Monitoring and evaluation activities

Monitoring and Evaluation Activities

1. Input/Output Monitoring

Input/output monitoring follows up of information about inputs or resources and outputs resulting from program activities. It answers questions such as: Which services were provided? Which resources were used? How many people used served? Examples: follow up of total expenditure on health, follow up of the number of condoms acquired every quarter by a program, follow up of the number of patients enrolled to HIV clinics.

2. Process Evaluation

Process evaluation is also sometimes called implementation analysis. It is a form of program evaluation designed to determine whether the program is delivered as intended to the target recipients and provide explanations for observed levels of performance. It supplements the monitoring of inputs and outputs by providing explanation to observed levels of performance. Process evaluation answers questions such as: What is the implementation degree of the program and what program/context/users related factors explain the observed degree of implementation? Are the planned actions reaching the targeted population? What are the facilitators and barriers to access?

3. Outcome Monitoring

Outcome monitoring follow up of information related to a program's expected results on target beneficiaries. It involves multiple outcome level assessments to measure changes over time. It has no intention to attribute observed changes to a program. Usually, outcome monitoring is related to a period of time and answers questions like: How is the knowledge of people changing? Was there change in behavior? Example - Behavioral surveillance

4. Outcome Evaluation

Outcome evaluation gives emphasis to causal relations between intervention and effects. It involves the assessment of net effects of interventions and answers question such as: Does the intervention explain the observed change among the target population? How much of observed changes is due to the intervention. Example: Was the observed change in condom use due to the intervention? Why? How? To what extent?

5. Impact Monitoring

Impact monitoring is the follow-up of the status of the social condition that a program is accountable for improving. In health programs, it usually relates to the follow up of disease trends among targeted populations and it answers questions such as: What effects do all interventions have upon HIV prevalence? How does all care, treatment and support activities influence survival of patients with HIV infection? Examples: Biological surveillance on HIV and follow-up of ART cohorts

6. Impact Evaluation

Impact evaluation analyzes the relationships between disease trends, control programs and other associated factors. It answers questions asking: How much of the change in the social problem is due to the program? Example: Impact evaluation of an IGA support program, what was the contribution of IGA support on the economic status of patients with HIV infection?

Monitoring and evaluation activity as a continuous process

Monitoring and evaluation is a continuous process of shaping all the functions of management (planning, implementation and actions) as shown in the following Figure