Implementing the Monitoring and Evaluation Capacity Assessment Toolkit in Central America: Adjustments and Lessons Learned

Author(s): MEASURE Evaluation

Year: 2019

Abstract:

Worldwide, the use of health system data to guide decisions on how resources are allocated is rising rapidly. Ministries of health and national health programs are seeking ways to ensure that the quality of health system data is reliable. As a result, data collection, collation, reporting, and use are increasingly scrutinized, and efforts to strengthen health information systems (HIS) must focus on improved health program monitoring and evaluation (M&E). To help meet this need, MEASURE Evaluation and its Kenya associate award, MEASURE Evaluation PIMA (both funded by the United States Agency for International Development and the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), developed the Monitoring and Evaluation Capacity Assessment Toolkit (MECAT).

The MECAT was used in Kenya to set baselines for beneficiary national programs and 17 target counties. Since then, it has been adapted for use in other countries to help health management and development professionals make decisions, monitor progress, and design capacity-building interventions for sustained HIS improvements. Recently the toolkit was implemented in four Central American countries—Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, and El Salvador—to assess each country’s capacity for M&E of HIV programs. This brief shares more.

Access MECAT resources at https://www.measureevaluation.org/pima/m-e-capacity/.