Publications & learning agendaCommunity REACH Publications | Learning Agenda | Focus on Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) Community REACH PublicationsSnapshots II: Stories from Pact's HIV/AIDS ProjectsEngaging Local NGOs in the Response to HIV/AIDS Snapshots: Ten Lives Affected by HIV/AIDS Building Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting Systems for HIV/AIDS Programs [MER Manual] Learning AgendaWorking through a collaborative process to identify gaps and underserved areas in the fight against HIV/AIDS, Pact's Community REACH program works to address these through themed RFAs that facilitate efficient identification of and award to local partners best positioned to fill gaps and meet the underserved needs in their communities. In addition, to supporting the United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) goal of "increased use of improved, effective and sustainable responses to reduce HIV transmission and to mitigate the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic," Community REACH is engaged in an active, integrated and far-reaching effort to identify and document key policy and operational barriers, lessons learned and model programs. To do so, the program has developed a learning agenda. In the past year, Community REACH has channeled resources to organizations providing vital HIV/AIDS services. Community REACH has issued three requests for applications (RFAs) with the following themes:
Three critical elements are being examined in collaboration with grantees to synthesize the lessons learned across all Community REACH subgrants. These areas and several key related issues are: Policy and/or operational barriers
Referrals/linkages/service delivery models
Target population participation
ApproachesFour main approaches are being used to inform Community REACH's Learning Agenda. These are:
Focus on Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC)
A Costing Analysis of Community-Based Programs for Children Affected by HIV/AIDS: Results from Zambia and Rwanda [PDF | 284k] Worldwide there are more than 13 million children under the age of 15 who have lost one or both parents to AIDS, and many others living with one or more terminally ill parent. As a result providing adequate, effective support has become increasingly difficult. Despite the recognition of the significant consequences of this problem, and increasing resources devoted to this population, there is limited research on the programmatic needs of NGOs working with OVC and how to meet them. Pact's Community REACH program is funded through USAID's Global Bureau for Health's Office of HIV/AIDS and is designed to facilitate the efficient flow of grant funds to organizations playing valuable roles in the struggle against HIV/AIDS. One area where Community REACH has made a significant contribution is through the support of organizations working with orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). Four of Community REACH's grantees – HAPCSO, Ethiopia, ICROSS, Kenya, PCI Zambia, and CARE Rwanda – have OVC components to their programs. Community REACH team has capitalized on its experience working with OVC programs to undertake a series of research activities that will begin to address issues related to OVC. I. Rwanda and Zambia ResearchThe Community REACH team has implemented a study to determine a) the differences between orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) and non-OVCs and b) markers of vulnerability. Community REACH completed this research in collaboration with two of its grantees, CARE Rwanda and Project Concern International (PCI) Zambia/Bwafwano over a two-year period from June 2003 to September 2004. An integral part of this process was to build the capacity of CARE Rwanda and PCI Zambia/Bwafwano in the areas of monitoring, evaluation, and research. CARE Rwanda and PCI Zambia collected baseline data with funding and technical assistance from Community REACH. Two groups of households were surveyed: 1) households with orphans or vulnerable children receiving interventions (selected from project registers), and 2) A control or "comparison" group of households, selected using a "nearest neighbor" approach. In Rwanda, the team is examining OVC and non-OVC in Gitarama province, a post-conflict rural setting in the Lakes region. Community REACH is also assessing OVC and non-OVC in peri-urban areas in Zambia, a stable Southern African country that is in an advanced stage of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Community REACH used the same research design and survey instruments to examine the differences between OVCs and non-OVCs and markers of vulnerability in these two contrasting contexts in order to identify and compare those characteristics that appear within the specific context of one country or across two diverse settings. Results from the data collection allow for the comparison of children in a range of different household types, receiving a range of services. Specifically, the research compares households' socioeconomic and individuals' nutritional and psychosocial status for OVC and non-OVC. The Community REACH team has developed a research protocol, survey instruments, interviewer guide, and data collection systems. Sampling and data collection methods are described in the Research Protocol and Interviewer Manual. These instruments are available as follows (please note that these are PDF files and require the Adobe Acrobat PDF Reader to access):
II. Costing Guidelines for OVC programsIn collaboration with FHI/IMPACT, Community REACH assisted in the preparation of OVC costing guidelines which were pilot-tested with the aforementioned grantees in Rwanda and Zambia. The Community REACH project has supported FHI/IMPACT in the development of OVC costing guidelines by providing feedback to FHI on the development of costing guidelines and cost capture tools for OVC interventions. Based on the results of the pilot test, a report that analyses the costs of providing OVC services has been prepared. |





