The Value Added of Incorporating Qualitative Approaches into Malaria Surveillance, Monitoring, and Evaluation

Progress toward malaria elimination and improvements in the performance of national malaria control pro-grams (NMCPs) have stalled in recent years. The current COVID-19 pandemic further threatens building on previous gains. Surveillance, monitoring, and evaluation (SME) are critical for the continued success of NMCPs because they pro-vide the information necessary for effective program planning and management. Interventions aimed at strengthening NMCPs focus on both the target population and the program provider. Qualitative approaches are often used to under-stand the target population and barriers to intervention success. Although there is growing emphasis on qualitative approaches in provider-focused SME, metrics of success tend to focus on quantitative measures. The integration of qualitative approaches offers added value because they provide additional data points to facilitate the understanding of barriers that impede sustaining the gains made from provider-focused capacity-building efforts. Qualitative approaches focus on understanding program implementation and interventions, but the systematic integration of qualitative data is limited. Qualitative approaches provide avenues to strengthen SME efforts, can lead to subsequent improvement for NMCPs, and fuel progress toward malaria elimination.

Automated summary

Progress toward malaria elimination and improvements in the performance of national malaria control programs have stagnated in recent years, and the COVID-19 pandemic poses further threats. Surveillance, monitoring, and evaluation are crucial for the continued success of these programs. Interventions aimed at strengthening these programs should include both the target population and the program provider. While there is a growing emphasis on qualitative approaches in provider-focused efforts, success metrics often focus on quantitative measures.