Conducting a Participatory Situation Analysis of.pdf - Global HIV ...

and updated throughout the situation analysis process.
A broader base of support benefits the national consultation
process that involves disseminating results and
securing a mandate for action.
Defining Objectives
Deciding to use this Guide means that the decision has
already been made to collect specific data on the care
and support of vulnerable children and adolescents. To
maximize this Guide’s usefulness, Advisory Team members,
in collaboration with data collection staff, should
clearly articulate exactly what they want to know, how
they plan to measure it, and how that information will
improve the well-being of orphans and vulnerable children.
If the country has an OVC or child protection
task force and its members are not serving on the situation
analysis Advisory Team, it is useful to involve task
force members when defining objectives to help mobilize
participation in and ownership of the situation
analysis process and findings. Failure to clearly articulate
objectives early in the situation analysis process
may lead to wasted resources and lost opportunities
during the data collection phase. For example, data collected
in ways that make it difficult to interpret or that
make it impossible to compare with data from other
sources may result in questions that need to be
answered going unanswered.
Examples of situation analysis objectives that the questionnaires
and qualitative tools provided in this Guide
are designed to address include the following:
• Gather information that will help describe the
impact of HIV/AIDS on children and their families.
• Identify current coping mechanisms within families
and communities for OVC.
• Identify existing structures, systems, policies, and
mechanisms in the public and private sectors that
can support or complement activities benefiting
OVC and their caregivers.
• Identify and assess organizational capacity, experience,
or potential to participate in or implement
community-based OVC projects.
• Provide a baseline for further evaluation and for
monitoring over time the well-being of families caring
for OVC.
• Provide information to help guide program planning
and implementation.
• Obtain data in a standardized format, which will
make it possible to compare the data with data from
other studies on OVC carried out in other areas.
Identifying Topic Areas
To specify topic areas for a situation analysis based on
the objectives, which may be broad statements like those
listed above, it is useful to consult Strategic Framework
for the Protection, Care, and Support of Orphans and
Vulnerable Children Living in a World with HIV/AIDS
(UNICEF, 2004). The Strategic Framework describes
indicator domains that numerous local, national, and
international groups have agreed are essential to meeting
the needs of OVC. These indicator domains are one way
to categorize topics for data gathering:
• Policies and strategies
• Education
• Health
• Nutrition
• Psychosocial support
• Family capacity
• Community capacity
• National resources (expenditures) allocated to OVC
• Child protection
• Institutional care and shelter
It is useful to phrase the topic areas as seeking responses
to the following questions:
• What is the demographic profile of orphans and vulnerable
children?
• What is the demographic profile of the caregivers?
• What is the capacity of caregivers and families to
protect and care for children?
• How are communities supporting or not supporting
vulnerable children?
• Are OVC able to access essential services?
• How is government protecting the most vulnerable
children? How are government resources being allocated
for these children?
• How is the environment or context supportive or
not supportive of HIV/AIDS-affected children?
• Identify gaps in current services, policies, and other
efforts for vulnerable children.
Conducting a Participatory Situation Analysis of
Orphans and Vulnerable Children Affected by HIV/AIDS
11