Midterm evaluation of the National Council for International Health (NCIH) cooperative agreement (DPE-5929-A-00-1010-00)

This midterm evaluation covers the period 4/95-4/97. NCIH is confronted with management and financial challenges that threaten its well-being and cast doubt on its ability to consistently achieve conference objectives. Membership levels have lagged, and revenues have fallen. The situation may be described as serious, if not critical. Vigorous leadership is required to set in motion the creative and dynamic steps needed to address these challenges. The new Board leadership has begun this process, but success is by no means assured. The conferences have addressed important international health (IH) issues, and are generally well regarded and valued by attendees. However, attendance has varied, generally falling short of expectations, and a significant number of attendees are nonpaying, which raises conference costs. The conferences serve a range of USAID interests. USAID should continue its support at current levels for the remainder of the life of the Agreement, subject to NCIH's development of viable approaches to resolving its outstanding problems. Further, more modest support should be contingent upon NCIH's continued progress in resolving its problems and generate alternative sources of revenue. Given the lack of available data, it is not possible reliably to measure the contributions the conferences have made to public awareness of international health issues, or the influence they have had on important policy issues. NCIH has made some contribution to greater awareness in the United States and Congress of international health issues, such as infectious diseases, and has contributed its voice to others seeking to influence foreign aid levels and other resource allocations. NCIH should design and utilize instruments to provide some measure of the organization's impact, and develop strategies to achieve awareness and policy impact objectives. (Author abstract, modified)