RADAR was designed in 2015 to address three specific technical gaps in the evaluation of programs for women and children in LMICs.
The need for a clear and practical framework to guide decisions about evaluations: what core questions need to be addressed, which priority indicators should be measured, and what are ‘right-sized’ evaluation design options given time and resource limitations. The absence of simple, focused, practical tools specifically designed to generate sound evidence responding to the core evaluation questions. Major survey programs supported by global partners are time- and resource-intensive, and produce far more information than needed or able to be fully analyzed and reported by LMIC evaluation teams. Efforts by individual projects to generate ad hoc evaluation tools often – and understandably – do not produce results that are comparable across programs, settings or time, and sufficiently valid to support sound program and policy decisions. Insufficient capacity in evaluation thinking, design and implementation among donors and program planners at global, national and project levels.The RADAR project was designed in collaboration with Government Affairs Canada (GAC) to fill these gaps. The RADAR aim was to develop, apply and refine tools and approaches to increase the availability of accurate data in LMICs for evaluating country programs in reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition (RMNCH&N) that can be ’rolled up’ to respond to GAC accountability needs.The RADAR team has developed a suite of compatible tools for use in large-scale evaluations in LMICs designed to produce answers to a set of core evaluation questions about RMNCH&N programs (Fig 1b). RADAR collaborated with partner organizations in Malawi, Mali, Mozambique and Tanzania (selected countries where Canada has RMNCH&N investments) to field test and refine the use of these tools in generating high-quality, complete, gender-sensitive, and relevant data. The RADAR team has developed a set of on-line Coursera classes covering the fundamentals of RMNCH&N program evaluation, and specific tools and methods for addressing the five core questions.More information on RADAR and access to RADAR tools is available at https://www.jhsph.edu/research/centers-and-institutes/institute-for-international-programs/current-projects/RADAR/.
|
