• Introduction to targeting
• How should I approach targeting?
• Targeting by level of vulnerability: Who is most vulnerable?
• Geographic Targeting:  Where do you find more OVC?
• How do I set constraints on the number of children assisted?
• How identify eligible children at the community level?
• What if community-based methods are not possible? 
• What about children outside family care?
• Is there a role for (public) institutions?

Geographic Targeting:  Where do you find more OVC?

There are two main ways to identify the most vulnerable geographic areas in need of OVC interventions: by stakeholder or by statistics. Relying on stakeholders may very well prove to be the most practical approach, especially with OVC groups for which reliable statistical information is unlikely to be available, such as blind children. In many cases, it is more or less well known where the largest concentration of OVC can be found. This would be the case with street children, who are typically found in some major cities, or war affected children, who are mostly found in war affected zones or areas with high concentrations of refugees. Child workers can be found in places such as mines and peri-urban quarries. Local stakeholders are often able to indicate the neighborhoods where OVC live.

If local stakeholders cannot help identify the areas with a high concentration of specific OVC groups, or if their information seems unreliable, consult with available statistics. Important sources of relevant statistical information are the MICS surveys from UNICEF, the surveys from DHS than can be downloaded from the web site of Macro International, and the HIV/AIDS Survey Indicators Database (in the latter you can generate detailed country information e.g. about the level of stigma, willingness to care for sick family members and sexual behavior). Both these two surveys provide OVC-related information that can be broken down by region. In many cases additional national surveys may be available – check with the central statistical agency in the project country, and with major stakeholders like UNICEF and UNDP. There are also the LSMS and the Core Welfare Indicator Questionnaire (CWIQ) surveys (usually financed by the WB). If no clear indicators of your OVC target group exist in the available data, you could use child vulnerability proxies like child mortality rates, malnutrition rates and school attendance rates (more information on data sources can be found in the background research section). Finally, you may consider carrying out your own investigation to identify the most critically affected zones. This was for instance done in Benin and Burkina Faso, where it was discovered that the main source areas for child trafficking were relatively different from what was commonly believed.