Midterm evaluation of the global strategy to Eliminate Yellow Fever Epidemics 2017-2026

In 2016, a yellow fever outbreak in Angola caused unprecedented spread affecting neighbouring countries and Asia. In response to this outbreak and international spread, WHO, Gavi and UNICEF developed a comprehensive multi-partner global strategy to Eliminate Yellow Fever Epidemics (EYE) 2017-2026 (read more here).

the strategy aims at building a global coalition of countries and partners to tackle the increased risk of yellow fever epidemics in a coordinated manner. In addition to recommending vaccination activities, the EYE Strategy calls for building resilient urban centres, planning for urban readiness, and strengthening the application of the International Health Regulations (2005).

Forty countries considered most vulnerable and at higher risk for yellow fever outbreaks are targeted under the EYE Strategy. This includes 27 countries in Africa and 13 countries in the Americas.

Euro Health Group has been given the task to conduct the midterm evaluation.

The main objectives of the evaluation include, to:

·        document key achievements, best practices, challenges, gaps, and areas for improvement in the design and implementation of the strategy;

·        identify the key contextual factors and changes that are affecting yellow fever spread and transmission risk profile and influencing programme implementation; and

·        make recommendations as appropriate on the way forward to improve performance and implementation, and to ensure sustainability in the future beyond 2026

The temporal scope of the midterm evaluation covers the period 2017 to mid-2022,and the geographic scope includes global, regional and country level (country level includes 40 high-risk countries across Africa and the Americas).

The evaluation has both a summative component, which will assess progress of the strategy implementation and a formative component, which will focus on the way forward. Being a midterm evaluation, focus will primarily be placed on the formative and forward-looking aspects, aiming to generate learning that can be used to enhance implementation and programme performance, as well as to inform relevant discussions and decisions both within WHO and in the EYE partnership.

Our theory-based evaluation will be combined with a process evaluation, to look in detail at the implementation of the strategy to date. This will enable us to assess relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, and sustainability aspects of the EYE strategy including its specific three strategic objectives, proposed actions, milestones, outputs and outcomes.