This study evaluated the sustainability of a set of interventions to prevent dengue and diarrhea in 33 rural schools in the municipalities (counties) of Anapoima and La Mesa, Colombia, two years post-project. The study measured sustainability in two categories: maintenance of the benefits and the interventions, and institutionalization and community capacity-building. The sustainability of the interventions was compared across four arms: interventions to prevent diarrhea, to prevent dengue, combined interventions to prevent diarrhea and dengue, and control. The final score for each arm was classified in five levels of sustainability: regressive, not sustainable, moderately sustainable, sustainable, and highly sustainable. The arms were compared with ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis test, with significance set at 0.05. At two years post-project, the overall sustainability for the prevention of diarrhea was moderate in the four arms, while dengue prevention was not sustainable in three of the four arms, without statistically significant differences. Sustainability levels also varied in terms of benefits, interventions, capacity-building, and institutionalization. Maintenance of benefits and interventions in both diseases was more sustainable than institutionalization and capacity-building. The analysis of these variables is important for identifying the different factors that influence projects’ sustainability, related to their design and execution, organizational framework, and social context.
Keywords:
Program Evaluation; Institucionalization; Dengue; Diarrhea
Thumbnail
