The Centre is composed of a core management team, and a research and teaching group and managed in partnership with the UNDP Office in Croatia. The work of the Centre has been funded by WHO EURO, GIZ, the European Commission, UNDP and WHO EMRO.

The work strategy of the Centre is built around responding to national and regional needs and achieving capacity development in HIV surveillance by:

• Developing innovative teaching programme and organising training courses
• Providing technical assistance
• Conducting surveillance-related research
• Development of partnerships and collaborative networks with national and international institutions
• Bringing together a wide range of expertise
• Adapting surveillance guidelines and tools
• Training courses

Thirty training courses organised by the Centre since September 2004 were attended by more than 1217 participants from 80 countries in Europe, North and Central Africa and the Middle East. Twenty-one courses were organized in Croatia and nine outside Croatia. Some courses, such as the courses on respondent-driven sampling and monitoring and evaluation of HIV programmes were held several times in Zagreb, Croatia, and elsewhere.

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Extensive training materials with case studies and practical exercises on HIV surveillance have been developed and implemented, mainly to settings characterised by low-level and concentrated HIV epidemics. All modules have been extensively evaluated. Training is based on interactive methods and 30-50% of time is spent on practical exercises, in particular on a protocol for the surveillance system development. Participants are encouraged to reflect upon and apply their knowledge to their own country settings and some have organised such training courses in their own countries.

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A unique feature of the teaching programme since 2006 has been the provision of scholarships. Enrollment on the scholarship programme is based on applicants’ CV, the completed application form and their letter of interest. The primary requirement is the work on HIV surveillance and an outline of future plans for work on HIV surveillance. Scholarships were provided since 2006 to 49 participants from eastern Europe and the Middle East.

The following training workshops were provided during 2003-2011:

• Introduction to 2nd Generation HIV/AIDS Surveillance; June 2004, Zagreb
• Behavioral Surveillance; June 2004, Zagreb
• Surveillance and Control of Sexually Transmitted Infections; September 2004 and February 2006, Zagreb; July 2005, Islamabad, Pakistan and September 2007, London, UK (for the European Network on surveillance of STIs), June 2008, Dubrovnik
• Biological HIV/AIDS Surveillance; November 2004 and November 2006, Zagreb
• HIV/AIDS Surveillance in Hard-To-Reach Populations; November 2004 and October 2005, Zagreb; December 2006, Khartoum, Sudan; March 2007, Zagreb
• HIV surveillance among TB patients; May 2005 and May 2006, Zagreb
• Monitoring and Evaluation of National AIDS Programmes; July 2005, Zagreb; February 2007, Zagreb
• Regional Training Workshop on HIV Surveillance for fifteen countries of North Africa and the Middle East; September 2005, Cairo, Egypt
• Monitoring and Evaluation of National AIDS Programmes; April 2006 and February 2007, Zagreb; July 2008, Dubrovnik;
• Respondent-driven sampling; September 2006, Zagreb; January 2007, Zagreb; February 2007, Montenegro; March 2007, Bosnia and Herzegovina; November 2007, Yemen; July 2008, Zagreb; November 2008, Zagreb;
• Pre-surveillance Assessment; May 2007, Aden, Yemen; September 2007, Azerbaijan
• Analysis and Use of Strategic Information – Data Triangulation in HIV Surveillance; June 2007, Dubrovnik; February 2010, Zagreb;
• Designing protocols for Population-Based and Clinic-Based HIV Surveillance Surveys; March 2008, Zagreb; November 2009, Zagreb;
• Time Location Sampling, April 2008, Zagreb
• Strengthening Capacities for Conducting National AIDS Spending Assessments (NASA) and Resource Needs Estimates; September 2008, Zagreb;
• HIV drug resistance prevention and assessment; November 2008; Zagreb;
• Methods for HIV Estimates and Projections; March 2009, Zagreb;
• Data use and report writing in HIV surveillance; April 2009, Zagreb;
• Strategic Planning and Management of the Knowledge Hubs; March 2010, Zagreb;
• HIV Data Triangulation; February 2010, Zagreb;
• HIV Surveillance in High-Risk Groups; June 2010, Zagreb;
• Writing Up Results of Research and Surveillance Studies; July 2010, Cavtat, Dubrovnik;
• Advanced Methods in HIV Surveillance; July 2010, Cavtat, Dubrovnik;
• Respondent-Driven Sampling and HIV Surveillance in High-Risk Groups; October 2010, Zagreb;
• Evaluation of HIV surveillance, and data use and reporting; February 2011, Zagreb;
• Programme Evaluation in Key Populations at Higher Risk of HIV; June 2011, Cavtat, Dubrovnik;

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Technical assistance included carrying out various activities related to the work on HIV surveillance and HIV prevention development, such as design and implementation of HIV surveys, systems of monitoring and evaluation and writing-up proposals for the GFATM. Technical assistance was provided to 11 countries: Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, FYR Macedonia, Iran, Lithuania, Montenegro, Pakistan, Serbia, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. We also work continuously as advisors to WHO EURO, WHO EMRO, UNDP and UNICEF on carrying out various research projects and consultancy missions, and development of HIV surveillance tools and guidelines.

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Our interest in implementation and evaluation of various research methodologies in surveillance help us in devising high quality surveillance systems and understanding the factors that enable or hinder their successful implementation.

We have carried out the following surveillance-related research activities:

• a bio-behavioural survey using respondent driven sampling among MSM in Zagreb in 2006. This was the first study conducted among MSM using a probabilistic sampling method in Croatia, and one of the first such surveys in eastern Europe.
• a general population cluster-based sexual health survey among young people carried out on a national sample in Croatia in 2005
• bio-behavioural respondent-driven sampling surveys in IDUs in three cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2007.
• the assessment and interpretation of the HIV epidemics and the policy responses among MSM in eastern Europe for WHO EURO, and this work is expected to be completed in July 2008.

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Guidelines for implementation of HIV/AIDS surveillance systems in low-level and concentrated epidemics have been developed for WHO EMRO to assist surveillance officers and programme managers in the planning, design and implementation of various components of HIV surveillance. The Guidelines are planned to be translated by WHO EMRO Office in Arabic and French.

The Centre has also conducted the adaptation of the CDC training module on respondent-driven sampling for the WHO EMRO Region, and participated at the workshop on the adaptation of the HIV surveillance training manuals for WHO EMRO in Luxor, February 2008. We have worked on adaptation of the behavioural questionnaires for groups-at-risk in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Azerbaijan and Yemen.