Evaluation of health-related programmes in Africa: a vision for 2020

Whereas systematic evaluation practice is over five decades old in economically developed continents (DCs), that culture has not yet taken root in Africa. To provide an overview of the current situation of health-related evaluation in the African Region; to envision an appropriate evaluation framework for the next two decades; and to provide overviews of what formative (FE) and summative (SE) evaluations are and how they could be conducted. Descriptive study. Health policies and plans evaluation in the WHO African Region. WHO Country Representatives for 25 African Countries. Non-intervention descriptive study. Availability and quality of long-term health plan (LTHP), health policy (HP), strategic plan (SP), operational plan (OP), and an evaluation culture. The study found that: 88%, 8%, 36%, 28% and 48% of the countries in the Region do not have LTHP, HP, SP, OP and evaluation culture. A conceptual evaluation framework, tools for formative and summative evaluations are proposed. It is envisioned that all partners for health development in Africa will cooperate with individual countries to develop (or strengthen) LTHPs, HPs, SPs, and Ministries of Health OPs (national, provincial and district level); and to make complementary investments in building technical and administrative capacity for evaluating implementation of District Operational Plans (DOPs).