Ebola Preparedness Programme Independent Evaluation

In 2015, the Start Network members began three collaborative responses to large-scale crises: the Central African Republic (CAR) Refugees in Cameroon Response (Cameroon); the Ebola Preparedness Programme (Guinea Bissau, Mali, Senegal and Ivory Coast); and the European Refugee Crisis (Greece, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia and Serbia).

As part of the Start Network Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) services, provided by ACF-UK, an independent, external final evaluation of the West Africa Ebola Preparedness Programme was commissioned.

The evaluation assesses the performance of the Start Network programme and aims to contribute to the existing knowledge base on how to respond effectively and efficiently to crises in a collaborative manner. It is framed around the evaluation criteria of relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and collaborative advantage.

Start Network stakeholders provided feedback at various stages of the evaluation: inception report, discussion paper on preliminary findings (shared prior to the field visits to key programme staff), presentation of preliminary findings at the final Regional Learning Event in Dakar (April 2016), and commenting on the draft final evaluation report.

In the absence of measurable outcome indicators and with most final KAP survey reports not yet available at the time of writing, the aim of the evaluation was not to measure the performance of individual projects but to reflect on the Start Network collaborative approach in providing an effective and relevant response.

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