title: Evaluating community-based medical education programmes in Africa: A workshop report.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) supports medical schools in Africa to increase the capacity and quality of medical education, improve retention of graduates, and promote regionally relevant research. Many MEPI programmes include elements of community-based education (CBE) such as: community placements; clinical rotations in underserved locations, community medicine, or primary health; situational analyses; or student-led research.
  
  
  METHODS
  CapacityPlus and the MEPI Coordinating Center conducted a workshop to share good practices for CBE evaluation, identify approaches that can be used for CBE evaluation in the African context, and strengthen a network of CBE collaborators. Expected outcomes of the workshop included draft evaluation plans for each school and plans for continued collaboration among participants. The workshop focused on approaches and resources for evaluation, guiding exploration of programme evaluation including data collection, sampling, analysis, and reporting. Participants developed logic models capturing inputs, activities, outputs, and expected outcomes of their programmes, and used these models to inform development of evaluation plans. This report describes key insights from the workshop, and highlights plans for CBE evaluation among the MEPI institutions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Each school left the workshop with a draft evaluation plan. Participants agreed to maintain communication and identified concrete areas for collaboration moving forward. Since the workshop's conclusion, nine schools have agreed on next steps for the evaluation process and will begin implementation of their plans.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This workshop clearly demonstrated the widespread interest in improving CBE evaluation efforts and a need to develop, implement, and disseminate rigorous approaches and tools relevant to the African context.
authors.affiliation: Team leader for Health Workforce Development for the USAID-funded CapacityPlus Project led by IntraHealth International, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
authors.forename: Rebecca J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Bailey
authors.affiliation: Lecturer with Makerere University College of Health Sciences and the co-ordinator of MESAU Consortium Community-based Education, Research, and Service Evaluation, Kampala, Uganda.
authors.forename: Rhona K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Baingana
authors.affiliation: Professor and director, Centre for Rural Health in the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, and a consultant to MEPI for the CapacityPlus Project led by IntraHealth International.
authors.forename: Ian D
authors.initials: ID
authors.lastname: Couper
authors.affiliation: Medical student at Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Deery
authors.affiliation: Professor of Simulation Education in Healthcare, School of Rural Health/HealthPEER at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Debra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Nestel
authors.affiliation: Technical advisor for the USAID-funded CapacityPlus Project led by IntraHealth International, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ross
authors.affiliation: Professor of obstetrics and gynecology, College of Medical Sciences, University of Jos, Jos, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Atiene Solomon
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Sagay
authors.affiliation: Associate professor of medicine and of health policy and faculty on the MEPI Coordinating Center at George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Zohray M
authors.initials: ZM
authors.lastname: Talib