1. Building M&E Capacity of
Community Based Programs in
Tanzania
Dawne Walker
MEASURE Evaluation
Resident Advisor, Tanzania
January 2012

2. What do community programs
provide?
 Training and capacity-building
 Support to households
 Support to individuals
 Home-based care
 Community awareness-raising
 …

3. How are these services provided?
 Directly by international Implementing
Partners (IPs)
 Through subgrants to civil society
organizations (CS0s) and smaller NGOs
 By unpaid community volunteers

4. What are community programs
required to report?
 Number of eligible clients who received food and/or
nutrition services
 Number of eligible OVC who received a minimum of
one CORE care service
 Number of eligible adults and children provided with
home-based care services
 Number of vulnerable households with at least one
OVC/MVC or PLHIV provided a minimum of one
economic opportunity/strengthening support

5. MEASURE Evaluation approach to
M&E capacity-building
Three-step process:
1. Assessment
2. Training, mentoring and technical
assistance
3. Re-assessment

6. Community-based
programs are
expected to
produce
comparable data
to facility-based
programs, but
without
comparable
physical
infrastructure and
human resources

7. Multiple levels of data quality
issues
 Data collection
 Data entry
 Data analysis and use

8. Responding to the special needs
of community-based programs
 Shortcomings of trace-and-verify
methodology
 Developed Community Trace and Verify
(CTV)

9. Community Trace and Verify (CTV)
 Covers minimum package of services
 Short (10-minute) survey of caretakers
 LQAS
sampling
methodology
 Pass-fail
scoring

10. 005 Does [Name] have a birth certificate? Yes…1
No…2 → 007
Don’t know …3
006 Could you show us the birth certificate? Yes, birth certificate shown…1
No…2
007 Is the family enrolled with the Community Yes…1
Health Fund? No…2 → 011
Don’t know …3 → 011
008 Does the family have a Community Health Yes…1
Fund card? No…2 → 009
Don’t know …3 → 009
009 Could you show me the community health Yes, card shown…1 → 011
fund card? No…2
010 Could you show me the receipt? Yes, receipt shown…1
No…2
011 Have you heard about the Most Vulnerable Yes…1
Child Committee? No…2
Don’t know …3
012 Has [Name] been visited by a Most Yes…1
vulnerable Child Committee member or No…2 → 014
Volunteer in the past six months? Don’t know …3 → 014

11. CTV in Practice
 Piloted with Africare
 Introduced to WEI
 TA to other OVC IPs
 Incorporated into the Department of Social
Welfare MVC M&E Plan

12. Responding to the special needs
of community-based programs
 Fostering data demand and use
 Developing participatory monitoring and
evaluation (PM&E)

13. Participatory M&E
Low literacy tool
 Community identifies priorities
 Establishes progress indicators
 CBO assists with regular monitoring

14. Establishing priorities
Seed (lowest priority)
Sapling
Tree
Fruiting tree (highest priority)

15. Step 1: Vote
Objectives/ Values
Community Home based Care Service
2 4 3 1
Providers availability when needed
Clients recovery from lost to follow up 4 0 2 4
PLWHA trained on nutritional aspects
3 3 3 1
and food preparation
Availability of pain killer drugs 4 2 3 1
Availability of antifungal drugs 1 0 7
2
PLWHA received economic
2 3 2 3
strengthening support
Stigma and discrimination has been
5 2 3 0
reduced

16. Step 2: Score and rank
Average % Highest priority
Objectives/ Values
Score Rank Score Rank
Community Home based Care Service
2.3 8 10% 8
Providers availability when needed
Clients recovery from lost to follow up 2.8 3 40% 2
PLWHA trained on nutritional aspects
2.2 9 10% 9
and food preparation
Availability of pain killer drugs 2.1 10 10% 10
Availability of antifungal drugs 3.0 2 20% 5
PLWHA received economic
2.6 6 30% 4
strengthening support
Stigma and discrimination has been
1.8 12 0% 12
reduced

17. Participatory M&E
 Easy to implement
 Creates community
ownership of information
 Sets the stage for follow-
up

18. Measurable changes
 Increased M&E
budgets
 More M&E staff
 IPs conducting their
own DQAs
 Supportive
supervision and
capacity building

19. Challenges abound!
 Pressure to expand services vs. attention to
M&E
 Data collection: the weak link in the chain
 Overly-ambitious targets
 High-level demands for detailed reporting
data

20. Can (should?) community
programs ever report monthly?
Alternatives to the facility model
 Simple forms for case management
 Semi-annual or annual cluster-sample
surveys to track coverage
 Representative population surveys to
measure changes in status

22. MEASURE Evaluation is a MEASURE project funded by the U.S.
Agency for International Development and implemented by the
Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill in partnership with Futures Group International, ICF
Macro, John Snow, Inc., Management Sciences for Health, and
Tulane University. Views expressed in this presentation do not
necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the U.S. Government.
MEASURE Evaluation is the USAID Global Health Bureau's
primary vehicle for supporting improvements in monitoring and
evaluation in population, health, and nutrition worldwide.
Visit us online at http://www.cpc.unc.edu/measure