Capacity Building for Center for Health Department Central Luzon Program Coordinators on Monitoring and Evaluation of Training Programs

One of the major roles of the Department of Health (DOH) is to provide technical assistance to local government units (LGUs) which serve as the direct implementers of various public health programs. The Central Luzon Center for Health Development (CLCHD) allocates a substantial amount from its annual budget to provide capacity building activities for the LGU health workforce. These activities are designed to enhance their knowledge, skills and attitudes, and are envisioned to contribute to more efficient work performance and delivery of target organizational outcomes. Currently, these training programs do not have established monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems to determine whether these activities are meeting their target objectives as well as contributing to the overall performance of LGU health indicators.

To track the systematic implementation and achievement of the desired outputs and outcomes of the capacity building activities, an M&E plan and its associated tools must be developed. Monitoring clarifies relationship between the goals of the health program and the objectives of the capacity building activities; links activities and their resources to objectives; translates objectives into performance indicators and sets targets; routinely collects data on these indicators, compares actual results with targets; and reports progress to implementors and alerts them to problems. Meanwhile, evaluation looks at the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of an intervention. It will provide evidence of why targets and outcomes are or are not being achieved and addresses issues of causality.

By having a good M&E system, the CLCHD can assess what is working and what is not, thereby identifying changes that should be made in the capacity building programs. Measurable results can justify continued funding and clarify the return on investment of the capacity building. In addition, the results of M&E can demonstrate commitment to and competence in the development of the LGU healthcare workforce.

The Field Epidemiology Training Program Alumni Foundation Inc. (FETPAFI) has been a partner of the DOH and its regional offices in the implementation of various capacity-building programs for health program managers and their clients. This proposal aims to provide technical assistance to the CLCHD by conducting (1) two batches of training on M&E planning for capacity building programs being implemented by program managers; and (2) supervisory visits to improve the implementation of the M&E plan and tools.