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Evaluation The monitoring process represents an on-going effort to keep the OVC intervention on track by registering and reflecting over the stream of project inputs and outputs, like transfers of support being made to caretakers or schools, organization of meetings, psychosocial support units being established, shelters being extended, care workers being trained etc. Evaluations, on the other hand, should focus more on the overall impact the intervention has had on the lives of the OVCs targeted. Are they, as a consequence of inputs and outputs, in a better health and nutritional state? Are they successful in school? Are their relationships to (extended) family members stable and well maintained? Has the difference between OVC and non-OVC diminished? Building on the baseline study, the evaluation takes stock of the situation and opportunities of the OVC upon project initiation and compares it to the situation and opportunities of the OVC half way through the project or at project completion. Evaluations also allow a project team to identify and analyze exogenous factors that may have affected project impact. For example, projects targeting child trafficking in West Africa may appear more successful than they are, simply because the demand for child labor in a main recipient country, Cote d’Ivoire, has declined due to the economic instability caused by a conflict. Likewise, a good harvest may have improved the overall nutritional status of children, regardless of the OVC intervention financed. Therefore, it is important that an evaluation also focus on the situation of OVC at the end of the project as compared to what it would have been if the project had not existed, or in other words, remember to take exogenous factors into account. A good example of evaluation for OVC interventions is IFPRI’s varied approach to evaluating the targeted conditional cash transfer program PROGRESA. Another good resource is Barbara Henschel’s review of impact evaluations of child labor projects. |
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