New GH EvaLS Project Kicks Off With 3 Remote Assessments
ME&A has started three assessments for the USAID Bureau for Global Health under the recently awarded Global Health Evaluation and Learning Support Activity (GH EvaLS). All three assessments were designed to be conducted remotely in consideration of COVID-19 safety concerns.
- USAID Global Health Supply Chain – Procurement and Supply Management (GHSC-PSM) Project: GH EvaLS is conducting a data quality assessment of three key GHSC-PSM indicators: on-time delivery, on-time in-full delivery, and average cycle time. GHSC-PSM is an eight-year, $9.5 billion single-award Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity contract divided into task orders focusing on HIV, malaria, family planning and reproductive health, and maternal and newborn child health. The GH EVaLS team will work with GHSC-PSM from September to November 2020 to confirm its data to date and help strengthen its data collection and monitoring systems.
- USAID Africa Bureau (AFR) 2016 Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) Process: GH EvaLS has been tasked with assessing if the AFR 2016 BAA process and subsequent projects were a good fit for AFR in terms of its management capacity, health interests, implementing partners, and the level of control/direction allowed by the procurement vehicle. The U.S. Government uses BAAs to identify multiple partner sources for broad topics of scientific inquiry rather than for specific activities. In 2016 AFR used a BAA to identify and contract with non-traditional partners to gain better outcomes. The result was two cooperative agreements: Regional Action through Data (RAD) and African Collaborative for Health Financing Solutions (ACS). The GH EvaLS’ assessment, running from September 2020 to January 2021, will be used to inform AFR’s next iteration of projects.
- USAID/Angola Health for All (HFA) Project: USAID/Angola asked GH EvaLS to assess the HFA project to review the project design and implementation to see how it supports the stated goals and to identify and recommend adaptation measures. HFA is a five-year, $63 million project providing targeted, evidence-based interventions in the areas of malaria and family planning and reproductive health in partnership with Angola’s Ministry of Health, civil society, the private sector, and beneficiaries. The project uses co-design and co-implementation approaches. The assessment, running from October 2020 through March 2021, will inform future decisions about the HFA project design and programming.
GH EvaLS provides evaluation, assessment, and learning support for health-related projects and activities at USAID/Washington and USAID Missions. Projects within the USAID Bureau for Global Health’s portfolio support the U.S. Government’s goals to improve global health through preventing child and maternal deaths; controlling the HIV/AIDS epidemic; and combating infectious diseases, such as COVID-19. USAID awarded ME&A the GH EvaLS contract in May 2020.