Monitoring and evaluation

Monitoring and evaluation surveys are one of the main tools ministries of health (MoH) use to assess the quality and impact of treatment programmes against parasitic worms. We support MoH with the planning, delivery, and analysis of these surveys, providing critical information to enable programmes to ensure treatment for every person in need.

Epidemiological surveys

When needing to treat a disease within a population, it is vital to understand in which setting that disease occurs, who is affected by it, how often it occurs, as well as how and why people contract the disease.

The study of these questions is known as epidemiology. As each disease behaves differently, understanding its epidemiology is essential to planning an effective control and/or elimination strategy.

MoH of countries endemic for parasitic worms, such as schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths (STH), need to gather epidemiological information through surveys which commonly analyse stool and urine samples to determine the prevalence (the percentage of infected people in a certain area) and the intensity of disease (how heavily infected people are). Our team can share technical expertise across multiple survey designs and throughout the survey process.

1. Baseline mapping surveys

Parasitic worms can be highly focal in their distribution, meaning that the spread of the disease across the country can vary greatly from area to area. Mapping surveys are completed at the start of public health programmes to determine how many people have the disease in different parts of the country, providing the fundamental data required to guide the treatment intervention.

2. Reassessment surveys

Reassessment surveys are used to assess how regular treatment campaigns have changed the spread of disease since the mapping survey. This allows the MoH to revise their treatment and additional intervention strategy accordingly and plan more targeted activities, so vulnerable and underserved communities are reached.

We are leading efforts to make innovative mapping and reassessment methodologies available to MoH and the World Health Organization to further improve the accuracy, efficiency and usefulness of epidemiological data, covering areas such as geostatistical epidemiology and disease modelling. See more in the Research Projects section.

Programmatic surveys

Other types of surveys and assessments are used to evaluate certain aspects of a treatment programme’s process, performance, and messaging. This allows MoH to make continual improvements to ensure treatments are successfully distributed to those that need them.

1. Coverage evaluation surveys

Coverage evaluation surveys help to evaluate the reach and performance of treatment campaigns to make sure every targeted person has equal and continued access to treatment for parasitic worms. The MoH or independent research institution conducts questionnaires door-to-door to assess if people were offered and took the treatment, and to gain perspective of people’s knowledge and awareness of parasitic worms and their treatment.

2. Social assessments

We have designed in-depth social assessments to identify and understand barriers to the uptake of treatment against parasitic worms which can be used to develop context-specific and culturally appropriate behaviour change interventions. Activities can include:

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  Assessing knowledge, understanding, and attitudes about treatment campaigns in communities receiving the treatments

• Assessing the reach, quality, and impact of social mobilisation and sensitisation strategies adopted by local programmes
• Piloting and evaluating evidence based behavioural change interventions through innovative research projects

3. Data quality assessment

Data quality assessments allow MoH to investigate the accuracy and robustness of data reporting systems from a community to central government. They can highlight areas that need improvement and ensure treatment reports are timely and accurate.

Our monitoring and evaluation processes allow for rapid and meaningful adaptations to control programmes. Our goal is to ensure that programmes continue to have the highest impact possible and are conducted according to the best practice standards in public health.