OVC Toolkit

Once you have clarified your level of engagement on the OVC issue, you are ready to work on gaining a better understanding of why children become OVC and what happens to them as a result. Understanding the underlying causes of a phenomenon is the first step towards finding a solution.

We suggest using a problem tree exercise for this purpose. Within the context of the Social Risk Management analytical framework used by the Bank's Social Protection sector, the factors or causes are equivalent to shocks and the effects or consequences are equivalent to the negative outcomes resulting from the shocks.

If you are working on a multi-sector project, such as a MAP, a Social Fund, or a Local Development Project, which has the potential to impact several types of OVC, you will want to do a problem tree for each category of OVC, since the factors that cause a child to become a street child are not the same as those that cause a child to become an AIDS orphan, nor are the consequences.

On the other hand, if you are working on a sector-specific project, such as a road, you may want to focus your analysis on only those categories of OVC that your project could impact. In the case of a roads project for example, you may want to focus on disabled children, street children, and child prostitutes.

The problem tree exercise should be done in the context of a stakeholder meeting. The meeting participants can work in teams, each of which will analyze one of the OVC categories relevant to your sector following the steps outlined below.

The priority problem is the trunk of the tree. In this case, the OVC category you are analyzing is the trunk. The causes or factors that push children into this situation are the roots of the tree and the consequences or effects of this situation of child vulnerability are the branches.
Each group should identify the two or three main causes or factors that push children into a specific OVC category. When defining a cause, avoid using the phrase "Lack of", since this overly limits the types of solutions you will come up with to respond to the problem. To get at these factors, the participants should ask the question "Why?" Each answer to the question should be written on one card and pasted below the "priority problem". Be careful to write only one cause or factor per card. Keep working on the tree until it has two or three levels of roots, as for each cause or factor there are other underlying indirect causes. It is important that you keep asking "Why?" until you start repeating the same factors. When this happens, you know you have finished with the "roots" of the tree.
Once you have completed the roots, try to develop the branches of your tree. Each branch is an effect or consequence of belonging to that specific OVC category. To identify the effects, ask the question, "What consequences does this have on the child and on society?" A problem can have several different consequences and each direct consequence or effect may have several indirect effects. We have two examples of the Problem Trees that can be formed as a result of the above exercise: one that analyzes the problem of orphanhood and the other that looks at a problem specific to the transport sector, child disability caused by traffic accidents.
Once all groups have finished, each should present and explain their tree to the rest of the group.
In reviewing the work of each group, facilitators and participants should comment and add on. They should also make sure that all of the causes are appropriate answers to the question "Why?" and all of the effects are answers to the question "What consequences does this have?" It is important that faulty logic be eliminated at this stage. The facilitator should also point out that several of the different OVC Problem Trees show that different groups share underlying root causes, therefore if you invest in prevention for one group, it will serve to benefit other groups.
Once all of the groups have presented, the facilitator should ask the participants to eliminate from each tree any "causes" that are impossible to solve or factors that are impossible to prevent. These might include natural phenomena that human beings cannot control, such as hurricanes and other "covariant" shocks