What are the key challenges of program monitoring and evaluation in global health security?

1 Complexity and uncertainty

Global health security programs often operate in complex and uncertain contexts, where multiple factors and actors influence the outcomes and impacts of interventions. For example, political instability, social unrest, environmental changes, and emerging pathogens can affect the performance and sustainability of health systems and programs. Therefore, M&E in global health security needs to account for these complexities and uncertainties, and use appropriate methods and tools to capture the causal pathways, assumptions, risks, and feedback loops that shape the program logic and theory of change. Moreover, M&E in global health security needs to be flexible and adaptive, and able to respond to changing needs and priorities of stakeholders and beneficiaries.

2 Data quality and availability

Another challenge of M&E in global health security is ensuring the quality and availability of data for decision-making and learning. Data quality refers to the accuracy, reliability, validity, timeliness, and completeness of the data collected and analyzed for M&E purposes. Data availability refers to the accessibility, security, and usability of the data for different users and audiences. However, data quality and availability can be compromised by various factors, such as poor infrastructure, weak governance, limited resources, ethical issues, and data fragmentation. Therefore, M&E in global health security needs to establish clear data standards and protocols, build capacity and trust among data providers and users, and leverage innovative technologies and platforms to improve data collection, management, and dissemination.

3 Coordination and alignment

A third challenge of M&E in global health security is ensuring the coordination and alignment of M&E activities and results across different levels, sectors, and partners. Global health security programs often involve multiple stakeholders, such as governments, donors, civil society, private sector, and communities, who may have different M&E objectives, expectations, and interests. Moreover, global health security programs often span across different levels of intervention, such as local, national, regional, and global, and different sectors of health, such as human, animal, and environmental health. Therefore, M&E in global health security needs to foster coordination and alignment among stakeholders, levels, and sectors, and promote harmonization, integration, and collaboration of M&E systems and frameworks.

4 Utilization and communication

A final challenge of M&E in global health security is ensuring the utilization and communication of M&E findings and recommendations for improvement and accountability. M&E in global health security can generate valuable evidence and insights that can inform policy, practice, and advocacy for enhancing global health security. However, M&E findings and recommendations can also be ignored, misinterpreted, or contested by different stakeholders, due to various barriers, such as lack of awareness, interest, or trust, political or ideological biases, or conflicting agendas or interests. Therefore, M&E in global health security needs to enhance the utilization and communication of M&E findings and recommendations, and engage stakeholders in the M&E process, design, and dissemination, and foster a culture of learning and feedback within and across programs.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?