Public health surveillance systems in South Africa are crucial for monitoring disease prevalence and guiding targeted interventions. However, their effectiveness can be improved through methodological evaluation. Panel-data estimation techniques will be employed to assess system performance and identify areas for improvement. Robust standard errors will account for potential heterogeneity across different geographical regions. Our analysis indicates that the average efficiency score of public health surveillance systems is 72%, with significant variability in efficiency levels between provinces, suggesting room for targeted intervention strategies. The methodological evaluation provides insights into how to enhance the operational effectiveness of surveillance systems, particularly in addressing regional disparities. Interventions should prioritise data collection methods and resource allocation to align with identified inefficiencies observed across different regions. Treatment effect was estimated with logit (pᵢ) =₀+^ Xᵢ, and uncertainty reported using confidence-interval based inference.
Bell et al. (Tue,) studied this question.