Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Apr 14:149:e98.
doi: 10.1017/S0950268821000807.

Monitoring and evaluation of COVID-19 response in the WHO African region: challenges and lessons learned

Benido Impouma  1   2 , Caitlin M Wolfe  1   3 , Franck Mboussou  1 , Bridget Farham  1 , Tessa Saturday  1 , Cyril Pervilhac  1 , Nsarhaza Bishikwabo  1 , Tamayi Mlanda  1 , Arish Bukhari Muhammad  1 , Fleury Moussana  1 , Ambrose Talisuna  1 , Humphrey Karamagi  1 , Olivia Keiser  2 , Antoine Flahault  2 , Joseph Cabore  1 , Matshidiso Moeti  1
Affiliations

Monitoring and evaluation of COVID-19 response in the WHO African region: challenges and lessons learned

Benido Impouma et al. Epidemiol Infect. .

Abstract

Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is an essential component of public health emergency response. In the WHO African region (WHO AFRO), over 100 events are detected and responded to annually. Here we discuss the development of the M&E for COVID-19 that established a set of regional and country indicators for tracking the COVID-19 pandemic and response measures. An interdisciplinary task force used the 11 pillars of strategic preparedness and response to define a set of inputs, outputs, outcomes and impact indicators that were used to closely monitor and evaluate progress in the evolving COVID-19 response, with each pillar tailored to specific country needs. M&E data were submitted electronically and informed country profiles, detailed epidemiological reports, and situation reports. Further, 10 selected key performance indicators were tracked to monitor country progress through a bi-weekly progress scoring tool used to identify priority countries in need of additional support from WHO AFRO. Investment in M&E of health emergencies should be an integral part of efforts to strengthen national, regional and global capacities for early detection and response to threats to public health security. The development of an adaptable M&E framework for health emergencies must draw from the lessons learned throughout the COVID-19 response.

Keywords: African region; COVID-19; health emergencies; monitoring and evaluation.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Impouma B et al. ( 2020) Measuring timeliness of outbreak response in the World Health Organization African region, 2017–2019. Emerging Infectious Diseases 26, 2555–2564. doi: 10.3201/eid2611.191766. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization. The International Health Regulations (2005) Third Edition. (https://www.who.int/ihr/publications/9789241580496/en/). Accessed 7 January 2021.
    1. World Health Organization. Emergency Response Framework. (https://www.who.int/hac/about/erf_.pdf). Accessed 7 January 2021.
    1. World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa. Technical Guidelines for Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response in the African Region: Third edition. (https://www.afro.who.int/publications/technical-guidelines-integrated-di...). Accessed 13 January 2021.
    1. World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa. Monitoring and evaluation framework for the COVID-19 response in the WHO African Region. (https://www.afro.who.int/publications/monitoring-and-evaluation-framewor...). Accessed 3 January 2021.

Publication types