Malaria programme reviews: - World Health Organization

A manual for reviewing the performance of malaria control and elimination programmes 17
6. Phase ii: theMatiC DesK revieW
The aim of phase 2 is to conduct a thematic desk review and to select tools for the field review.
This internal review consists of a summary of recent progress in achieving set targets for access,
coverage, quality, use and impact. It allows the programme to identify best practices,
recognize problems, determine the priority of those problems, decide how to investigate those
of highest priority and propose appropriate solutions. It also reveals information weaknesses
and gaps and focuses the external review.
If appropriate, the review may lead to recommendations to modify policies, strategies and
activities to ensure that the programme can accelerate the delivery of high-quality malaria
control services. The thematic desk review is based on an updated malaria database, country
profiles and malaria epidemiology.
The outputs of phase 2 are reports and slide presentations on the thematic desk review, adapted
tools for field work and a completed review score sheet. The thematic review is the most
important part of the MPR as it will greatly influence the success of the next phase.
The five steps of phase 2 are:
1. assembling information from reports and documents,
2. conducting a technical thematic desk review,
3. compiling a thematic desk review and
4. score achievement by thematic areas
5. Selecting and adapting data collection methods for the field review.
6.1 asseMbLinG inForMation FroM rePorts
anD DoCuMents
The national malaria control programme focal points and review secretariat should review the
available documents and categorize them for the desk review. The main documents and reports
for the desk review include:
1. health sector and malaria programme documentation
• strategic plans;
• annual operational plans;
• annual and quarterly reviews, meetings and conference reports;
• policies and guidelines; and
• project proposals;