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 programs (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 provide 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 understand 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.