Child Status Index
The Child Status Index (CSI) toolkit assesses vulnerabilities, needs, and outcomes of orphaned and other children made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS (OVC). CSI provides a framework for identifying these children's needs, creating service plans, and assessing outcomes.
CSI can be used to monitor children's well-being on a regular basis to provide routine data on the impact of OVC programs. This simple, reliable toolkit can be used by people who have not had specific monitoring and evaluation training. CSI will provide policymakers with better assessments of OVC programs as well as how resources should be best spent to meet these children's needs.
CSI was designed to gather information on individual children at provider level, not as a toolkit for aggregate data collection, although that is being investigated. The CSI tools are not intended as a requirement but rather as an example of good tools to use within a program that more broadly looks at children within the context of family centered care.
CSI was successfully field tested for inter-rater reliability and construct validity in Kenya and Tanzania. It has been in trial use in other countries, including Ethiopia, Rwanda, India, and Cambodia—with ongoing feedback from field workers about the applicability of the factors and ratings to their context. Further evaluation is planned and welcome. CSI is being adapted and translated for use in different geographical, linguistic and cultural contexts. The CSI tools are available here:
CSI Manual - currently in revision and will be posted shortly
