USAID | Health Policy Initiative, Task Order 1 designed a user-friendly approach and tool for assessing policy implementation, based on a review of the literature and the project’s experiences in the field. The Policy Implementation Assessment Tool comprises two interview guides that explore the perspectives of
policymakers and program implementers/other stakeholders. From 2007–2009, we collaborated with in-country partners to carry out four applications of the tool. These applications have assessed the implementation of national and state policies related to reproductive health, HIV, and health and population issues in Guatemala, El Salvador, and India. Based on these applications, we have revised and finalized the tools. These individual interview guides can also be used to design focus group discussion (FGD) guides to gather perspectives from other key stakeholders, including community-level health workers, local leaders, and clients. 

This document provides guidance to help readers adapt the tool to different policies and contexts in their own countries. While the tool emerged out of the desire to assess national family planning and reproductive policy implementation, as country teams have shown, the assessment questions are flexible enough to allow for quick adaptation to other policy areas (e.g., HIV) and different levels (e.g., national, state, district).

This paper briefly reviews the theoretical underpinnings of the tool, outlines steps for applying the tool, and describes key processes and findings from the tool’s four applications to date.