Abstract
The Promoting the Quality of Medicines (PQM) program, a USAID cooperative agreement (2009?2019) with the United States Pharmacopeial Convention, a nonprofit organization, aims to help assure the quality, safety, and efficacy of medicines of relevance to USAID health programs. It is the Agency?s response to the growing development challenge posed by substandard and falsified medicines worldwide. The purposes of this interim evaluation were to determine the effectiveness of PQM?s implementation in achieving the program goal and intermediate results, and to provide prioritized recommendations that can be feasibly incorporated into the remainder of the existing program. The evaluation team used qualitative and quantitative data collection methods and analysis methods, including document reviews, online surveys, and in-person and remote interviews, and site visits to PQM programs in Indonesia, Nigeria, and Ethiopia. Important outcomes of PQM?s work were identified in strengthening medicines quality assurance systems and increasing the supply of quality-assured priority global health medicines. While the program faced and successfully addressed many management and technical challenges as it grew in size and complexity over its first eight years of implementation, these challenges at times affected its ability to devote time to effectively communicate its goal, technical approaches, and achievements to clients and stakeholders. The evaluation team had four recommendations for PQM: develop a comprehensive and strategic communications strategy; continue to develop the results framework with a pathway of change; focus on implementation of the information management component of the knowledge management strategy; and adopt and integrate systems thinking and system theory approaches.