Evaluating the Impact of Public Health Programs

Faculty from the Center of Evaluation for Global Action (CEGA) at the University of California Berkeley, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (TDR), Solidarity and Action Against the HIV Infection in India (SAATHII), and the National Institute of Epidemiology, are convening a one-week workshop in Chennai, India on the rigorous evaluation of:

• HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria prevention and control
• Health insurance schemes
• Maternal and child health
• Rural public health

The workshop targeted government and private sector health professionals and researchers in India who are currently implementing, evaluating, and/or developing public health programs. The workshop’s short-term objectives included:

• Building awareness of impact evaluation as a tool for evidence-based public health policy-making;
• Sharing knowledge and experiences from existing impact evaluations;
• Conducting program-specific clinics for participants to design new public health program evaluations, and address the implementation issues of ongoing evaluations;
• Creating a “community of practice” of government and private sector professionals that will promote rigorous evaluation of interventions in South Asia.

Building on relationships established through the workshop, the conference also aimed to expand India’s capacity for rigorous impact evaluation and to develop long-term research collaborations among Northern academics and health researchers in South Asia.