2012 — The two rounds of integrated behavioral and biological assessments (IBBA) covered around 52,000 respondents, including female sex workers and their clients, men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs and long-distance truck drivers spread across six states and national highways in India. Conducting these large-scale behavioral and biological surveys among heterogeneous, stigmatized and hard-to-reach populations over a large geographical area was a challenge that yielded some important lessons in implementing IBBA. This document highlights lessons and insights gained from various aspects of the project, such as the use of community-based structures for better implementation, approaches and challenges faced in sampling different high-risk respondent groups, estimates of the size of high-risk populations, aspects of the biological/clinical component of IBBA, and lessons on program and partner management in this multicentric study.
