The Real-Time Results Tracking project is working to develop, assess and implement innovative methods to capture and track changes in child mortality in low-income settings. These new methods will allow for more frequent reporting of results, and therefore permit mid-course corrections to be made during the life of a project. The Institute for International Programs at Johns Hopkins University (IIP-JHU) is implementing this project in Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mali and Niger. IIP-JHU works in partnership with in-country African research institutions and provides technical support to develop research and evaluation capacity in program countries.
Results achieved as of March 2012 include: formative research was undertaken in Ethiopia and Mali and baseline surveys were conducted in Ghana and Ethiopia. In Malawi, community health workers were trained and equipped in two districts to record pregnancies, births and deaths in their communities and a gold-standard mortality survey was undertaken. In Niger, two capacity-building workshops were held for statistician-demographers working at the Niger National Statistical Institute. National independent evaluation networks were established in all five countries, and knowledge transfer and cross-learning opportunities are facilitated between countries.
