Publications

The latest public health guidance provided in the COVID-19 Strategic Response Plan for the WHO African Region (WHO, COVID-19 Strategic Response Plan for the WHO African Region, 2020) lists 12 strategic areas of engagement and support to countries at ‘regional, national and subnational levels’ (op. cit. 5) with numerous activities (op. cit., pp. 16-26), accompanied by the ‘Monitoring of the Response Strategic Plan’ (op. cit. pp. 27-28).

In early 2020, countries with WHO support, implemented a three-pronged preparedness and response strategy based on: (a) coordination
and support (1 pillar); (b) scaling up country readiness and response operations (9 pillars); and (c) priority research and innovation (1 pillar), which together constitute the foundations of the 11 pillars of the strategy (WHO, 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV): Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan, 2020). These 11 pillars are therefore reflected within, and form the basis of this M&E Framework. Furthermore, in the recent Strategic Response Plan for the African Region (WHO, COVID-19 Strategic Response Plan for the WHO African Region, Febr.-Dec. 2020, Update 4 May 2020), among the five strategic objectives, one specifically addresses M&E by ‘conducting robust and continuous monitoring and evaluation of the response capacities using key performance indicators (KPIs) in ALL countries’ (op. cit., p. 9). At the global level, a recent monitoring and evaluation framework (WHO, COVID-19 Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, Update 5th June, 2020) revisited M&E in the form of pillars and a compendium of indicators, which this document takes a step further for the African Region.

This M&E Framework is structured to address different audiences from the countries which constitute the source of all data, the WHO
country offices (WCOs) and the Regional Office and international partners (Section 2). From the outset, the Framework specifies its aims and objectives (section 3). The logical framework for the approach used and performance-based results follow as background information to delineate the scope of the Framework (section 4). International partners’ roles in the M&E of COVID-19 are then presented (section 5), followed by details showing how the M&E Framework is operationalized using a standard M&E system approach (section 6). Other M&E frameworks and their accompanying indicators for the countries (links to Excel spreadsheets), WCOs and the WHO African Region (WHO AFRO) and international partners are presented in the final sections (7 and 8).

The WHO African Region has major experience in managing geographically extensive and large- scale outbreaks of infectious disease, including cholera, Ebola virus disease and HIV/AIDS. The Framework is constructed to recognize this experience.