of a program and its outcomes. The DC Department of Health would benefit from having a strong evaluation function involved up-front at the program design and initiation phases of these programs.