Monitoring the Ebola response in Sierra Leone

Ground Truth Solutions’ project in Sierra Leone, funded by the UK's Department for International Development (DFID), aimed to provide Ebola programme managers of different organisations with a regular flow of data on the perceptions of field staff and the general population. 

The focus of the project was to provide real-time evidence for iterative corrective management of the programme and to listen to how key constituents perceived the Ebola response. 

Ground Truth Solutions' Constituent Voice methodology was implemented around a series of key perception indicators. These covered the effectiveness of the Ebola response, peoples’ willingness to follow protocols intended to slow the spread of the disease, and possible gaps in programme design and implementation. Frontline workers and the broader population were thereby able to provide systematic feedback on their perceptions of what was working and what was not. Donors, meanwhile, could monitor and adjust the results of their support based on regular feedback related specifically to key perceptions of programme efficacy and impact. Feedback was collected through four different surveys from November 2014 to June 2015.

The first survey covered the field staff of a subset of the agencies working on the response. ChildFund, PLAN International, Save the Children, and Wellbody Alliance participated. Their staff was surveyed fortnightly to tap their frontline knowledge of people’s behaviours and their perceptions about the speed and efficacy of services provided. 

The second part of the programme was a survey of a randomly selected cross section of the population of Sierra Leone to get a sense of their propensity to abide by established protocols and, more generally, to get a sense of their unfolding understanding of the epidemic and the way they were experiencing it. 

A quarantine survey tracked perceptions of people’s experience of quarantine restrictions. There were two rounds of data collection while people were in quarantine and after they had completed the 21-day quarantine period. The survey was conducted in collaboration with PLAN International and Welthungerhilfe.

A decontamination survey, commissioned by PLAN International, was conducted bi-weekly to complement the three other surveys and to better understand the views of people whose homes had been decontaminated following a case of Ebola in the household.

Contact info@groundtruthsolutions.org to request the reports.

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