The report is the primary output of the assessment—and may be the only public document of your work. All team members contribute to writing the report, which typically includes the following sections:
- Executive Summary
- Introduction
- Approach
- Findings
- Recommendations
- Appendices
3.1 Decide How to Present Data
Private health sector assessments generate a substantial amount of data, and sorting through the information and deciding what to highlight can be a challenge. Hopefully this was accomplished during the analysis step, and now you’re faced with how best to display the findings. Presenting data in streamlined tables and graphs is an effective way to translate findings. Examples of presenting data on health care seeking, provision of health services, and health care expenditures can be found in many of the previously published assessment reports.
We include a selection of figures, graphs, and text boxes here as additional resources.
- Examples of presenting data on use of health services
- Examples of presenting data on supply of health services
- Examples of presenting health expenditure data
RESOURCE ► At the request of USAID, and to help inform policymakers and market leaders as the country prepared to graduate from donor funding, the Paraguay assessment analyzed the contraceptive market, identifying and explaining trends using demographic and health data from 2004 and 2008. The assessment analyzed segmentation by socioeconomic status (wealth quintiles) as well as urban/rural residence, education, and type of method. Segmentation analysis was also used to determine whether changes in method sourcing were due to an influx of new adopters from lower wealth quintiles or whether there was a shift among existing users from paying for services and products to obtaining them for free. These figures and tables demonstrate how we presented our findings in the assessment report.
3.2 Secure Reviewers to Provide Constructive Feedback
Once the team has produced a complete draft report, the document undergoes a quality assurance review. This is an internal review, usually conducted by project supervisors or technical experts (including a gender expert) from the organization tasked with conducting the assessment. The reviewer’s task is to identify gaps, correct any errors, and ensure that the recommendations correspond to the findings and are both plausible and actionable.
In addition, some assessment reports also undergo review by external experts, such as private sector experts from the World Bank or IFC, particularly if they helped finance the assessment. In the case of two recent assessments—Kenya and Tanzania—the IFC both co-funded the effort and published the jointly produced reports through its own channels.
Reports are typically 80–120 pages long, and donors and government officials have appreciated having such a comprehensive description and analysis on the private health sector in a single document. However, some have also acknowledged that finding the time to read lengthy reports is a challenge. In light of this, teams are making an effort to be extremely concise, focusing on new information and insights, in an effort to produce reports that are informative while also accessible.
TIP ► SHOPS has begun to produce 12-page briefs [could link to the SHOPS website which houses these briefs] highlighting key findings and recommendations from private health sector assessments. These are more cost-effective to print, and are often distributed to local stakeholders, in addition to broader dissemination of electronic versions.