Multidimensional assessment of technology and innovation programs: the impact evaluation of INCAGRO-Peru

This article presents a methodological proposal and an empirical validation for the assessment of ST&I programs, particularly for choosing indicators and metrics from a multidimensional perspective. Its key feature is the construction of indicators designed to apprehend the wide array of characteristics displayed by the many different types of innovation program. Thus it combines deductive procedures (decomposition of goals) and inductive procedures (discussion with the players involved) with evaluation results and impacts in specific dimensions linked to the nature of a given program. We illustrate the approach using a World Bank Program called INCAGRO. The proposed method is a contribution to systematizing the definition of indicators and metrics for the assessment of ST&I programs. It helps define 'what should be evaluated' in a given program. Many different (unforeseen) results and impacts can emerge simultaneously with the main subject of the program. Thus multidimensional issues and multiple actors should be considered in the impact evaluation process.19536137

Measles vaccine coverage and immune response in children of Caiabi and Metuktire Indian tribes living in malarial endemic area: Parque Indigena do Xingu, Central Brazil

Measles vaccination efficiency was evaluated in children from two Indian tribes - Caiabi and Metuktire - living in the Amazon region, in the Parque Indigena do Xingu (PIX). The population sample, selected at random, made up 37 Caiabi and 28 Metuktire children, aged from 20-75 months (40%). For operational and epidemiological reasons, measles vaccine is given from 6 months of age. The average age of children when they received the vaccine was 11.5 months for the first dose and 20 months for the second. The search for IgG antibodies against measles virus and Plasmodium falciparum was made through immunofluorescence assay (IFA). Measles vaccine coverage has reached 60% at 12 months of age and 92% at 18 months, whereas post-vaccine serum conversion was 95% in Caiabi children (geometric mean of titres (GMT) 126) and 89% in Metuktire (GMT 109). The difference in GMT is not statistically significant.Seventy-three per cent of Caiabi children (GMT101) and 100% of Metuktire children (GMT135) were plasmodium antibody positive, showing they had been exposed to malarial infection. Despite the differences detected, the immune response to measles vaccine was satisfactory in both groups, with a positive percentage consistent with that achieved in non-malarial areas in Americas. The results show the efficiency of a vaccination programme in an indigenous area despite the difficulties in reaching the villages and maintaining the cold chain, and also despite the malaria endemicity.UNIFESP, Escola Paulista Med, Dept Prevent Med, Unidade Saude & Meio Ambiente, BR-04023900 Sao Paulo, BrazilUNIFESP, Escola Paulista Med, Dept Prevent Med, Unidade Saude & Meio Ambiente, BR-04023900 Sao Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc