Pilot projects help determine utility and feasibility of a system, but even if considered successful, cost could prevent further scale-up. When evaluating a surveillance system pilot, cost and benefits are key factors to examine. In Cote dâIvoire and Tanzania, Ministry of Health (MoH) and non-governmental partners receive funding under the Global Health Security Agenda to strengthen disease surveillance for earlier detection and improved response to potential infectious disease outbreaks. To this end, Community based surveillance (CBS) projects were implemented in 2016 as a means for early warning of potential events to facilitate a more rapid response. Currently, these CBS projects are being evaluated collaboratively with the primary stakeholder, the host country government (HCG), as lead, and partners such as CDC providing technical assistance. In other instances, partners may conduct an evaluation and share the results and recommendations with the HCG; however, if the HCG is not actively engaged as the primary executor, outcomes may not be endorsed or implemented. Therefore, these evaluations were approached from an ownerâs (HCG) perspective. In this way, the governmental agencies develop capabilities to conduct similar activities in other areas, reduce dependencies on outside entities, and promote enactment of resulting recommendations.
Objective:
We used experiences in multiple countries to determine that owner engagement is critical for successful evaluations of surveillance system viability.