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http://go.worldbank.org/RSSTA3DUL0
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- About AIM-ERITREA
- Activities
- Events
- Partners
- Contacts
Despite severe financial and capacity constraints and a difficult external
political environment, Eritrea is one of the few African countries on track
to meet the Millenium Development Goals in health.
It not only has the best record on the African continent for controlling
malaria but can now foresee the actual elimination of the disease.
In addition, HIV/AIDS prevalence has been contained at a relatively low
rate of 1.8 percent.
Making the most of resources
With limited donor support for the health sector, Eritrea’s government
knows it must plan strategically to make better use of its resources and to
build the cost-effectiveness of its public health services.
This means that all national health policy decisions must first be based on
measurable evidence.
To do this, the government has called for rigorous impact evaluation, and
is now conducting four impact evaluations in the fields of reproductive
health, HIV/AIDS prevention, malaria control and early childhood
development,
Support for impact evaluation
Capacity development is an integral component of impact evaluation support
in Eritrea. The Bank has awarded an Institutional Development Grant of US$
0.49 million to support capacity development for evidence-based policy
making in the Eritrea’s health sector.
[image: spacer]*Principles and strategies*
The AIM approach is based on the following principles:
- The quality of implementation is a determining factor in the success
of public policies, and impact evaluation, by clarifying the design and
implementation of programs, helps policies succeed.
- To manage for results, programs must adopt rigorous and prospective
testing of operational alternatives to make decisions based on precise
evidence.
- The creation of communities of practice is a way for government
agencies to access top quality analytical resources and learn from each
other.
- The capacity development of client agencies is necessary for ensuring
that impact evaluation is country-led and operationally relevant, and that
results from impact evaluation will be incorporated into future decision
making.
AIM’s strategy is implemented across the following platforms:
*Thematic programs* that help similar implementing agencies across several
countries build capacity to measure the impact of their interventions
through a common framework of measurement and analysis.
*Country programs* that help countries build the capacity to measure the
impact and cost-effectiveness of different government programs.
*Single innovative evaluations* to (a) support project teams and their
government counterparts in testing alternative project designs; (b) provide
early feedback into program design and roll-out; and (c) demonstrate how
impact evaluation can support implementation effectiveness in new areas.
Assessing impact and delivering results
Impact Evaluation (IE) is the application of the scientific method to the
study of the human behavioral response to public policy.
IE measures the causal effect of a policy intervention on intended
beneficiaries by comparing outcomes between treatment and control groups
overtime (counterfactual analysis).
IE helps program managers deliver results by guiding them to:
- think critically about prospective interventions and operational
alternatives
- test these alternatives within a rigorous framework of analysis
- provide precise estimates of the relative performance of these
alternatives on desired results, such as household income, educational
attainment, child mortality, maternal health or employment
- incorporate the findings into future policies
Putting the initiative to work
The initiative is expanding capacity for impact evaluations in African
countries in several ways:
- Building technical and organizational capacity to conceive and
implement rigorous impact evaluations through a learning-by-doing approach,
and incorporating impact evaluation into national programs
- Developing a pool of local resources with impact evaluation skills and
experience
- Helping countries conduct rigorous impact evaluations on the effects,
costs, and operational feasibility of public interventions
- Coordinating evaluation methods across countries to compare
alternative approaches
- Ensuring quality and adherence to study protocols
- Ensuring adherence to human subjects
- Disseminating the lessons learned to country policy makers and other
stakeholders
- Providing cross-country venues for dialogue, networking support, and
publication outlets in order to improve public policies
Program Structure
[image: AIM Program Structure]
Shared information
The initiative also manages and shares a
database<
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/AFRICAEXT/EXTIMPEVA/0,,contentMDK:21085313~pagePK:64168445~piPK:64168309~theSitePK:2620018,00.html?>
on
all impact evaluations in Sub-Saharan Africa. The IE database contains over
90 impact evaluations, and is available on this web site. The database
disseminates the results of completed impact evaluations, which can aid
program managers in designing and implementing better projects and programs.
We encourage researchers and practitioners from any policy and research
institution to contribute results from rigorous impact evaluations of
development interventions around the region.
We hope that this database will become a shared resource for all
professionals to contribute and review ongoing and completed impact
evaluation projects.
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more info
http://go.worldbank.org/5ALBRZGOX0
http://go.worldbank.org/J35S3J8B60
Received on Mon Nov 04 2013 - 19:58:10 EST