MEASURE Evaluation
Measuring success in improving global health outcomes requires strong evaluation methodologies and data. The MEASURE Evaluation program works to improve human health and well-being by developing and promoting cost-effective and efficient approaches in data collection, monitoring, and evaluation of population, health, and nutrition services worldwide. Project interventions cover family planning, maternal and child health and nutrition, HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis.
The MEASURE Evaluation program is a key component of the United States Agency for International Development Monitoring and Evaluation to Assess and Use Results (MEASURE) Framework, which promotes a continuous cycle of data demand, collection, analysis, and use to improve population and health conditions. MEASURE Evaluation is implemented by the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partnership with Futures Group, Management Sciences for Health, ICF, John Snow Inc., and Tulane University.
For more than a decade, MEASURE Evaluation has worked worldwide to strengthen monitoring and evaluation systems and build institutional capabilities to:
- Better judge the effectiveness of interventions and approaches
- Produce technically sound and usable results
- Determine the performance of the health sector
- Enable sound decisions regarding health strategies through the use of data
MEASURE project researchers and technical advisers have extensive field experience and expertise in demography, epidemiology, economics, statistics, medical anthropology, and clinical health sciences.
Futures Group’s areas of technical expertise on MEASURE include
Improving the use of data and information to inform health policy and program decisions;
Developing and improving monitoring data for community-based interventions, especially for orphans and other vulnerable children;
Improving the performance of routine health information systems for more effective health system management;
Developing and delivering training to build capabilities of individuals and in-country organizations;
Evaluating the economic, social, and cultural factors of particular relevance to health programs and public policy;
Implementing data quality control standards
Futures Group staff have particular responsibility for the Data Demand and Use component. We have successfully developed, tested, and applied a number of tools and approaches to improve the use of M&E data in decision-making.
Futures Group developed a package of assessment and monitoring and evalutation tools in support of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the Global Fund, and has taken the lead in developing M&E tools for programs with orphans and vulnerable children. We support full field programs in Honduras, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Tanzania and have conducted activities in Cote d’Ivoire, DRC, Kenya, Liberia, Uganda, and Zambia.
MEASURE Evaluation is committed to generating effective demand for quality health and population data. We ensure that our ideas, methods, techniques, tools, data, and analyses are widely available. The project’s virtual library is available on the MEASURE Evaluation Web site: www.cpc.unc.edu/measure.
Key Achievements Include
Developing the “Child Status Index” tool to monitor individual children’s welfare;
Assisting the Rwanda AIDS Control Commission to develop and implement a national HIV/AIDS monitoring and evaluation strategy; and
Developing a community-based “trace-and-verify” system that is being used in Tanzania to certify that reported data is correct.