Step 1
Identify and Prioritize Behavioral Problems
Formative research should help both prioritize which behaviors to address, and determine likely means of addressing them. The problems might be the three main issues exemplified in this I-Kit: low levels of prompt care seeking for febrile children under 5, low acceptance of and desire for RDT among parents and caregivers of children under 5, or low service provider compliance with national guidelines for case management of malaria. These are examples, and certainly not the only malaria case management issues to be addressed. Regardless of which problems are identified, steps in this I-Kit are applicable. (continue)
Step 2
Select a Theory-Based Framework
The next steps to developing an M&E plan include choosing a theory-based behavioral model and an M&E framework. A behavioral model shows which influences will bring about change, while an M&E framework shows how program outputs, outcomes, and impact are linked and measured with specific indicators (continue)
Step 3
Consider Case Management-Specific Factors
The third step is deciding on the technical aspects of your M&E plan. There are factors that are important to determine in the beginning of an M&E plan, as they have financial and human resource implications. Costs will very depending on the vigor of the evaluation, population size, and SBCC intervention. In general, population-based household surveys are more expensive than using smaller surveys or secondary data analysis. Measuring smaller numbers of service proviers (when examining adherence to RDT results, for example) will be far less expensive than.. (continue)
Step 4
Data Collection
Determine what mix of qualitative and quantitative data is appropriate and decide how to obtain each. Health programmers use qualitative and quantitative research to monitor and evaluate their programs. The choice of whether to use quantitative or qualitative data collection techniques, or a combination of the two, depends on the type of problem identified and the theory guiding the design. The choice also depends on the purpose of the data collection, to do formative research, monitoring or process evaluation, or impact evaluation (continue)
Step 5
Prepare, analyze and report data
Specify how data will be analyzed and which indicators to include in reports. Through development of a data use strategy, program teams can specify how data will be analyzed, which routine reports will be produced, and which indicators will be included in the reports (continue)