In January 2010, Inter-Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU) won a Five Year award of 30 million USD to implement a Program whose overall goal was to scale up access to and utilization of comprehensive and sustainable HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment services through FBOs in Uganda. As part of the Program activities, IRCU supported training of 11,502 caregivers and older OVC. In 2012, IRCU contracted Socio-Economic Data Center Ltd to assess the content, processes, and impact of the training provided, and provide lessons as well as a comprehensive assessment of the overall economic empowerment strategy
PROJECT TITLE
Evaluation of IRCU-Supported Economic Empowerment Interventions for Orphans and other Vulnerable Children (OVC) Caregivers and Households
To carry out an extensive assessment of the economic empowerment intervention including the IGA training content and processes in order to document the impact/success attained, and lessons learnt
1. Establish the appropriateness of the IGA training content and delivery models to OVC caregivers
2. Establish the level of success of OVC caregiver IGA training i.e., the extent to which caregivers have translated skills into economic initiatives
3. Assess the extent to which the IGA intervention program has contributed to improved socio-economic welfare of OVC and their caregivers
4. Establish factors that have influenced OVC caregivers’ success or failure in establishing economic ventures
5. Make recommendations for strengthening IRCU economic empowerment interventions.
A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was utilized in this evaluation. The Evaluation was carried out in all the 37 IRCU-USAID supported organizations implementing the OVC Program. Participants in this evaluation comprised both primary and secondary stakeholders of the Program. Primary stakeholders targeted in this evaluation were the OVC caregivers and older orphans interviewed using a structured questionnaire. On the other hand, data from secondary stakeholders such as Program staff of selected FBOs were interviewed using a key informant interview guide.
