Development of a national evaluation system to evaluate CDC-funded health department HIV prevention programs

This article discusses the recent experience of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in developing a national evaluation system for monitoring and evaluating health department HIV prevention programs that are funded by CDC. The foundation for such a system is evaluation guidance that establishes standardized data elements for a variety of evaluation activities. The article discusses barriers to developing such a system, strategies used to deal with those barriers, the contributions made by stakeholders to the development of the system, the end product, strategies and activities used to meet the capacity building, and technical assistance needs of stakeholders. Lessons learned from this experience should be useful to any organization intending to develop a large evaluation system.