Evaluation of two programs supporting global family planning data needs

Abstract

In 2012, countries agreed on an ambitious global goal of achieving 120 million new users of modern contraception by 2020 in 69 of the world's poorest countries. This Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) goal gained the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which launched 2 key programmes in early 2013 to help countries collect, analyse, and use data to monitor progress toward the FP2020 goal. The Performance Monitoring and Accountability 2020 (PMA2020) programme, implemented by Johns Hopkins University's Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health, was to focus on supporting data collection in 9 countries through annual, rapid-turnaround, national surveys typically led by university-based experts, using mobile phone technology and local "resident enumerators". The Track20 programme, implemented by Avenir Health, was to work with governments in a larger number of countries to gather data from various sources, analyse and model the data to derive estimates for core family planning indicators, facilitate consensus around data to be reported globally, and promulgate the effective use of these data. In early 2017, the Gates Foundation contracted with the RAND Corporation to undertake an objective external evaluation of PMA2020 and Track20 programmes, and the evaluation was carried out between April and September 2017. This report describes the process and results of RAND's evaluation. After a brief introduction in chapter 1, chapter 2 provides background on the 2 programmes and brief descriptions of other relevant family planning data sources. Chapter 3 describes the methods for the evaluation. Chapter 4 introduces the assessment frameworks developed, including logic models for the 2 programmes, a data maturity framework and a sustainability framework. Chapter 5 presents stakeholder views on family planning data needs. Chapters 6-8 focus on PMA2020, including its goals, accomplishments, and challenges (chapter 6); the results of statistical analyses of PMA2020 surveys (chapter 7); and potential changes to the PMA2020 survey, drawing on stakeholder perceptions of its statistical properties and suggestions for modifications based on both stakeholder views and independent statistical analyses (chapter 8). Chapter 9 then discusses the goals, accomplishments, and challenges for Track20, and chapter 10 discusses the intersections between PMA2020 and Track20. Chapters 11, 12 and 13 address data use, data maturity, and sustainability of the 2 programmes, respectively, reflecting a variety of stakeholder perspectives. Finally, chapter 14 presents the RAND team's conclusions and recommendations.