State and Territorial health departments are federally funded with more than $250 million annually to conduct HIV prevention activities. Currently, the program evaluation capacity of the 65 health departments is being assessed by three methods: review of annual applications for funding, assessment of evaluation needs completed by health department representatives, and case studies of heath departments that represent a range of evaluation capacities. The review of grantee applications for funding uses a three-point scale for the following categories: dedicated evaluation staff, non-health department resources (e.g., linkages with local universities), outcome evaluation experience, standard process evaluations across programs, designing and delivering evaluable programs, experience implementing federal evaluation guidelines; using evaluation to improve programs, and providing evaluation technical assistance to subcontractors. Data from the document review was used to group the health departments into three broad categories of high (n=19), medium (n=22), and low (n=24) evaluation capacity. The rapid evaluation needs assessment will extend these data by asking health department staff detailed questions about current evaluation services and capacities and what they need from their federal partners to build evaluation capacity (locally and nationally). The case studies are currently being developed and will rely heavily on data from the preceding two assessments. The rationale, procedures, and data from each of these methods will be described. We will discuss how these data will be used to increase the evaluation capacity of health departments and to better target the provision of evaluation training and technical assistance.
Learning Objectives: During this session, presenters will discuss three methods for assessing the evaluation capacity of health departments funded for HIV prevention, including document review, rapid evaluation needs assessment, and case studies. At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to articulate the rationale and procedures for assessing evaluation capacity
Keywords: Evaluation, HIV/AIDS
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.