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Case study

Understanding what changed in community health.

Evaluating a community health programme to understand changes in maternal health knowledge, service uptake and implementation.

Explore the findings

Study at a glance

Industry
Public Health
Country
Zimbabwe
Year
2025
Participants
1,800 households
Monitoring, Evaluation and LearningSocial and Development Research
The context

Was the programme reaching the people it aimed to help?

A donor-funded public health programme aimed to improve maternal and child health outcomes in underserved communities. The client required an independent impact evaluation to assess effectiveness and value for money.

The questions

Looking beyond delivery to changes in people’s lives

  1. Measure changes in health knowledge and service utilization.

  2. Assess programme impact at household and community levels.

  3. Identify unintended outcomes and implementation gaps.

  4. Provide learning for future programme design.

The approach

Following the evidence from households to health workers

Household surveys and community discussions were brought together with health worker and programme manager interviews to evaluate contribution and impact.

  1. Household surveys using CAPI (n = 1,800)

  2. FGDs with women and community leaders

  3. KIIs with health workers and programme managers

  4. quasi-experimental approach

  5. contribution analysis

What the research showed

Health knowledge improved. Sustained change still faced barriers.

Evidence of improved maternal health knowledge and service uptake.

Identified barriers to sustained behaviour change.

From findings to action

Generated lessons for scaling community-based health interventions.

What happened next

Learning that informed future health investment.

The evaluation strengthened donor confidence, supported evidence-based decision-making, and informed future investments in community health programming.

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