As part of its Monitoring, Evaluation, and Reporting (MER) guidance, the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) released Version 2.3 in September 2018, which includes revised indicators for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) programs. These indicators are intended for routine monitoring of service delivery (OVC_SERV) and HIV status (OVC_HIVSTAT) and are to be reported biannually by all global implementing partners.
The purpose of routinely collecting the MER OVC indicators is to ensure that OVC project beneficiaries receive substantive, timely, and continuous support. Updates in this version highlight the importance of the HIV risk assessment for those who do not know their status and need to be tested and the inclusion of minimum graduation benchmarks. Minimum graduation benchmarks provide definitions for success, which the OVC program, caregivers, and OVC can agree to work toward.
MEASURE Evaluation has developed a set of resources to support the collection of the PEPFAR MER OVC routine monitoring data. These resources are intended for all OVC program stakeholders—for example, USAID mission staff, PEPFAR implementing partner staff, and the community-based organizations responsible for providing services and monitoring OVC programs.
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OVC MER Implementing Partners Training Presentations
This training curriculum is designed for OVC implementing partners. It provides an overview of revised OVC MER 2.0 Indicator Guidance (Version 2.3) published by PEPFAR, including OVC_SERV and OVC_HIVSTAT, which will be reported in PEPFAR’s Data for Transparency and Impact (DATIM) system for FY 2019, Q2, in late March, 2019.
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OVC MER Facilitators Guide
This guide accompanies MEASURE Evaluation’s Orphans and Vulnerable Children MER Indicator Training for Implementing Partners, and offers notes for training facilitators, handouts, and review questions and answers.
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Systems Strengthening for Monitoring and Evaluation of HIV Status of OVC
MEASURE Evaluation conducted a mixed-methods study in three countries to collect qualitative data on the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems in place for the collection, management, and use of OVC_HIVSTAT data. This summary report describes the challenges that implementing partners (IPs) are facing. It also makes recommendations both for USAID missions and IPs, to strengthen M&E systems related to the collection, management, and use of OVC_HIVSTAT data. This report provides the context for many of the updates to OVC_HIVSTAT incorporated in the OVC MER 2.0 Indicator Guidance (Version 2.3), published by PEPFAR.
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HIV Risk Assessment Prototype
In this period of limited resources, there is a desire to reduce overall testing costs while strategically targeting for testing people most likely to be HIV-positive. The Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator recommends that an HIV Risk Assessment be applied to all children whose HIV status is unknown, to identify children at risk for HIV infection. MEASURE Evaluation developed an HIV Risk Assessment prototype that implementing partners may adapt to assess risk among OVC. The prototype’s purpose is to improve the quality of data collected for reporting to PEPAR's DATIM system. Efforts are ongoing to study the appropriate mix and type of risk questions, to enhance the ability of case workers to refer the children whose risk is highest, so the prototype does not include specific questions.
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HIV Risk Assessment Prototype Explanatory Slides
This PowerPoint presentation describes the context that led to the development of the HIV Risk Assessment prototype. It gives brief instructions on how to apply and adapt that tool according to context.
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Graduation Benchmarks Indicator Reference Sheets for Orphans and Vulnerable Children Programs
PEPFAR has established eight global minimum benchmarks that must be met for households to graduate from programs for OVC. For each benchmark, an indicator reference sheet describes how the benchmark is defined and measured.
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Graduation Benchmarks Assessment Tool for Orphans and Vulnerable Children Programs
This is the tool by which households will be assessed for graduation from OVC projects. The tool provides guidance on which of the eight benchmarks should be assessed for which households or for which members of the household; provides questions for each benchmark to be answered by the caseworker carrying out the assessment; and contains instructions for scoring and determining whether the household is ready for graduation.
Also available in Word. The scoring sheet is also available in Word in A4 size and Letter size.
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Graduation Data Quality and Sustainability Assessment for Orphans and Vulnerable Children Programs
The objective of the data quality assessment is to assess the process by which households are graduated from programs and to support program improvement. The objective of the sustainability assessment is to assess whether graduated households are maintaining or improving their well-being after graduation. The document includes a method for carrying out graduation data quality and sustainability assessments and describes tools for carrying out these assessments.
Access the related Graduation Verification Assessment Tool and Graduation Sustainability Assessment Tool resources.
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