Program Implementation in Ethiopia: A Framework for Assessing Implementation Fidelity
Keywords:
Implementation fidelity, project evaluation, adherence, intervention complexity, facilitation strategiesAbstract
Implementation science is only emerging in social, behavioral and educational projects and this is more so in Ethiopia. Hence, while project effectiveness is fundamentally a function of implementation fidelity, it has been customary in Ethiopia to take a “black-box approach” in which project effectiveness has only been gauged against project outcomes; while in effect the process accounts for much of the outcome.
It was envisaged that this could relate to lack of a framework that can be employed for
such purposes in the Ethiopian setting. Therefore, this paper attempted to, first and
foremost, underscore the gravity of implementation problem in Ethiopia at large. Then, it
delineated a framework of implementation fidelity that was assumed to fill-in this missing
component of project effectiveness by guiding how assessment fidelity can be conducted
in contexts like Ethiopia. Finally, it attempted to draw some implications for future work.
