Project profile — Real-Time Results Tracking

The Real-Time Results Tracking project is working to develop, assess and implement innovative methods to capture and track changes in child mortality in low-income settings. These new methods will allow for more frequent reporting of results, and therefore permit mid-course corrections to be made during the life of a project. The Institute for International Programs at Johns Hopkins University (IIP-JHU) is implementing this project in Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mali and Niger. IIP-JHU works in partnership with in-country African research institutions and provides technical support to develop research and evaluation capacity in program countries.

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Results achieved as of March 2013 include: training and equipping community health workers in Ghana, Ethiopia, Malawi and Mali to record pregnancies, births and deaths in their communities. In Malawi, two of the real-time results tracking methods were successfully tested and one was revised for a further round of testing based on lessons learned from the first test. In Ethiopia, a study was undertaken to assess the implementation and quality of child survival programming. The National Institute of Statistics in Niger also published a paper in The Lancet medical journal, and produced evidence requested by the Niger Ministry of Health to guide planning for maternal, newborn and child health programs. In all five countries, capacity-building and knowledge-sharing activities were conducted which resulted in clear evidence of expanded country capacity in mortality monitoring and evidence-based decision making. These results are helping to better track child mortality and results in Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mali and Niger and help maximize the impact of health interventions for children under the age of five.