OVC Survey Toolkit
The U.S. government and other investors in programs to improve the well-being of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) want to know the impact of their funding.
Meaningful evaluation requires measurable results. But existing surveys used to collect internationally comparable data on children—the Demographic and Health Survey, for example—don’t capture information at the OVC program level, nor do they capture all of the core indicators of an OVC program’s success.
New indicators and tools developed by MEASURE Evaluation, with support from the OVC technical working group of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), simplify and standardize the data needed to set measurable goals for an OVC intervention. Using them, program designers and administrators can now answer questions fundamental to the planning and evaluation of OVC programs worldwide. Learn more in a fact sheet on evaluating orphans and vulnerable children outcomes and listen to a webinar recording on the resources.
What's in the Toolkit
Manual
The Child, Caregiver & Household Well-being Survey Tools for Orphans & Vulnerable Children Programs Manual describes the tools in detail, explaining what they can and cannot do and providing basic guidance to put them into practice. The manual is also available in French.
Questionnaires
These are designed for easy implementation with limited support from international organizations.
French translation of OVC Survey Tools (Français)
Impact Indicators
This minimum set of core OVC program impact indicators is the basis for the three questionnaires.
Protocol Template
Child, Caregiver & Household Well-being Survey Tools for Orphans & Vulnerable Children Programs: Protocol Template resembles an actual research protocol and its appendices. It outlines the information required for each section of a protocol and discusses issues that users should consider when developing their own protocols. Surveys using the OVC questionnaires should not be conducted without a research protocol in place.
Data Analysis Guide
The first step in data analysis is a plan to ensure that the analysis will address the research questions and reflect the strengths and limitations of the data. This guide provides general information about planning and conducting data analysis and suggests analyses that responses to specific survey questions will generate.
Data Collectors Training
Training for PEPFAR OVC Survey Data Collectors, Facilitator’s Guide describes the structure and content of a five-day training workshop for data collectors and an additional day for supervisors. The facilitator's guide is supplemented by Microsoft PowerPoint slides and handouts. The questionnaires for children and caregivers/households should be administered by trained data collectors, not service providers. This guide and Microsoft PowerPoint slides and handouts are also available in French.
Data Management Guide
This guide provides standardized data management procedures, steps for database design, and describes best practices in data entry and data cleaning.
Pilot Test Report
The Pilot Test Report presents methods, findings and lessons learned from pilot testing the OVC survey tools in Zambia and Nigeria.
Psychosocial Well-being Measurement Supplement
This document is intended as a resource for investigators aiming to measure the psychosocial well-being of children and their caregivers. We describe how and why we selected the psychosocial wellbeing measures included in the survey tools as well as our learning around additional questions and scales considered and pilot tested.
