Orphans and Vulnerable Children
- Project Concern International, Courtesy of Photoshare
How is MEASURE Evaluation impacting children?
Our tools not only facilitate the capture of much needed information for program planning and policy making, but also help service providers help the children under their care.
In a recent qualitative study about decision making by volunteers in community-based OVC programs, several respondents discussed how one of MEASURE Evaluation’s tools, the Child Status index (CSI), is useful in decision making and service provision.
"With the [Child Status Index], you know exactly what the child needs… like if it is education or health or nutrition or shelter or psycho-social and you get it for each specific child because every child has different needs… that is why we prefer the CSI because it helps us identify exactly where the problem of the child is such that we do not offer education while the child is in need of nutrition."
Another respondent talked about how the CSI was used to help a single child over the course of their program intervention.
"Before using the CSI, our activities aimed at identifying the children we are taking care of during home visits. Since we have been using the CSI, we assess the child in all sub-domains. For those children, we noticed that the living conditions about the shelter were not satisfactory. Together with the parents we found the appropriate solutions to repair it."
MEASURE Evaluation works to improve programs for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) by facilitating the collection and use of much-needed data about programs and populations. MEASURE Evaluation is building OVC M&E capacity globally through indicator and tool development, program evaluation, and technical assistance and mentoring both directly and via the Child Status Network, an online community of practice.
Here is a downloadable summary of what MEASURE Evaluation is doing in this area.
Tools
Evaluation
- MEASURE Evaluation is currently working on OVC Program Evaluation Tools.
Case Management
- Child Status Index (2012)
Related Tools and Guidance
Building National OVC M&E Systems
We are working with the following countries to build a national M&E system to monitor the national response to orphans and vulnerable children:
OVC Program Evaluations
In Mozambique, MEASURE Evaluation is conducting an evaluation of an mHealth solution designed to improve ART adherence, and assessing the impact of integrating OVC care and support and home-based care program components.
In 2009, MEASURE Evaluation conducted targeted evaluations of programs in Kenya and Tanzania.
Child Status Network: An OVC M&E Community of Practice
The Child Status Network (ChildStatusNet) was formed for users and potential users of the CSI toolkit to share best practices and lessons learned in its implementation among service providers to OVC. ChildStatusNet membership is open to M&E staff, program managers, and consultants.
