Join MEASURE Evaluation on February 1 at 8:00am EST (3:00pm in South Africa) for a one-hour webinar on a new framework for planning and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of national social service systems for vulnerable children.
Since 2003, the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has provided substantial investments in initiatives to mitigate the impact of HIV and AIDS on orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). To ensure the sustainability and ownership of these initiatives and improve the protection and care of children, PEPFAR over the past several years has increased funding for initiatives intended to strengthen the social service system in HIV-affected countries. Rather than focus exclusively on initiatives to address specific child protection concerns in isolation (such as HIV and AIDS, child labor, household income generation, or education), system-strengthening initiatives aim to create a system with the capacity to address multiple interconnected vulnerabilities.
Globally, system strengthening is recognized as a logical and effective way to improve the efficiency, quality, and sustainability of service delivery. To fill part of the gap that exists in demonstrating the impact that strengthening social service systems can have, the USAID- and PEPFAR-funded MEASURE Evaluation project developed a framework that provides indicators and guidance for measuring system performance. These indicators measure the outcome of system-strengthening interventions in five core areas, which PEPFAR defines as the components of social service-system strengthening: (1) leadership and governance structures; (2) the social service workforce; (3) financing; (4) information management and accountability systems; and (5) coordination and networking mechanisms.
The purpose of this framework for planning and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of national social service systems for vulnerable children is to disseminate standard indicators that support measurement of the performance of social service systems, provide guidance on the analysis and use of data resulting from implementing the indicators, and present best-practice methods and other considerations for applying the framework in the context of any country or program.
MEASURE Evaluation is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) under the terms of cooperative agreement AID-OAA-L-14-00004 and implemented by the Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in partnership with ICF International, John Snow, Inc., Management Sciences for Health, Palladium, and Tulane University. The views expressed in this e-mail do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States government.