• Introduction
  • Financial vs. economic costs - who pays?
  • Who should finance what?
  • Three types of costs
• Common cost categories in OVC interventions
• Costs and project types
  • Costing prevention efforts
  • Costing the rescue and rehabilitation of critically vulnerable children
    • Street child projects
    • Orphan projects
    • Child labor projects
    • Children associated with armed groups
    • Child disability projects
  • What are some ballpark figures per child

What are the most common cost categories in OVC Interventions?

This section describes some of the cost categories that tend to be resource demanding in OVC projects, but that can also vary greatly depending on the type of interventions you choose.

Start-up costs : Start-up costs of OVC projects can include both software and hardware and can make the first year of certain projects relatively expensive. It is legitimate to depreciate the value of the start-up costs over 3-5 project years, while investments in buildings can be depreciated over 30-50 years. Regardless of intervention, projects should start up by conducting participatory consultations and background research, including a baseline study (see chapters on working with partners and monitoring and evaluation). Also, resources should be allocated for staff time and consultant fees for the project design and preparation period. Travel to learn from similar projects in neighboring countries, for example, is often money well spent, and there should be a staff-training budget for the start up period. In addition, investment in capital goods is necessary for the project start up, while technical assistance to accompany the government counterpart during project design and its early stages may also be considered. In some places the installation and purchase of a phone line can be surprisingly expensive, so keep such local issues in mind when budgeting.

Capital costs : As a basis, the project administration of any OVC intervention will require investment in office space, furniture and computer equipment. Center based OVC projects, that is, projects that involve shelters, group homes, or vocational training centers can accumulate considerable capital costs if the project chooses to invest in buildings rather than rent them. Not only does the construction or purchase of buildings tend to strongly increase the cost-per-child in OVC projects, but there are also likely to be significant costs for furniture and equipment, such as beds, mattresses, sheets, lockers, tables and chairs, tools and other equipment involved. Projects aiming to reinsert OVC into their (extended) family require several home visits both to prepare the families and to follow up the child after reinsertion. Such projects will therefore normally need several vehicles that may have to be replaced frequently due to heavy use. The type and number of vehicles, and the frequency of likely replacement depends on the number of OVC in the project, the average distances between the center and the families of the OVC, and the conditions of the road network. Some non-center based OVC projects tend to have high investments in vehicles, because they need to reach the intended beneficiaries one-by-one in their workplace, foster family, in the street, etc. However, many non-center based projects are local in character, and therefore mainly require mopeds or lighter cars. Because OVC projects often involve sensitization work, you may need to invest in communication equipment like flip charts and audiovisual tools. Cellular phones and short wave radios may be required for staff traveling into areas without phone service or with security risks.

Center/office facilities : An alternative to constructing or buying a center or office building is to rent space. Renting may be cheaper and easier, but may, also require investments in renovation to adapt the space to its intended OVC use. Before making the decision on whether to buy or rent, explore the rental market to see if there are any available properties requiring minimal renovation. As a means of cutting start-up and fixed operating costs, investigate whether someone would be willing to donate space for use by the project (individuals, companies, other projects or municipalities) – and remember to formalize such arrangements with a memorandum of understanding or a similar formal document. (However, remember that this will only reduce your own direct project costs, since a donated building still represents a sacrifice to the project community. See paragraph on financial vs. economic costs.)

Utilities and miscellaneous recurrent costs : Budget in the cost of water, electricity, telephone, and other miscellaneous recurrent expenses like soap and detergent, which will clearly be higher in center-based projects.

Staff : The more traumatized the OVC you target are, the more important it is to invest in well-educated, experienced, committed staff. Staff quality – and in particular commitment – repeatedly comes out as a highly significant determinant for project success when targeting heavily traumatized OVC. Determine if your project needs accredited nurse and psychosocial staff, or if the public or private sector could effectively provide the services. While relying on center-based educators, medical and psychosocial staff may contribute to cutting the child off from the society around, some OVC centers have also become providers of center-based services to their local communities. As noted above, this latter approach serves to spread fixed costs over a larger number of beneficiaries, thus lowering the cost per beneficiary. The sharing of center-based services to other community members should not put in jeopardy the quality of services provided by to the targeted OVC. With regards to project workers in general, center-based projects have the benefit of concentrating the OVC in one place for some of the time, and may therefore realize some savings on staff expenses. On the other side, remember to factor in the cost of support staff like cooks and night guards. Working with OVC who are with caretakers, in workplaces, or in the street, require considerable staff time for travel since each staff can often only serve one child or a small group of children at a time. Reinsertion projects also require more staff, since there will be a need to travel to prepare and follow up with the child’s (extended) family; distances will also matter with regards to how much staff time will be required. OVC projects need to emphasize communication – for reinsertion and reconciliation, prevention and inclusion, or as part of on-going monitoring and follow-up of community-based monitoring activities – so make sure to include the time it will take to do a responsible job. In center-based projects for traumatized OVC, staff will often find themselves spending considerable time taking the children to see doctors, following up custody issues with the police, as well as sorting out legal issues related to criminal proceedings or inheritance rights. Finally, if considering economic costs, also make sure to impute the value of time contributed by local and foreign voluntary workers taking into consideration their experience and educational background.

Consultants : Consultants can support project staff at critical stages of the intervention process, most notably during project planning, preparation and baseline studies, as supervisors and trainers for project monitoring, and as external evaluators. Consultants can also be useful in the preparation of administrative and technical project reports, in selection processes of project staff and partners and in relation to financial management.

Travel : The more travel a project requires, the higher the costs of gas, vehicle maintenance and per diems must be expected to become. Reinsertion projects and projects with close follow-up, in particular those covering large geographic areas, tend to be expensive in this sense. Sustainable family reinsertion, however, requires extensive preparatory work and follow-up, so saving on travel may strongly affect the success rate of the intervention. To estimate these expenses, calculate how many trips of how many kilometers each staff member will need to make in order to service the selected target area. Then, using a locally relevant cost per kilometer, calculate the total cost of travel per year.

Schooling/apprenticeships : Many OVC projects place emphasis on enrolling or reinserting beneficiaries in formal education or in apprenticeships. OVC often need preparation before they can attend a regular school, and in many cases they may also need follow-up with private tutoring must be anticipated. In addition comes the option that the project supports the OVC and their families with school fees, uniforms and books, or pays for an apprenticeship contract. When funding apprenticeships or vocational training, the purchase of some basic tools should be considered to facilitate their economic reintegration.

Monitoring & Evaluation : Monitoring and evaluation can be resource demanding, and it is often cost-effective to invest in building the capacity of local resources to carry out the main share of such activities. In a study based on four West African countries, however, it was estimated that community-based M&E can be as inexpensive as $50 per community. (Source: “Sleeping on our own mats: An introductory guide to community-based monitoring and evaluation”).