Evaluation of Health Programmes

COURSES AND PROGRAMMES CAN BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE

Public health programmes and interventions (hereafter programmes) lead to better outcomes if they are designed based on evidence and underpinning theories, taking into account the complexities, the context and the stakeholders. Tools such as change pathways support the design of health programmes and their evaluations. In the first theme of this course, we will discuss developing change pathways to inform the design and evaluation of public health programmes. 

In the second theme of this course, you will be introduced to Process Evaluations, used to understand why a programme worked (or didn’t), for whom and how, and to inform adaptations. We will use “change pathways” to develop mixed methods process evaluations to address appropriate process evaluation questions, including has the programme been implemented as intended? What was the quality of implementation? Who was reached by the programme? 

Understanding “whether a programme works” is a pillar of evidence-based public health. Evaluation results allow Public Health managers and programmers to adapt and/or modify their programmes, determine which programme to implement, and contributes to the “evidence base” for decision makers. In the third theme of the course, we will focus on approaches and methods to estimate the impact of health programmes. We will introduce the cluster randomized trial design alongside other, non-randomised, evaluation designs and will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these designs using real life examples. You will acquire an understanding of how to choose the “best” impact evaluation design based on the programme, its context, and other factors. 

This short course targets health professionals, health system and programme managers, decision makers and researchers involved in and/or interested in health programme and intervention design and evaluation.

The course draws on ITM’s expertise in specific health problems (including HIV and, reproductive health) and quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods, with input from collaborating organisations/institutions, including the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the UK, and Zambart, Zambia, and builds on the rich exchange of experience between students from many different regions.