Summary

In study session V you have learnt

• Monitoring is the systematic and continual collection, analysis, interpretation and use of data on key aspects of an intervention and/or its expected results.
• Evaluation is a systematic process of data collection and analysis, about activities and/or effects of a program, looking to answer an evaluation question.
• Program evaluation is the application of social research methods to systematically investigate the effectiveness of social intervention programs in ways that are adapted to their political and organizational environments and are designed to inform social action in ways that improve social conditions (Rossi, 2004).
• Monitoring and evaluation activities could serve three categories of purposes: program improvement, accountability and knowledge generation
• Inputs are resources used in a program. It includes financial, human or material resources. Examples: health workers, anti-TB drugs, laboratory reagents, IEC materials
• Activities are program procedures that are implemented to obtain desired effects.
• Outputs are the immediate consequences of the inputs utilized and program activities conducted.
• Outcomes are effects upon the target population that can lead to the intended ultimate goal of a program.
• Impacts are related to long-term accumulative effects of programs.
• Monitoring and evaluation activities include: input/output monitoring, process evaluation, outcome monitoring, outcome evaluation, impact monitoring and impact evaluation
• Input/output monitoring follows up of information about inputs or resources and outputs resulting from program activities..
• Process evaluation is also sometimes called implementation analysis 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.
• Outcome monitoring follow up of information related to a program's expected results on target beneficiaries.
• Outcome evaluation gives emphasis to causal relations between intervention and effects.
• Impact monitoring is the follow-up of the status of the social condition that a program is accountable for improving.
• Impact evaluation analyzes the relationships between disease trends, control programs and other associated factors.
• According to their primary purpose, evaluations could be classified as formative and summative evaluations.
• Formative evaluations are evaluations conducted with the primary purpose of furnishing information that will guide program improvement.
• Summative evaluations are evaluations undertaken to render a summary judgment on certain critical aspects of a program.
• According to their focus, evaluations could be classified as: process evaluation and outcome/Impact Evaluation
• Process evaluation also called implementation evaluation; focus on the implementation of program activities.
• Outcome/Impact Evaluation focus on the assessment of net effects of programs on target populations.
• Based on people primarily responsible to lead evaluation activities, evaluation could be classified as: internal evaluation and external Evaluation
• Internal evaluation is evaluation of activities designed and implemented primarily under a leadership from program implementers.
• External evaluation is evaluation designed and implemented primarily by people who are relatively more distant from the program (external evaluators).