Improving management through evaluation: techniques and strategies for family planning programs

Evaluation aimed at providing managers with the information needed for day-to-day decision making has generally received less emphasis in family planning programs than evaluation of long-term programmatic and demographic achievements. A series of evaluation techniques are reviewed that are applicable to the key management areas of operational target setting, administrative monitoring, measuring interim achievements, and cost concerns. Barriers to such evaluation inherent in the training of and relationship between managers and evaluators are reviewed, and means to ease the barriers are proposed.