Monitoring Outcomes of PEPFAR Orphans and Vulnerable Children Programs in Kenya: Report on a Workshop to Disseminate 2016–2018 Findings

Author(s): Sinai, I., Odour, C., Akeyo, D., & Kadengye, D.

Year: 2019

Abstract:

In 2018, the orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) team of the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)/Kenya requested assistance from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the USAID- and PEPFAR-funded MEASURE Evaluation project to conduct three panel studies and one cross-sectional survey for three ongoing PEPFAR OVC projects in western Kenya: Making Well-Informed Efforts to Nurture Disadvantaged Orphans & Vulnerable Children (MWENDO), a USAID-funded project of Catholic Relief Services; the Timiza 90 project of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); and the Walter Reed Program/Henry M. Jackson Foundation Medical Research International (WRP/HJFMRI) HIV project funded by the United States Department of Defense. This was the second round of data collection. MEASURE Evaluation completed the first one in 2016. In the three panel studies (one for each project) the same beneficiary households who were interviewed in 2016 were again interviewed. The main objective for the repeat survey was to evaluate the progress of the OVC projects over the two-year period. In addition, an independent cross-sectional survey (conducted for MWENDO only) was designed to provide a snapshot of the current status of MWENDO beneficiaries in areas not included in the 2016 survey. Fieldwork for the surveys was undertaken in October and November 2018.

MEASURE Evaluation conducted a workshop in Kisumu, Kenya, on March 20–21, 2019, to disseminate the results from the 2018 surveys. On the first day, program managers from the three projects met to review the findings from the four surveys and compare them with the 2016 findings. They discussed the findings extensively and brainstormed their implications. They then began developing management response plans for their projects. On the second day, they were joined by national- and county-level representatives from Kenya’s Department of Children Services and managers of other PEPFAR-supported OVC projects in Kenya. Findings were again shared, this time including recommendations developed on the first day. The three implementing partners then continued working on their management response plans, while participants from the Department of Children Services and representatives from other OVC programs established recommendations for improving other OVC activities in Kenya based on the findings. The groups then reconvened in plenary and presented their final work.

This report summarizes the two-day workshop.

Find other materials from Round 2 are here.

Materials related to Round 1 can be found here.