MEASURE Evaluation in Tanzania

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MEASURE Evaluation’s activities in Tanzania are varied and have expanded in scope over the past few years. Resident Advisor Dawne Walker coordinates the work of four Tanzanian monitoring and evaluation (M&E) specialists – Camilius Kapela, Zaddy Kibao, Yohana Mapala and Prudence Masako – and two administrative staff. Originally, activities focused exclusively on strategic information and building the capacity of local partners in Tanzania to monitor and evaluate their HIV/AIDS programs and report back to USAID. Now, MEASURE Evaluation also supports strategic planning for the Department of Social Welfare as well as U.S. government-supported HIV prevention efforts. MEASURE Evaluation consortium partners JSI, Futures Group, and UNC provide specialized back-up in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and research methods.

Assessing Data Quality

Producing complete, accurate and timely data for reporting and to inform decision making is a primary function of M&E. With this priority, MEASURE Evaluation has helped nearly 40 implementing partners in Tanzania, such as FHI, The Salvation Army, PATH and Africare and their local sub-grantees improve their M&E systems and capacity. Capacity building begins with a Data Quality Assessment (DQA), followed by structured training workshops, mentoring and on-the-job technical assistance. Some partners have undergone subsequent “mini”-DQAs to measure progress. To ensure sustainability, MEASURE Evaluation has contracted with the Tanzanian firm JL Consultancy to carry out the DQAs in addition to building M&E capacity within each individual implementing partner.  

HIV/AIDS in Iringa Region

Aligning HIV/AIDS prevention programs according to the geographic and demographic distribution of a country’s epidemic makes most effective use of local resources. USAID has set out to scale up this process in Tanzania’s Iringa region, which has the country’s highest HIV prevalence rate. To help carry out this effort, MEASURE Evaluation is implementing an activity that will first map out all U.S. government partners (CDC and USAID) along with other donor and local government sites that provide prevention, care and treatment and OVC activities throughout the region. It will then implement MEASURE Evaluation’s PLACE methodology to identify and map at-risk populations in the region.

Reaching Most Vulnerable Children

Reaching children made most vulnerable by orphaning and social deprivation is a key element of HIV/AIDS service organizations in Tanzania. To determine the success of their outreach, MEASURE Evaluation developed and piloted the Community Trace and Verify Tool (CTV). CTV is designed to collect information on whether or not services reported by partners as having been delivered to most vulnerable children (MVC) have, in fact, reached them. It can also be used to support supervision and to assess the well-being of the children and their families.

Tanzania’s Department of Social Welfare, which resides within the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, is responsible for coordinating the national response to the country’s most vulnerable children. To support the department’s National Costed Plan of Action, MEASURE Evaluation is helping project the number of these children in Tanzania for the period between 2010 and 2015. In addition, MEASURE Evaluation worked with the department to establish the MVC M&E Technical Working Group.