Three Strategic Questions to Help Evaluate Your Efforts in Global Health
The following post is part of the Effective Health Systems Strengthening Series
Everyone interested in realizing global health needs to collect useful health information and learn to use it to improve the results of a health service or program. In fact if you cannot show your work is making a difference, your work is in vain. That’s a strong statement but it’s true. This means that a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) strategy is a must for every health program and/or project – whether it’s at the community, regional or countrywide level. It empowers health professionals like yourself to know if you are making the best of your day or if you’re in the “every day routine trap” – of doing things the same way every day with just average results. The following three M&E questions will give you the information you need to start monitoring and evaluating your results. (The example used is a health clinic that’s interested in analyzing the effectiveness of their birth spacing services.)
1. What information do I need to design or redesign my service and ensure consistent quality and efficiency?
Example: What are the critical steps to provide quality birth spacing counseling?
Action: Gather and review similar programs or services and list the minimum steps critical to quality.
2. Are the service delivery processes implemented according to the pre-defined standards of quality?
Example: Are staff implementing the designed quality counseling steps?
Action: Observe and list the three most common “errors” to be addressed in the
next supervisory meeting.
3. Is my program or service reaching its objectives?
Example: Are we providing quality birth spacing counseling to the number of women that need our services in our catchment area?
Action: Use the annual target to calculate your daily target number of women to receive birth spacing counseling, and measure everyday if you are on track with your annual objective.
These questions will help you establish an M&E strategy that progressively works through the following steps:
- First, the need to design or redesign the service delivery process steps that are critical to quality services.
- Second, the need to monitor these steps and make sure they are implemented according to standards and with minimum errors.
- Third, the need to evaluate effectiveness in terms of whether the steps achieved your objectives.
A well though-out M&E strategy allows you to correct performance problems and make the most of the resources available. It’s also necessary to show governments and donors your results so you can get increased funding to do more.
If you are interested in learning additional strategies to manage your public health or development program or project, RGH is providing a Measure and Get Results Program that begins January 30th. This program equips you with a complete system to M&E so you can start to succeed every day and build long-term, sustainable success!
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