Evaluation Research

MEASURE Evaluation's research projects aim to strengthen the evidence base on the implementation and impact of monitoring and evaluation methodologies and tools. Many of these targeted research efforts focus on specific priorities of USAID's Bureau of Global Health.

Past research topics have included understanding how program resources and delivery systems contribute to positive outcomes such as reduced fertility, lower child and maternal mortality, and reduced risk of STD/HIV infection, as well as improving the methods used to monitor and evaluate the performance of population, health and nutrition programs. The Guide for Monitoring and Evaluating Child Health Programs, published in 2005, is an example of how this research leads to better M&E tools.

Other, ongoing, research activities include:

• the development and testing of a conceptual framework to better understand the relationship between quality of care and contraceptive discontinuation,
• evaluation research on integrating family planning, maternal and child health, and prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV programs, and
• evaluation of programs that integrate a specific gender component into reproductive health activities.

Another priority research area for MEASURE Evaluation is the measurement of poverty and equity.MEASURE Evaluation and the GOE's Secretaria Tecnnica del Frente Social conducted a study on the distributional incidence of government expenditures in health. The study took advantage of detailed information on use of health services by the Ecuadorian population collected by the ENDEMAIN 2004 and of detailed information on spending by the Ministry of Health, the Social Security and the Seguro Social Campesino - the three main sources of public health services - specially collected for the study. The results show that the MOH spending is "pro-poor" whereas the Social Security's is not. The results of the study were presented to high-level health policymakers at a seminar in Quito in May 2006.

In 2005, MEASURE Evaluation released the PLACE Method manual, a tutorial for implementing the Priorities for Local AIDS Prevention Efforts method. Our researchers continue to improve the PLACE methodology, testing a new protocol to include prevention mapping. This protocol explores the use of PLACE to improve estimation of the size of at-risk populations. PLACE assessments in Ghana, Jamaica, Russia and Zambia provide those countries with specific locations for targeted HIV awareness campaigns.

Our researchers have contributed important work to the fight against malaria, helping to build the M&E efforts of Roll Back Malaria Initiative. We have conducted research and developed indicators and tools for collecting data on stigma associated with tuberculosis.

MEASURE Evaluation is also responding to a growing need for improved M&E tools and methods for orphan and vulnerable children (OVC) programs. MEASURE Evaluation is currently conducting targeted evaluations of OVC programs in four unique settings -- two in Kenya, and two in Tanzania. Four case studies written from these public health evaluations discuss successful innovations that OVC programs have implemented, as well as long-term challenges that programs face and efforts that have been unsuccessful.

MEASURE Evaluation developed a compendium of indicators for integrated population, health, and environment programs to facilitate improved M&E in this program area.

To learn more about our research activities, read these peer-reviewed journal articles published by MEASURE Evaluation researchers:

• Using Strength of Fertility Motivations to Identify Family Planning Program Strategies
• Estimating cause-specific mortality from community-and facility-based data sources in Tanzania: options and implications for mortality burden estimates
• Fertility Desires of Yoruba Couples of South-Western Nigeria
• HIV-related sexual behavior in urban, rural and border areas of Burkina Faso
• Validity of verbal autopsy procedures for determining cause of death in Tanzania
• Explaining Inconsistencies between Data on Condom Use and Condom Sales
• Costs and results of information systems for health and poverty indicators in the United Republic of Tanzania
• Core Verbal Autopsy Procedures with Comparative Validation Results from Two Countries
• Assessing effects of a media campaign on HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention in Nigeria: results from the VISION Project
• Imbalances in the health labour force: an assessment using data from three national health facility surveys
• Integrating demographic and epidemiologic approaches to research on HIV/AIDS: the proximate-determinants framework.
• Effect of recall on estimation of non-fatal injury rates: a community based study in Tanzania.
• An evaluation of post-campaign knowledge and practices of exclusive breastfeeding in Uganda.
• Injury morbidity in an urban and a rural area in Tanzania: an epidemiological survey.
• The impact of community-level variables on individual-level outcomes, theoretical results and applications.
• The effects of education and family planning programs on fertility in Indonesia.
• The determinants of fertility in rural Peru: Program effects in the early years of the national family planning program.

More research reports and other study conclusions can be found among MEASURE Evaluation's 250+ publications. Use the publications search engine.

Featured Research

In Bangladesh, a research collaboration used satellite maps to determine the boundaries of urban slums. These maps aided an urban health survey conducted in late 2006. Find the maps and a full report here.

In Nigeria, our researchers used national survey data to examine individual and community-level determinants of early sexual initiation. Find a working paper here.

Staff used health facility survey data to examine characteristics of the primary health care labour force in Nicaragua, Tanzania and Bangladesh. The profiles suggest a pattern of urban/rural imbalances in Nicaragua and Tanzania. Find the journal article here.