Table 2.

Tools to assess the policy outcome at various levels: definition, purposes, link with the programme theory, data collection technics, and preliminary analysis strategies.

Tools, definition, purpose, and link with the programme theory		Data collect technics and preliminary analysis strategies
Implementation outcome at national level: finances by cesarean section ratio		Data were collected through document review and semi-structured interviews with key informants from the Agency. Data on the financial resources allocated to the policy were extracted from the administrative records of the ministry of health and triangulated with key informants in charge of budgets at the ministry of health.
	Definition
	Ratio obtained by dividing the total amount of financial resources allocated to the policy in the annual government budget over the validated number of cesarean sections performed every year in all the accredited implementing hospitals between 2009 and 2018.
	Purpose and link with the programme theory
	This is a measurement of a critical output of the implementation processes happening at the macro or national level of the system in terms of alignment of the resources provided with the number of cesarean sections performed in implementing facilities. Making explicit this ratio and investigating the causal mechanisms underlying its changes overtime makes it possible to test and refine the programme theory.
Implementation outcome at hospital level: cesarean section kit completeness index		This is a quantitative data extraction tool filled by two managers of the pharmacy and by the principal investigator. Data sources included the pharmacy registers, the decrees issued by the hospital managers to set the content of the kits. A quantitative descriptive analysis was carried out.
	Definition
	This a proportion (formulated in percentage) with the following parameters: Numerator: number of items actually provided free of charge based on the decision issued by managers of the hospital, for each year from 2009 to 2018. Denominator: total number of items in the official cesarean section kit issued in 2009.
	Purpose and link with the programme theory
	The content of the cesarean section kit is a proxy of the resources allocated by the hospital managers to the care providers gynecologists and surgeons, midwives and anesthesiologist in order to deliver the cesarean section free of charge. It allows to track the outputs of the policy implementation at the level of the hospital managers over time.