Strengthening individual capacity in monitoring and evaluation of malaria control programmes to streamline M&E systems and enhance information use in malaria endemic countries

Post-workshop effects

The use of knowledge gained during the workshop was documented in six-month and one-year follow-up qualitative surveys. The findings suggested that the ME workshop contributed to, or helped, alumni in their work or research. Specific areas that participants noted included designing an ME plan; defining and reporting indicators; using data for decision-making; and data collection, analysis, and feedback of data results. Workshop alumni also mentioned contributing to malaria indicator surveys (MIS) and impact evaluations.

Newly trained participants were admitted to a network of previously trained ME professionals and invited to join the Roll Back Malaria ME listserv [19]. These tools, moderated by MEASURE Evaluation, provide opportunities for trained participants to share ideas after the workshop, participate in ME-specific webinars, and collaborate with others internationally in the field of ME.

The success of these regional ME malaria workshops has generated interest in country-specific workshops. These have taken place in Kenya (2011) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (2013 and 2015). Other countries, including Burkina Faso, Liberia, Senegal, and Tanzania, have also expressed interest. In addition, regional workshops generated an interest in reaching more people through the development of an online ME for the malaria course, which was launched in 2012. An open-sourced curriculum is also available online in English [20]. An online course will be launched in French in 2016 [21].

Results from the overall post-workshop assessment revealed that participants retained practical ME knowledge and skills. One participant remarked, “Immediately after the workshop, I was part of a team that was assigned to review our project’s ME plan…and most of my contributions to the process were based on what I learned from the workshop. To be specific, when it came to developing an indicator reference sheet/matrix, we actually used the template developed by my workshop’s group members as an example.”

There was positive feedback about the workshops from participants, supervisors, and stakeholders related to the relevance of the course content, application of knowledge and skills gained, improvement of overall ME capacity, and change in perception/support of ME activities.

“We used to have some discrepancies in data and reporting, but using an online data management software along with training of the staff in ME, after having the training, the quality of data has been improved remarkably in data collection and reporting to mention few.”

There was a willingness to continue supporting the regional ME capacity of malaria workshops “…especially for some of us who live in countries that do not have institutions that provide such courses, for those who cannot afford to pay school fees, and for the convenience of being able to do it at my own time. This combination makes this platform an excellent initiative.”

Further findings identified a need for new modules to be created, particularly malaria surveillance and evaluation methods, to add more value to the course and identify the changing needs in malaria programmes. There was also an urgent need to establish a more robust post-training follow-up programme and analyse the participants’ costs associated with the course.