Midterm Performance Evaluation of the Global Health Program Cycle Improvement Project (GH Pro)

Summary

The purpose of this midterm evaluation was to review GH Pro’s performance to date in the landscape of various support mechanisms funded by USAID’s Bureau for Global Health (GH), with the goal of identifying opportunities to add value, improve program quality and efficiency, and reduce cost. The midterm evaluation concentrated on three areas of service: Mission support (Substitute or Supplemental staff for USAID Missions), technical assistance (technical expertise to conduct assessments or reviews or to support strategic planning, project design, and coordination), and evaluations (independent evaluations of USAID programs and projects, generally at mid-term or end-of-project, in compliance with USAID and PEPFAR evaluation policies and standards). The evaluation team from USAID’s Health Evaluation and Applied Research Development (HEARD) Project has made specific recommendations for each of the three Evaluation Questions encompassed by this evaluation, for corrective action by GH Pro and for a broader readership of those who seek improved methods to evaluate the quality of evaluations. Moreover, there are recommendations for USAID’s ongoing management of GH Pro and the design of a future service support portfolio.