Three key lessons learned from OVC (Orphans and Vulnerable Children) evaluations for future public health evaluations: 1) Evaluations need to be designed and incorporated from the beginning of projects rather than as an afterthought, but it is difficult to attract attention to evaluations early on. 2) There are methodological challenges to conducting rigorous impact evaluations of public health programs including non-random placement of programs, lack of suitable control groups, and inability to control for external factors. 3) Evaluations require strong leadership and buy-in from stakeholders to facilitate data collection and use of findings to improve programs. Early and continued engagement of stakeholders is important.

1. Lessons Learned from OVC Evaluations for Future Public Health Evaluations Siân Curtis, PhD OVC Evaluation Dissemination Meeting, September 3 rd , 2009, Washington, DC

3. Ideal Impact Assessment

12. MEASURE Evaluation is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development through Cooperative Agreement GHA-A-00-08-00003-00 and is 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. The views expressed in this presentation do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States government. Visit us online at http://www.cpc.unc.edu/measure.