Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Issues
    • Current Issue
    • Advance Access
    • Past Issues
    • Supplements
    • Topic Collections
    • COVID-19 Articles
  • For Authors
    • Instructions for Authors
    • Submit
  • Submit
  • About
    • About GHSP
    • Editorial Team
    • Editorial Board
    • FAQs
    • 5 Year Anniversary Infographic
  • More
    • Instructions for Reviewers
    • Alerts
    • Contact Us
    • Website Policies
  • Other Useful Sites
    • GH eLearning
    • GHJournal Search

User menu

  • My Alerts

Search

  • Advanced search
Global Health: Science and Practice
  • Other Useful Sites
    • GH eLearning
    • GHJournal Search
  • My Alerts

Global Health: Science and Practice

Dedicated to what works in global health programs

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Issues
    • Current Issue
    • Advance Access
    • Past Issues
    • Supplements
    • Topic Collections
    • COVID-19 Articles
  • For Authors
    • Instructions for Authors
    • Submit
  • Submit
  • About
    • About GHSP
    • Editorial Team
    • Editorial Board
    • FAQs
    • 5 Year Anniversary Infographic
  • More
    • Instructions for Reviewers
    • Alerts
    • Contact Us
    • Website Policies
  • Visit GHSP on Facebook
  • Follow GHSP on Twitter
  • RSS
  • Find GHSP on LinkedIn
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Open Access

Lessons Learned From Implementing Prospective, Multicountry Mixed-Methods Evaluations for Gavi and the Global Fund

Emily Carnahan, Nikki Gurley, Gilbert Asiimwe, Baltazar Chilundo, Herbert C. Duber, Adama Faye, Carol Kamya, Godefroid Mpanya, Shakilah Nagasha, David Phillips, Nicole Salisbury, Jessica Shearer and Katharine Shelley for the Gavi Full Country Evaluations Consortium; and Global Fund Prospective Country Evaluation Consortium
Global Health: Science and Practice December 2020, 8(4):771-782; https://doi.org/10.9745/GHSP-D-20-00126
Emily Carnahan
aPATH, Seattle, WA, USA.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: ecarnahan@path.org
Nikki Gurley
aPATH, Seattle, WA, USA.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Gilbert Asiimwe
bInfectious Diseases Research Collaboration, Kampala, Uganda.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Baltazar Chilundo
cUniversity of Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo, Mozambique.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Herbert C. Duber
dInstitute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
eDepartment of Emergency Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Adama Faye
fInstitut de Santé et Développement/University Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, Senegal.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Carol Kamya
bInfectious Diseases Research Collaboration, Kampala, Uganda.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Godefroid Mpanya
gPATH, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Shakilah Nagasha
bInfectious Diseases Research Collaboration, Kampala, Uganda.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
David Phillips
dInstitute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Nicole Salisbury
aPATH, Seattle, WA, USA.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Jessica Shearer
aPATH, Seattle, WA, USA.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Katharine Shelley
aPATH, Seattle, WA, USA.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
PreviousNext
  • Article
  • Figures & Tables
  • Info & Metrics
  • Comments
  • PDF
Loading

Key Findings

  • We present 5 key lessons distilled from 7 years of experience implementing evaluations in 7 countries, which include the importance of:

    1. Including an inception phase to engage stakeholders and inform a relevant, useful evaluation design

    2. Aligning on the degree to which the evaluation is embedded in the program implementation

    3. Monitoring programmatic, organizational, or contextual changes and adapting the evaluation accordingly

    4. Hiring evaluators with mixed-methods expertise and using tools and approaches that facilitate mixing methods

    5. Contextualizing recommendations and clearly communicating their underlying strength of evidence

Key Implications

  • Global health initiatives, particularly those funding or implementing complex interventions, should consider embedding evaluations to understand how and why the programs are working to adapt as necessary and maximize impact.

  • Evaluators of complex interventions should continue to share lessons learned related to balancing stakeholder priorities, aligning on “breadth” versus “depth” of the evaluation scope and ensuring use of the evaluation findings.

ABSTRACT

Introduction:

As global health programs have become increasingly complex, corresponding evaluations must be designed to assess the full complexity of these programs. Gavi and the Global Fund have commissioned 2 such evaluations to assess the full spectrum of their investments using a prospective mixed-methods approach. We aim to describe lessons learned from implementing these evaluations.

Methods:

This article presents a synthesis of lessons learned based on the Gavi and Global Fund prospective mixed-methods evaluations, with each evaluation considered a case study. The lessons are based on the evaluation team’s experience from over 7 years (2013–2020) implementing these evaluations. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Framework for Evaluation in Public Health was used to ground the identification of lessons learned.

Results:

We identified 5 lessons learned that build on existing evaluation best practices and include a mix of practical and conceptual considerations. The lessons cover the importance of (1) including an inception phase to engage stakeholders and inform a relevant, useful evaluation design; (2) aligning on the degree to which the evaluation is embedded in the program implementation; (3) monitoring programmatic, organizational, or contextual changes and adapting the evaluation accordingly; (4) hiring evaluators with mixed-methods expertise and using tools and approaches that facilitate mixing methods; and (5) contextualizing recommendations and clearly communicating their underlying strength of evidence.

Conclusion:

Global health initiatives, particularly those leveraging complex interventions, should consider embedding evaluations to understand how and why the programs are working. These initiatives can learn from the lessons presented here to inform the design and implementation of such evaluations.

  • Received: March 30, 2020.
  • Accepted: September 30, 2020.
  • Published: December 23, 2020.
  • © Carnahan et al.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly cited. To view a copy of the license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. When linking to this article, please use the following permanent link: https://doi.org/10.9745/GHSP-D-20-00126

View Full Text
PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

Global Health: Science and Practice: 8 (4)
Global Health: Science and Practice
Vol. 8, No. 4
December 23, 2020
  • Table of Contents
  • About the Cover
  • Index by Author
  • Complete Issue (PDF)
Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about Global Health: Science and Practice.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Lessons Learned From Implementing Prospective, Multicountry Mixed-Methods Evaluations for Gavi and the Global Fund
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from Global Health: Science and Practice
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the Global Health: Science and Practice web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Lessons Learned From Implementing Prospective, Multicountry Mixed-Methods Evaluations for Gavi and the Global Fund
Emily Carnahan, Nikki Gurley, Gilbert Asiimwe, Baltazar Chilundo, Herbert C. Duber, Adama Faye, Carol Kamya, Godefroid Mpanya, Shakilah Nagasha, David Phillips, Nicole Salisbury, Jessica Shearer, Katharine Shelley
Global Health: Science and Practice Dec 2020, 8 (4) 771-782; DOI: 10.9745/GHSP-D-20-00126

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Share
Lessons Learned From Implementing Prospective, Multicountry Mixed-Methods Evaluations for Gavi and the Global Fund
Emily Carnahan, Nikki Gurley, Gilbert Asiimwe, Baltazar Chilundo, Herbert C. Duber, Adama Faye, Carol Kamya, Godefroid Mpanya, Shakilah Nagasha, David Phillips, Nicole Salisbury, Jessica Shearer, Katharine Shelley
Global Health: Science and Practice Dec 2020, 8 (4) 771-782; DOI: 10.9745/GHSP-D-20-00126
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Jump to section

  • Article
    • ABSTRACT
    • INTRODUCTION
    • METHODS
    • RESULTS
    • DISCUSSION
    • CONCLUSION
    • Acknowledgments
    • Notes
    • REFERENCES
  • Figures & Tables
  • Info & Metrics
  • Comments
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • PubMed
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • Test and Prevent: Evaluation of a Pilot Program Linking Clients With Negative HIV Test Results to Pre-exposure Prophylaxis in Zimbabwe
  • Pathways to Care for Patients With Type 2 Diabetes and HIV/AIDS Comorbidities in Soweto, South Africa: An Ethnographic Study
  • Levels, Trends, and Inequalities in Using Institutional Delivery Services in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Stratified Analysis by Facility Type
Show more ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Similar Articles

US AIDJohns Hopkins Center for Communication ProgramsUniversity of Alberta

Follow Us On

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS

Articles

  • Current Issue
  • Advance Access Articles
  • Past Issues
  • Topic Collections
  • Most Read Articles
  • Supplements

More Information

  • Submit a Paper
  • Instructions for Authors
  • Instructions for Reviewers
  • GH Journals Database

About

  • About GHSP
  • Editorial Board
  • FAQs
  • Contact Us

© 2021 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. ISSN: 2169-575X

Powered by HighWire