Determinants of effective monitoring and evaluation system of public health programs: The case of national school-based deworming program in Kwale county, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to identify the determinants of Monitoring and Evaluation and how effective was the deworming project that was implemented by Ministries of public Health and sanitation and that of Education was monitored in Kwale County. Monitoring and Evaluation are closely related concepts that are distinct but complementary. Monitoring is a continuous collection of data on specified indicators to facilitate decision making on whether an intervention is being implemented in line with the design while evaluation is the Periodic and systematic collection of data to assess the design, implementation and impact in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, distribution and sustainability of outcomes and impacts. Data for the study was collected using the descriptive method where a questionnaire was administered to managers and supervisors. The data was subsequently analyzed by use of descriptive and inferential statistics. The study findings identified monitoring and evaluation system and compared them with the best practices. The findings indicated that, the Kwale national school-based deworming program has a well-structured and an elaborative monitoring and evaluation system. The study concluded that, Project organization structure with monitoring and evaluation functions, well developed human capacity, robust advocacy and communication strategy, strong project database and elaborative data dissemination plan and use are critical components of any effective monitoring and evaluation system of public Health programs. The study made some recommendations for improvement. It was noted that, there is need to improve on advocacy and communication strategy. The program used brochures (66.4% of the respondents) as the major strategy to promote the deworming program which was only accessed by 4.5 % of the key informant. Use of FM local vernacular radios and television has a potential to reach more audience. According to the study about 20.5 % of the key informants got to know about the deworming program through radio and television. There is a need to provide periodic and regular reports about the deworming program. According to the study 51.3 % of the respondents felt that, the program did not produce periodic and regular reports as required. There is a need to develop an elaborate data dissemination plan. These recommendations needed to be implemented alongside general strengthening of the project systems.