GW extended

M&E (Monitoring & Evaluation)

Systems for tracking program implementation, results, and performance.

MEL (Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning)

Monitoring and evaluation combined with an explicit process for using findings to improve decisions and programs.

ToC (Theory of Change)

A causal explanation of how program activities are expected to lead through intermediate results to ultimate impact.

Logic model / results chain

A structured representation of a program pathway, often inputs ‚Üí activities ‚Üí outputs ‚Üí outcomes ‚Üí impact.

Inputs

Resources used by a program, such as money, staff, drugs, equipment, or training.

Activities

What a program actually does using its inputs.

Outputs

Immediate products of program activity, such as people treated, nets distributed, or trainings delivered.

Outcomes

Changes that result from program activity, such as fewer infections, improved learning, or higher income.

Impact

The longer-term or ultimate change attributable to the intervention.

Impact evaluation

Evaluation designed to estimate causal effects by comparing observed outcomes with a credible counterfactual.

Process evaluation

Evaluation of how a program was implemented, whom it reached, whether delivery matched design, and where bottlenecks occurred.

Attribution

The extent to which an observed change can credibly be credited to the intervention rather than other causes.

Additionality

Benefit caused by a particular intervention or funder that would not otherwise have occurred.

Take-up

The proportion of eligible people who actually participate in or use an intervention.

Coverage

The proportion of the target population reached by an intervention.

Adherence / compliance

The extent to which participants actually follow or receive the intended treatment or program.

Implementation fidelity

How closely real-world delivery follows the intended program design.

Scale-up effect

A change in intervention effectiveness when moving from a small study or pilot to larger real-world implementation.

Spillover / externality

A benefit or harm experienced by people other than those directly receiving the intervention.

Selection bias

Systematic distortion caused by differences in who enters, remains in, or is measured in compared groups.

Attrition

Loss of participants during follow-up; differential attrition can bias estimated effects.

Confounding

Distortion of an exposure-outcome relationship by another factor associated with both.

Publication bias

Bias arising when studies with positive, statistically significant, or interesting findings are more likely to be published.

Small-study effects

A pattern in which smaller studies report systematically different, often larger, effects than larger studies.

Subgroup analysis

Estimating effects separately for different populations or settings; most persuasive when prespecified and supported by a plausible mechanism.

ITT (Intention-to-Treat)

An effect estimate based on participants as originally randomized, regardless of whether they complied with assigned treatment.

TOT (Treatment-on-the-Treated)

An estimate of the effect among those who actually received treatment; usually requires stronger assumptions than ITT.

Discount rate

A rate used to assign less present value to costs or benefits occurring farther in the future.

Threshold analysis

Finding the value an uncertain parameter would need to take for the decision or recommendation to change.

VOI (Value of Information)

The expected benefit of obtaining additional information because it can improve future decisions.

DALY (Disability-Adjusted Life Year)

A measure of lost healthy life. One DALY represents one year of healthy life lost.

YLL (Years of Life Lost)

Years of healthy life lost because of premature death.

YLD (Years Lived with Disability)

Years of healthy life lost because of illness or disability.

Disability weight

A value between 0 and 1 representing the severity of a health state for DALY calculations.

QALY (Quality-Adjusted Life Year)

A measure combining length of life and health-related quality of life.

Burden of disease

The total health loss caused by a disease or condition in a population.

Incidence

Occurrence of new cases in a population over time; may be expressed as a total or a rate.

Prevalence

Proportion of a population with a condition at a specified point or during a specified period regardless of when it began.

Mortality rate

The rate of death in a specified population over a specified period.

Case fatality rate

The proportion of identified cases of a disease or condition that result in death.

Risk

Probability that an initially at-risk individual experiences an outcome during a specified period.