[afro-nets] IHP + Annual M&E Review - Request for Proposals (2)

["Peter Burgess" <peterbnyc@gmail.com>]

Dear Dr. Bob Fryatt

I am happy to have been told about the IHP M&E initiative. I hope the work will prove to be of sustainable value. I would very much like to help because the issues are important.

On page 13 of the paper (of February 2008) there is a graphic that relates (1) Inputs (2) Process (3) Outputs (4) Outcomes (5) Impact.

M&E is planned for this ... great ... but at considerable expense ... not so great.

In another initiative of WHO there is work going on to create ... also at considerable cost ... a strategic business plan for malaria going our many years.

What am I missing ... where can I find an evaluation today of what the WHO ... and other units of the UN, and the World Bank and the bilateral development assistance community and all the rest said they were going to do 20 years ago and did not.

Why do we do the same things over and over again expecting the outcome to be better ... we don't seem to know much about what was done in the past ... what succeeded and what failed.

There have been successes and there have been failures ... what is it that made for success and what is it that made for failure? If we get hold of the specifics we might learn something ... while if we merely do global averages there will be a report that is an easy read that is almost totally useless.

WHO has data ... but how much value is it? What are we all able to learn from it. What do the data tell us ... in respect of malaria for example ... what can we learn about area specific success and failure. While the global performance of RBM seems pretty awful ... I am sure there are places where progress was made. It would be great to learn what elements went into making the success ... was it IRS ... or surveillance and source control ... was it better health infrastructure and access to healthcare ... where ... what weather ... what else?

I want to help ... but what I want is to help to get data that are existing better used for analysis and understanding. This should be very low cost ... but very high value. Let us please get some data that will tell us how much has been spent (Inputs) what was done (Process) how much was done (Outputs) what changes were achieved (Outcomes) and the value to society (Impact). Let us start to get these data for every community and start mapping what works where and why.

After 50 years WHO and all the other expensive international organizations should have got a lot further than designing yet another system for doing M&E. How has the money been spent ... last year ... and the year before and going back over the years. How much was wasted? How much was stolen? How much was bad planning? Who was responsible?

Do you remember the Declaration of Alma Ata in 1978 ... 30 years ago and we have hardly started! And more recently the Declaration in Abuja ... and the MDGs. Something seems to be very wrong. Let us do what is needed to fix it.

Sincerely

Peter Burgess

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Peter Burgess
The Transparency and Accountability Network: Tr-Ac-Net in New York
http://www.tr-ac-net.org
Community Accountancy
Integrated Malaria Management Consortium (IMMC)
+1 917 432 1191 or +1 212 772 6918 
mailto:peterbnyc@gmail.com