The R4HA programme has been working with institutions and government departments in Mozambique, Senegal and Tanzania on strengthening and creating monitoring and evaluation frameworks. Implementing a process to monitor and evaluate an organisation’s activities can be a daunting task. So a ready to use framework can really help to channel efforts and save valuable resources.

This resource presents a strategic monitoring and evaluation approach for national research governance institutions to demonstrate their return on investments in such a way that institutions can begin to show how and to what degree they contribute to social good, while informing ways to maximise this good.

This approach can be used by institutions or government departments in charge of governing research for health in their country. It can easily be adapted to specific needs and realities.

About this Resource

Organisations perform better if they are able to evaluate the effect of their activities. This is because they can plan more effectively, learn from successes and failures, and communicate more clearly to others why what they are doing is valuable.

Most governments empower one parastatal institution, or government department to take the lead in the governance and management of research in their country. These institutions/ departments effectively govern a research system. In many countries, the research system does not have effective planning, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. Because of this, institutions that are charged with the governance of research for health are often unable to track the successes and failures of their own work due to an absence of data or inability to make relevant what data they do have.

The R4HA programme has been working with institutions and government departments in Mozambique, Senegal and Tanzania on strengthening and creating monitoring and evaluation frameworks. Implementing a process to monitor and evaluate an organisation’s activities can be a daunting task. So a ready to use framework can really help to channel efforts and save valuable resources.

Through creating a monitoring and evaluation approach, the R4HA team hopes to provide a useful resource for institutions and departments charged with the governance of a research system for health. They propose a way through which, with small investment, evidence is generated and information collected that can be used for communication and advocacy aiming to create greater investment and political support, and for organisational learning leading to better results.

The development of the approach has been informed by brainstorming exercises and workshops with national country partners, notably the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH), the Instituto Nacional de Saúde in Mozambique, the Ministry of Health in Senegal and with the Research for Health Africa team and other staff members of COHRED and NEPAD. This work also leans heavily on some other approaches and literature that was developed by other countries.

This approach will help to equip organisations with the information they need for forward planning, internal learning and for garnering political backing and funding to support the research system in their country by using Outcome Mapping as a methodology.