Graduate School of Development Studies

Persistent Vulnerability: Analyzing NGOs strategies for enhancing child-

wellbeing in OVC households in Uganda.

A Research Paper presented by: Rose Keishanyu Nyamakuru

(Uganda)

In partial fulfilment of the requirements for obtaining the degree of

MASTERS OF ARTS IN DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

Specialization:

Children and Youth Studies(CYS)

Members of the examining committee:

Dr. Auma Okwany (Supervisor)Dr. Kristen E. Cheney (Reader)

The Hague, The NetherlandsNovember, 2011

Disclaimer:This document represents part of the author’s study pro-gramme while at the Institute of Social Studies. The views stated therein are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Institute.

Inquiries:Postal address:Institute of Social StudiesP.O. Box 297762502 LT The HagueThe Netherlands

Location:Kortenaerkade 122518 AX The HagueThe Netherlands

Telephone: +31 70 426 0460Fax: +31 70 426 0799

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Dedication

I dedicate this research paper to my elderly Mom Nkwanzi Angela Nyamakuru to whom my absence left her too weak and frail.

My treasured family especially my lovely children Alvin and Fortunate who endured the absence of a mother for fifteen months without motherly love and care.

Iam very grateful to Prossy whose efforts made it possible for me to concentrate knowing someone is taking care of my family in my absence.

Notwithstanding my friends Peter, Carol and Jackie whose support I will never forget.

Acknowledgement

This research has been both challenging and learning ex-perience. Many people contributed to the process of my learning experience and shaped me while undertaking this study.

My appreciation and gratitude goes to my supervisor Dr. Auma Okwany whose critical and professional guidance through the process has helped the development of this pa-per. Dr. Kristen Cheney my Convenor and Reader whose counsel and advice was very resourceful through the learn-ing process.

To Ford Foundation through AHEAD for financial and social support to make me a leader for social justice and Action for children for the prayers and encouragement.

Thanks to ILIAD, ISS Housing and Facilities whose quick response to my requests made it easy for me to grasp enormous knowledge on development challenges.

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Contents

List of Tables viList of Figures viList of Acronyms viiAbstract viii

Chapter 1: General Introduction 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Background 11.3 Framing the research issue 3

1.3.1 Provision of support to OVC households 41.4 Relevancy and justification 61.5 Research objective and Question 71.6 Methods of data collection 7

1.5.1 Ethical Considerations and research Dilem-mas 9

1.7 Organization of the paper 9

Chapter 2: Conceptual understanding of Vulnerab-ility in OVC households. 102.1 Introduction 102.2. Vulnerability and Child-wellbeing 102.3 Understanding the concept of OVC 102.4 Understanding of OVC households in Uganda 112.5 The social rupture and resilience theories 12

Chapter 3: NGOs interventions to enhance child- wellbeing in OVC households. 143.1 Introduction 143.2 Organisations purposively selected to show activities

and programmes. 143.3 NGOs Perceptions of OVC households and their pro-

gramming 143.3 Vulnerability of OVC households. 16

Chapter 4: NGOs strategies to enhance child - well-being in OVC households 194.1 Introduction 194.2 Strategies used by NGOs to enhance child wellbeing 19

4.2.1 Awareness and advocacy as a strategy to re-duce vulnerability in OVC households 19

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4.2.2 Microcredit and Grants to reduce economic vulnerability in OVC households 20

4.2.3 Community projects as a strategy for reducing vulnerability among OVC households 22

4.2.4 Institutionalization as a strategy for reducing vulnerability among OVC households 23

4.2.5 Partnerships, Networking and Collaboration as a strategy for reducing vulnerability among OVC households 24

4.2.6 Direct services to OVC households as a strat-egy for reducing vulnerability among OVC households 25

4.3 Sustainability issues arising from NGO strategies 26

Chapter 5: OVC households’ perceptions of NGOs interventions. 305.1 Introduction 305.2 Key achievements from these strategies to enhance

child wellbeing 305.3 Gaps in these strategies employed by NGOs to re-

duce vulnerability 315.4 Factors that can reduce Vulnerability in OVC house-

holds 325.4.1 OVC Households: Their role and attitude

change 325.4.2 Community efforts to protect OVC households 325.4.3 Service providers’ perception and program-

ming 335.4.4 Using existing Indigenous structures and sys-

tems 34

Chapter 6: Implications for Responsive Program-ming and Conclusion. 366.1 Introduction 366.2 Quality and quantity with Donor requirements 366.3 Politicians involvement in NGOs interventions 366.4 Limited use of government standards and frame-

works (Limited coordination at district level) 376.5 Improved institutional structures of NGOs 386.6 Public private partnerships and uniting to reduce

vulnerability in OVC households 396.7 Weaknesses in NGO programming 406.8 Sustainability for OVC households. 40

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6.9 Lessons learnt by NGOs 406.10 Conclusion 41Appendices 43References 57

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List of TablesTable 1.1 Categorization of OVC children in Uganda: 11Table 2.1 Showing criteria for choosing OVC and their

households for intervention: 11Table 3.1 Showing the Demographic data of OVC house-

holds interviewed for the study. 16Table 4.1 Showing How NGOs finance their activities 26Table 5.1 Showing average monthly income for OVC

households. 27

List of FiguresFigure 1.1 Showing perception of OVC by NGOs 15Figure 2.1 Photo narration of OVC household headed by

a grandmother. 18Figure 3.1 The main source of income for OVC house-

hold 27Figure 4.1 Type of Support received from NGOs 28Figure 5.1 The use of the support given to Households 29Figure 6.1 OVC household’s opinions on how effective

are NGO strategies in enhancing child-wellbeing in their area 30

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List of Acronyms

ABEK-Alternative Basic Education in KaramojaAFC- Action for ChildrenAIDS - Acquired Immune Deficiency SyndromeCAO- Chief Administrative OfficerCOCC-Community OVC Care Coalitions CSF- Civil Society FundCSO- Civil Society OrganisationCSO- Civil Society OrganisationDDP- District Development PlanDHS-Demographic Health SurveyECD- Early Childhood DevelopmentFGD- Focus Group DiscussionHIV- Human Immunodeficiency VirusMDLSD- Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Develop-mentMoFPED- Ministry of Finance Planning and Economic De-velopmentNAADS- National Agricultural Advisory ServicesNAP - National Action PlanNGO- Nongovernmental organizationNOP- National Orphans and other Vulnerable Children’s PolicyNSSPI- National Social Strategic Plan of ImplementationOVC- Orphans and other Vulnerable ChildrenPPP- Public Private PartnershipSCIU- Save the Children in UgandaSDIP- Strategic Investment Plan for DevelopmentTSO- Technical Service Provider UCRNN- Uganda Child Rights NGO NetworkUNICEF -United Nations Children’s FundUORDP- Uganda Orphans Rural Development ProgrammeWVU- World Vision International Uganda (WVU)

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Abstract

The paper looks at the issue of orphans and vulnerable children which has become a big concern in Africa espe-cially within the era of HIV/AIDS, combined with wide- spread poverty at household level which has created many orphans and vulnerable households. It shows how NGOs de-spite diverse intervention strategies, NGOs have ultimately failed to alleviate OVC vulnerability. This is because a ma-jority of NGOs consider OVC as vulnerable with no re-silience something that has created less sustainable impact.

This conceptualization of the households informs NGO strategies such that they transform OVC households. The research paper highlights the different strategies to support OVC by NGOs, the gaps in these strategies and the extent to which it’s working. For a holistic picture, OVC and their households give the key achievements, what is not known that is hindering the progress and what can be done. The study highlights implications for responsive programming to reduce vulnerability among OVC households and en-hance child-wellbeing.

Not in the inability and vulnerability of OVC households but the gaps in the NGOs strategies employed and pro-gramming mechanisms that persistence in vulnerability in OVC households is rooted.

KeywordsVulnerability, Child-wellbeing, Orphans and Vulnerable chil-dren, and OVC households.

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Chapter 1: General Introduction

1.1 IntroductionThe success of the national response to combat AIDS and efforts to spur economic growth and fight poverty are both linked to how well the country cares for the millions of orphans and vulnerable children in Uganda. (Head of OVC secretariat, Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development)

“OVCs will continue to feature for a long time to come and well thought out interventions are needed to address the challenges presented by the crisis. NGOs and CBOs have provided relief to OVC but it’s not enough because they do not empower vulnerable individuals and enable them to take control of their lives”(Lombe and Ochumbo 2008: 192).

1.2 Background The OVC situation in Uganda has been exacerbated by HIV/AIDS epidemic, leaving many households with a chal-lenge of child welfare as many children are becoming orphans at an increasing rate. HIV/AIDS has reduced adult life expectancy and “created a burden of care of orphans and vulnerable children for the traditional family structure” (Abebe and Aase 2007: 2058).

In Uganda orphanhood does not apply to HIV/AIDS alone but also due to war in Northern Uganda, poverty over 24.5% (World Bank, 2009) and malaria which is number one killer disease (Ministry of Health 2008) plus social orphans due to rural –urban migrations leaving the young ones with elderly care givers or alone. Hence the increasing number of OVC households in Uganda as a result of disease and so-cial unrest that has increased parents death resulting into a large population of orphans in the country.

Uganda is among the poorest countries in the world with over 24.5% of the population living below the poverty line (World Bank, 2009). The population statistics show a burden of orphans and vulnerable children (Okiror 2008: 3). And the most affected by poverty included single mothers, widowed, youths, elderly and the orphaned children (UPPAP Wakiso District Report 2002). Poverty prevents the enjoyment of basic human rights, security and wellbeing.

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Moser (1998) explains how UNICEF and UNAIDS con-vened the first global forum for spelling out the strategies; principles and programming guidance to enable countries meet the global goals regarding OVC based on the UNGASS declaration and contribution towards the achievement of Millennium Development Goals. In 2003 October, the framework for protection, care, and support for orphans and vulnerable children living in the world with HIV/AIDS was endorsed. The framework also promoted the best in-terest of a child as stated in the convention on the rights of the child, including rights to survival, wellbeing and devel-opment (Moser 1998: 2).

To address the plight of OVC, government has come up with National Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children Policy (NOP). This policy is an essential part of the Social Development Sector Strategic Investment Plan (SDIP), which is an integral part of the Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP). In addition, the government developed the Na-tional Program Plan of Interventions for orphans and other vulnerable children (NSPPI) “to guide interventions for Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children (OVC) in Uganda.” (Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development 2004:14). Developed Children’s act and follows the “ Na-tional Plan of Action (NPA) for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) is a government strategy document detail-ing a set of key objectives and the corresponding activities to address the national OVC situation”(Sabates-Wheeler and Pelham 2006: 1).

However, like many of the government's policy, this has not improved social protection of the OVC households in practise. Smart (2003) argues that “disconnect between policies, principles, and frameworks on the one hand and practise and action on the other is the major impediment to effective responses for OVC and needs to be acknowledged and affirmatively addressed” (Smart 2003: 23). So I set out to find out why there was persistent vulnerability amidst NGOs efforts by analyzing the strategies.

Since 1986, there has been a rapid proliferation of both indigenous and international NGOs in Uganda (Kwesiga and Ratter, 1993). By 1995, more than 1200 NGOs had been re-gistered with the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Barton and Bizimana, 1995). “NGOs in different areas grew constantly starting from the end of the World War II however, the largest leap was observed during 80s and 90s. The number of NGOs has increased from nearly 13,000 in 1981 to more than 47,000 by 2001 according to the Union of Interna-

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tional Organizations”(Sydorenko 2010: 15). “NGOs are playing an important role in every sphere of our live today. They became the voice of those who cannot rise by them-selves and talk, or those whose voices are not heard. They are the voice of society. It is not a new phenomenon, how-ever today it is more important and influential than any time in the history of humanity” (ibid. 2010: 15). I do not agree with Sydorenko and the study show vulnerability in the OVC households amidst NGOs intervention.

NGOs have consequently increased in coverage and scope of their services in rural areas, reaching the very poor at community and household levels (Robinson 1992: 10). However, irrespective of the increase in the number of NGOs and efforts, Child well-being among OVC households has not been enhanced and vulnerability has continued to increase in these households. It’s against this background that I decided to find out why NGOs strategies are not im-proving OVC households to address vulnerability.

Uganda National OVC Quality Standards (2005: 23) stip-ulates that if OVC programs are to be sustainable, house-hold’s projects should be integrated into the local govern-ment operations and local resource persons should be trained on skills for continuous assessment of the needs of OVC and their households. Ensure there is provision of sup-port for short, medium and long term mechanisms. NGOs should build capacity of OVC households for self sufficiency and complementary items of OVC households should make a minimum contribution of locally available materials (Min-istry of Gender, Labour and Social Development 2005) (Uganda National OVC service Quality Standards 2005:23). Since this is not happening, there was a need for a study to find out the extent to which NGOs have adhered to the OVC set guidelines to enhance child-wellbeing in OVC house-holds through their strategies.

Based on my own experience in NGOs work in Uganda, for the last seven years as a social worker, and seeing the zeal of NGOs involvement, participation and commitment of OVC households motivated me to question why irrespective of NGOs efforts and resources there is vulnerability and OVC households have continued to suffer the brutal negat-ive consequences of disease, poverty and psychosocial chal-lenges with many children in these households performing badly on standard of living indicators. The study was based on the several strategies used like directly giving support to OVC households, community projects, micro finance loans, and setting up of institutions or children’s villages.

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The major reason to carry out this research was to get an answer as to why there is persistent vulnerability in OVC households irrespective of NGOs support. I have been in-spired by scholars like (Lombe and Ochumbo 2008; Cheney 2010) to analyse NGOs strategies for enhancing child-well-being in OVC households. These reasons motivated this study to find answer to the issue at hand as to what are the most effective strategies for reducing persistent vulnerabil-ity in OVC households.

1.3 Framing the research issueChirwa and Abebe’s characterization of households draws a picture on OVC households. Writing on social exclusion and inclusion and reacting to challenges of orphan care, Chirwa quoted scholars interest being in arguing that there is total breakdown in family structures and social support systems that safety nets are collapsing and increasing numbers of orphaned children are becoming destitute. However, Chirwa believed that with HIV/AIDS pandemic, families and social support systems are strained but building the resili-ence with varying degrees of success and failure (Chirwa 2002: 93).

Abebe and Aase viewed the two contradicting theories one assuming the traditional system of orphan care being stretched by the epidemic and collapsing and the other sug-gesting flexibility and strength of informal child care prac-tises and if supported by appropriate interventions can still support a large number of orphans. They called for under-standing of orphan care burden and gave four types of fam-ilies being rupturing, transient, adaptive and capable famil-ies (Abebe and Aase 2007: 2058).

The state as the key duty bearer is not doing it work to protect OVCs and their households and this has created a space that NGOs are filling. NGOs are dominant in this area but even though dominant their outreach is limited and they still leave out many vulnerable households. They use a lot of approaches but they are not adequate.

NGOs strategies as currently employed are not effec-tively tackling vulnerability. Inadequacies underlying NGOs strategies include strengthening existing community struc-tures and systems, creating dependency in OVC households with direct support, starting strategies that exclude particu-lar category of vulnerable households like microcredit, fail-ure to plan for sustainability of these households and start-ing projects that do not fit the local context like institutions for children.

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Social protection is a right and all formal and informal public and private interventions that assist individuals, households and communities should aim at mitigating im-pact on households and vulnerability(UNDP poverty centre, UNICEF 2007) as in (Mushunje and Mafico 2010: 267).

This research paper highlights that there is substantive literature on OVC households focusing on HIV/AIDS and or-phan crisis with none looking at persistent vulnerability and the extent to which NGOs strategies are effective in en-hancing child- wellbeing in OVC households in Uganda.

1.3.1 Provision of support to OVC householdsMost organization support extends directly to OVC

households as a strategy of strengthening their economic security. Many NGOs are basically charitable organizations. Their preoccupation is uplifting the standard of living of the poor using charitable means. The major support to these households includes provision of households’ items, income generation grants, medical support, nutritional supple-ments, education and psychosocial support. Analysis of the benefits of these strategies was central to this research.

Uganda’s Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Devel-opment (2004) identified provision of income generating activities (IGA) grants as a way of strengthening economic security of OVC households. Organizations giving IGAs should target the whole community, start with simple grants, guide OVC households in identifying IGAs and train them to manage them (Ministry of Gender, Labour and So-cial Development 2004: 24). However, it should be noted that, this remains on a policy level. The situation on ground is different basing on my seven year experience working with NGOs. This research therefore aimed at analyzing the NGO support strategies towards enhancing child wellbeing in OVC households in the following focus areas:

Income generation

The Danish Refugee Council Programme Handbook (2008) observed that income generation is a key programmatic strategy to address the need to find alternative means to make a living in a dignified way. The study went on to note that income generation is an essential tool to translate into practice both rights-based and livelihood-approaches to hu-manitarian interventions: through income generation, rights-holders strengthen their coping mechanisms and ca-pacities for self-protection in a dignified manner. It should

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however be noted that this study was done in internally dis-placed people’s camps of DRC and interventions were largely targeted for immediate livelihood of refugees. It re-mained rather important to ask whether such strategy works in settled communities as a strategy in enhancing child- wellbeing in OVC households.

Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development OVC Strategic Plan, (2005) recommend that in order for households to become economically secure, they need to be provided with adequate, nutritionally balanced food at ap-propriate intervals; provide adequate care and support to members of the household who are ill; and, provide basic needs and access to services for members of the household by government and other service providers. By providing this package, OVC socioeconomic situation will be improved and this offers the possibility of a sustainable intervention that goes far beyond immediate assistance. Something I do not agree with and a number of organizations visited did not have a comprehensive package for OVC and others tried with minimal success. Thus, this research investigated how provision of direct services to OVC household as NGOs strategy was effective in reducing vulnerability and enhan-cing child-wellbeing.

Community projects to Support OVC households

NGOs are helping the OVC households through the strategy of community initiatives and projects, a strategy seen as best for sustainability and affordability. However (Harvey 2008) argues that “Community management has been adop-ted by many as a convenient mechanism to ‘pass the buck’ when it comes to the complex issue of ensuring sustainabil-ity. Governments can claim that they are not responsible for services since these are community managed. Implement-ing NGOs and donors can leave a project area claiming that they have ensured sustainability by mobilizing and training communities to manage supplies themselves”(Harvey 2008: 13). The study therefore was to find out whether community projects as a strategy employed by NGOs is enhancing child wellbeing in OVC households as Harvey was mainly inter-ested in community project’s sustainability alone.

Belshaw and Coyle (2001) studied 14 NGOs and 28 poverty-reducing projects in Ethiopia. Their research con-cluded that those NGOs are instrumental in reducing key indicators of poverty (Belshaw and Coyle 2001: 30). It is im-portant to note that NGOs in Uganda have tried to invest in

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community related projects but the end results have shown many of OVC households still lacking behind and with per-sistent vulnerability. This research therefore was to ascer-tain the benefits of NGO community projects strategy in re-lations to reduction of OVC household’s vulnerability.

Micro finance loans to OVC Households

NGOs represent a big source of credit in Uganda today for OVC households, who are not eligible to ordinary banking services. However, credit and saving services are predomin-antly provided to economic active persons that need assist-ance to build up a sustainable source of income. Never the less many NGOs in Uganda continue to use micro finance loans as a strategy of poverty reduction among the OVC households. Mutangadura argues that marginalised house-holds need special consideration to be able to repay (Mutangadura 2000: 36). Okurut et al. (2004) as in Nathan et al. (2004) concluded that Micro finance is a key strategy for poverty alleviation and NGOs should increase access to the poor (Nathan et al. 2004: 11).

However, while studying the impact of micro finance loans to household’s poverty, Lakwo found out that mi-crofinance NGOs did not, in aggregate terms, improve on the well-being status of the clients relative to non-clients. This finding then contradicts the wider belief that micro fin-ance is away to poverty reduction. However, it portrayed that microfinance only facilitates, to a limited extent, few facets of clients’ livelihood asset acquisition. As such, mi-crofinance on its own is inadequate as a policy strategy for fighting poverty in rural areas (Lakwo 2006: 52). He might have made a general claim about micro finance NGOs, a particular study especially in OVC households to ascertain the impact of credit facilities given to OVC households whether it’s effective in reducing vulnerability and enhan-cing child-wellbeing among OVC households was necessary.

Institutionalisation as a support for OVC

Another strategy by NGOs has been through institutions/home based care or villages for OVC in Uganda. This is so because following the social rupture theory, with weakened family systems (Abebe and Aase 2007: 1) NGOs find it ne-cessary to help the OVC and their households by giving

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them a family like home, removing them out of poverty and destitute state. This however has been criticised in favour of foster care in communities as seen to be sustainable. “Setting up and running an orphanage is not only generally outside the cultural context of Sub-Saharan Africa but also is unlikely to be sustainable on financial grounds” (Mutangadura 2000: 32).The study was to find out if this strategy employed by NGOs can enhance child-wellbeing in OVC households since Mutangadura was looking at sustain-ability alone.

In conclusion, the important role of the different strate-gies as highlighted above as employed by NGOs to support OVC households by reducing vulnerability and enhancing child-wellbeing with the gaps in their implementation form a basis for this study. The literature shows a relationship between vulnerability and programming issues than the so-cial structure relationships that exist among OVC house-holds.

1.4 Relevancy and justificationMost of the literature on OVC households is relating it to HIV/AIDS like the 17 country assessment of sub Saharan Africa, ("OVC RAAAP Initiative, USAID, UNICEF, UNAIDS, and WFP" 2005:3), ‘Sub Saharan Orphan crisis” (Lombe and Ochumbo 2008), 20 country research by World vision Switzerland 2008 in Sub Saharan Africa, of which Uganda was inclusive, (Belshaw and Coyle 2001) on 14 NGOs and 28 Projects in Ethiopia. The 15 districts assessment by (Ministry of Finance 2006: 23) on poverty reduction which would have drawn the best picture because the study in-cluded the role of NGOs but looked at men and women households and not OVC households (Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development November 2006: 22). “The design, implementation, and evaluation of community-based interventions for orphans and vulnerable children continue to be a key gap in the evidence base” was recently echoed by Schenk in their study in 2010 (Schenk et al. 2010: 325). There was a need therefore for a study to ana-lyse the strategies of NGOs and see how they are enhancing child-wellbeing in OVC households in Uganda. It was also important to ask questions about NGOs interventions to be-neficiaries who posses right to social protection on how ef-fective are NGOs strategies.

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1.5 Research objective and QuestionThe general objective of this study is to Analyse NGOs Strategies for enhancing child –wellbeing in Orphans and Vulnerable Children Households in Uganda. The study set out to answer the research question and other relating sub questions:

1. To what extent are NGO strategies effective in en-hancing child-wellbeing in OVC households in Uganda?

What are NGOs perceptions of the OVC households and how do these inform their programming for these households?

What are the strategies used by NGOs to enhance child- wellbeing among Orphans and Vulnerable chil-dren households in Uganda?

What is the perception of OVC households regarding NGOs interventions?

1.6 Methods of data collectionIn this research I used both primary and secondary data to answer the research question. Secondary data consisted of government publications and reports; and NGO project re-ports, their objectives for intervention and lessons they have learnt overtime. The study mainly relied on the pub-lished literature and government publication on OVC to ex-plore the trends, standards and policies plus frameworks available on OVC. These findings helped me to situate my analysis and discussions within the wider debates on child vulnerability.

Primary data focusing on NGO strategies were collected through key informants’ interviews. The research employed various instruments for primary data collection. Interview guide for key informants and structured interview sched-ules for NGO programme officers and OVC households were used. A focus group discussion was conducted with prede-termined topics using open ended questions to accommod-ate new insights during interviews. Participants for focus group discussions were purposively selected from NGO pro-ject staff in respondent organisations. This was done taking into account the correlation between seniority and decision making in many organisations. In addition direct observa-tions during field visits were made.

Study participants were 10 OVC households, four NGO programme officers from four different NGOs, two respond-ents from Ministry of Gender Labour and social Develop-

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ment including the head of OVC secretariat and the OVC technical advisor, Director Uganda Child Rights NGO Net-work. A focus group discussion consisting of 12 NGO pro-ject staff from 7 NGOs was conducted to discuss emerging issues from different interviews.

The study was carried out in two districts of Kampala and Wakiso located in central Uganda. While the selection of Kampala was largely influenced by the presence of many child rights related agencies including government ministry departments and agencies, which guaranteed easy access to OVC related materials and interviews with high ranking officials of both national and international child rights NGOs, and government, the observable presence of OVC on its streets amidst a plethora of all these NGOs made a strong case for it to be selected.

Wakiso District though of close proximity to Kampala was chosen for two reasons: firstly because most of the NGOs included in the study had their project sites in Wakiso, and secondly because it is largely rural so it would be good for comparison with the urban setting of Kampala.

The study used purposive sampling technique to select institutions including NGOs and Government Ministry, De-partment and Agency (MDA), and individuals from these in-stitutions from which data was collected. Their selection was based on their relative strategic engagement in OVC work at all levels and their knowledge of and participation in OVC key policy decisions. The institutions selected in-cluded the OVC Unit in the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (MGLSD), Uganda Child Rights NGO Network (UCRNN), Save the Children in Uganda (SCiU), Action for Children, Uganda Orphans Rural Development Project and SOS Children’s Village.

The selection of the 10 OVC households from which data was collected was also carried out purposively. These were, however, purposively sampled from a list of several OVC household beneficiaries that were being supported by NGOs that had earlier been selected to participate in the study.

The NGO project staff members who participated in the focus group discussion were chosen because they are in-volved in project implementation, budgeting, planning and community mobilisation of OVC.

The rationale of the methods used was to ensure validity and reliability of findings thus triangulation was used. This helped in getting several insights in all aspects of the study problem (Neuman 2006: 149). FGD was used to enable cross validation of data and give room for probing. Inter-

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views helped in individuals expressing their views and their perceptions while key informants helped in handling sensit-ive issues. Documents and reports were reviewed for con-sistency and getting more information and trends and per-sonal observation were used in the study to support the claim with facts. The triangulation of these methods helped in quality data assurance from which a conclusion could be drawn from the findings.

In data analysis, the research data was edited before leaving the respondents. Accuracy, consistency, uniformity, legibility and comprehensibility were checked. Data was coded, transcribed and categorised into themes for later in-terpretation and analysis .The structured interview sched-ules were coded and tabulated using a computer and all data was edited by reading through to see the errors and gaps.

1.5.1 Ethical Considerations and research Dilemmas

An introductory letter was obtained from the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University, presented to the six organization heads. The organization heads then introduced the researcher to the organization staff that was part of the sampling frame. With the assistance of the or-ganisation heads, appointments were made with the selec-ted respondents. The survey and interviews were conduc-ted in the offices of the programme staff, key informants and arrangement was made for the focal group discussion meeting. Structured survey was for 30 minutes and the in-depth interviews and focus group discussion took about 45 minutes. Confidentiality, anonymity and voluntary process were taken as a priority in the research.

Interviewing 10 OVC households was easy as they felt comfortable when the researcher used the local language without translators. That notwithstanding, most of them had expectation that the researcher would bring assistance. However, the researcher clarified that the study was aca-demic but also intended to highlight critical issues of OVC that can be taken on by policy makers and other service providers in future to improve on OVC support.

While the researcher had invited only seven people from the NGO visited to participate in the focus group discus-sion, some organisations sent more than one and up to 12 people turned up. This was a relatively big number which became challenging to control hence more time than planned was taken to complete the process. Besides, the re-

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searcher was also compelled to provide lunch for the parti-cipants although this had not been planned for.

I also expected a representative from the National NGO Forum, the umbrella organisation for all the NGOs in Uganda to be interviewed; however, efforts to schedule an appointment for this interview were futile. I consider this a missed opportunity given the importance of this institution in the coordination of NGO response and contribution to policy issues in the country. In addition, the institution has the most up to date information on all the NGOs involved in the different thematic areas in Uganda and as such would provided the study with current information on OVC related NGOs.

1.7 Organization of the paperThis research paper is arranged into six chapters. The first chapter as covered above highlights the overview of re-search topic of OVC, NGOs strategies and OVC households. The rest of the paper is structured as follows. Chapter 2 gives a conceptual understanding of vulnerability in OVC households using the lenses of vulnerability and agency to show how NGOs use these concepts to plan for OVC house-holds that are situated in two major theories of Social rup-ture and Resilience theories. Chapter three to five gives the analysis of the findings Chapter three provides the NGOs interventions to enhance child-wellbeing in OVC house-holds, chapter four looks at the different NGOs strategies used to enhance child-wellbeing with chapter five brings out the OVC perceptions of NGOs interventions and the concluding chapter six provides the research findings and their implications for responsive programming for OVC and their households.

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Chapter 2: Conceptual understanding of Vulnerability in OVC households.

2.1 IntroductionThis chapter aims at highlighting the notions of vulnerabil-ity and other related concepts of OVC households in Uganda and how they influence NGOs strategies of inter-vention. To understand the chapter clearly, the concepts that will be used in the study to draw the picture are defined and discussed: OVC as a concept, child- wellbeing, OVC households, social rupture and social resilient theor-ies. These will help to form the conceptual frame from which persistent vulnerability in OVC households can be understood and give a lens to analyse NGO strategies for enhancing child-wellbeing in OVC households in Uganda.

2.2. Vulnerability and Child-wellbeing Vulnerability has a close linkage with child development. According to Uganda’s Social Development Sector Stra-tegic Investment Plan for Development (SDIP), Vulnerabil-ity relates to lack of security, susceptibility to risk and/or exploitation. It is a measure of resilience of individuals, households and Communities to withstand any shock that might result in increased poverty. The SDIP further cat-egorizes vulnerable groups among others to include, asset-less Widows, female headed households, child headed households, older persons, child labourers, and persons with disabilities.OVC households in the social structure are usually fitting this group of vulnerable members of so-ciety. The concept will help in analysis of the NGOs per-ception of OVC households and how this conceptualisation leads to strategies designed to support OVC households. But it’s highly subjective and problematic.

In this paper, Child-wellbeing can be understood using the definition by (Lakwo 2006: 129) who considers it to mean bodily, material, socio-political, financial and know-ledge. Child- wellbeing is an important concept in the study because it will provide a basis for making decision on whether NGO strategies are transforming OVC house-holds and their children lives through the different strategies employed.

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2.3 Understanding the concept of OVCUganda through the Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development came up with the OVC Policy and National Strategic Plan of Implementation that spells out the defini-tions and areas to improve interventions for OVC activities and projects so these were borrowed for this study.

A vulnerable child is one who is at risk from significant physical, emotional or mental harm which may result in their rights not being fulfilled. In Uganda the national gov-ernment strategy (NSPPI) recognises that all children in the country can broadly be considered vulnerable. If a child is not able to grow and develop in a protected and caring en-vironment, they become more vulnerable (Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development 2004: 6).

For the purpose of intervention, National OVC Policy identifies the following categories of children as vulnerable:

Table 1.1 Categorization of OVC children in Uganda:

Uganda’s view of OVC Types of childrenIn Uganda, the following groups are thought of as vul-nerable.

Orphans (children who have lost one or both parents)Children affected by armed con-flictChildren abused or neglectedChildren in conflict with the lawChildren affected by HIV/AIDS and other diseasesChildren in need of alternative family careChildren affected by disabilityChildren in “hard to reach” areasChildren living under the worst forms of labourChildren living on the streets

Source: National Policy and Strategy for Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children of Uganda – Popular version, p.6.

2.4 Understanding of OVC households in UgandaThe NSPPI also addresses the needs of vulnerable house-holds recognising that most children form part of house-holds. Due to limits on resources, OVC programmes target the most vulnerable children and households. The NSPPI provides guidance on the process of selecting vulnerable children outlining that communities should come together

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and by consensus prioritise the most vulnerable children and households(Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social De-velopment 2004: 24)

Table 2.1 Showing criteria for choosing OVC and their households for inter-vention:

Selecting vulnerable children Selecting vulnerable house-holds

Children living alone or in institutions

Children in a poor psy-chological state

Children in an un-stable environment, due to conflict, abuse, migration etc.

Children orphaned or otherwise vulnerable

Children the com-munity agrees are in need for any other reason.

Households headed by a single or widowed person

Households headed by a very sick adult

Households headed by a woman

Households headed by an elderly person

Households which in-clude orphans or other vulnerable children

Source: MGLSD, National Policy and Strategy for Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children of Uganda –Popular version, p.24.

The OVC households and their children will therefore come in handy in this research to get a holistic picture by analys-ing their perceptions of the NGOs interventions to know what is not yet known that’s lacking, progress and how it can be improved.

2.5 The social rupture and resilience theoriesThe conceptual framework is composed of OVCs who make up the OVC households in the study. The persistent vulner-ability in OVC households is dependent on their age, educa-tion, income level ,gender and the one heading the house-hold whether a child, elderly and a widow. This later de-termines the wellbeing of children in these households. The NGOs strategies to support these households are various and are conceived by the way the NGOS perceive OVC

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households. The perception is rooted in two theories of the social rupture theory and the social resilience theory. NGOs on ruptured thesis go ahead to start homes/ villages for children, start direct support to households and some NGOs still feel there is resilience among OVC households and build it with loans, grants and start community projects to reduce the existing vulnerabilities and all build on social protection of OVCs and their households.

The study will use the two contradicting theories as its theoretical frame. Whereas the social rupture theory main-tains that the traditional system of orphan care is stretched by the epidemic, and collapsing, the social resili-ence theory says there is flexibility and strength of the in-formal childcare practise that if supported by interven-tions, can support a big number of orphans (Abebe and Aase 2007: 1)

The thesis underlying their strategies can be categor-ised as such but there are not always conscious stand points. Some NGOs strategies are categorised in the social rupture theory and strategies are employed to improve child-wellbeing knowing there is a lot of vulnerability thus setting up family like structures or homes for children as the final safety net. “In certain case children are provided with drop in centres, offering a safe place for children who are living on the streets or with overburdened relatives Fredriksson and Kanabus ( 2005) as in (Lombe and Ochumbo 2008: 685).

Other NGOs strategies fall in the social resilience the-ory with the idea that vulnerability can end thus do carry out direct familial support to OVC households like giving material support, microfinance loans, and psychosocial support to build their resilience. Lombe argues that “for most part, orphaned children rely on the extended family for their livelihood. Indeed, even when it does not have sufficient resources to care for its vulnerable members, the traditional familial network has met the needs of orphaned children, providing close to 90 percent of total assistance and quoted (Foster 2002); Hunter 1990; Sub-barao and Coury 2004) as in (Lombe and Ochumbo 2008: 685).

Chirwa (2002) as in Cheney (2011) argues that “Inter-national NGOs allocating assistance on the basis of a so-cial rupture model of intervention, in which aid organisa-tion falsely assume the total breakdown of traditional so-cial safety for orphaned children, masks the plasticity of those systems” (Cheney forth coming 2011: 6). Okwany et al. agrees and argues that “this contradicts the rhetoric of

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incapacity and rupture, which undermine the complex ways in which communities muster resources and bolster the capacity of vulnerable households to sustain care giv-ing despite the constraints of their contexts in which they are located. Communities remain resilient and have creat-ively drawn from the past and adapted hybrid coping strategies to strengthen stretched safety nets” (Okwany et al. forthcoming 2011: 2)

Okwany et al. (2011) argue further in support of the social resilience theory that traditional arrangements of childcare are flexible and resilient, offering new forms of adaptive strategies and citing (Abebe and Aase 2007) they note that a household may be constrained economically but may have the capacity to provide both emotional and socio-cultural support.

The challenge could be under looked where even the needs of these OVC households are decided by NGOs in designing programmes. I agree with Lund that “The tradi-tional extended family system is under pressure, but not about to break down. As the effectiveness of its support will depend on the contribution of the wider society, localised solutions have to be scaled up to make an impact” (Lund and Agyei-Mensah 2008: 1).

The two theories will be used in the study to explore the tensions involved in looking at households as ruptured or resilient households. The concept of vulnerability of house-holds in which OVC are embedded in will be analysed to see whether they are rooted in the two theories and how these are related to NGOs perceptions to direct their program-ming and enhance child-wellbeing.

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Chapter 3: NGOs interventions to enhance child- wellbeing in OVC households.

3.1 IntroductionThis chapter gives some of the selected NGOS activities and programmes, demonstrating that NGOs interventions to en-hance child-wellbeing in OVC households are rooted in the NGOs perception of OVC households. The conceptualization of OVC households by NGOs determines the different strategies used. OVC households are seen as either vulnera-ble or resilient to make decisions. The chapter highlights that majority perceive them to be very vulnerable and with few resilient though incapacitated by resources that deter-mine decision making. The issue of sustainability comes in and the different strategies used by NGOs in enhancing child-wellbeing. Cheney points out that by looking at chil-dren in interventions as “innocent and unable to fend for themselves, that they deserve intervention in part is achieved by reinstating children’s victimhood” (Cheney 2010: 6). Cheney was looking at children but these are OVC households with adults that are limited by vulnerability in fending for themselves. The findings indicate that different interventions were used by NGOs to reduce vulnerability but depended on how they perceived OVC households.

3.2 Organisations purposively selected to show activities and programmes.I selected three NGOs to illustrate common NGO activities and programmes. NGOs visited use three main strategies: community initiatives, institutionalisation and partnerships. World Vision International Uganda-community care system, SOS Children’s Village Wakiso- institutionalisation and Save the Children Uganda and partnerships with government (Details in Appendix 2).

3.3 NGOs Perceptions of OVC households and their programmingNGO staffs were asked whether OVC households can make their own decisions on what kind of service to receive or whether it is them as service provider to decide.

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Figure 1.1 Showing perception of OVC by NGOs

Yes No Some how Total0

0.51

1.52

2.53

3.54

Source: Authors illustration of NGOs perception of OVC households (2011)

Despite all the support and efforts made by these NGOs to improve child wellbeing in OVC households, half of the NGOs interviewed still feel that these OVC households can-not decide what kind of support is to be given to them, a quarter of the NGOs think they do have the power to decide and also the other quarter say somehow as seen in the fig-ure 1 above. So it means that NGOs look at OVC households as voiceless and vulnerable and all decisions are made on their behalf.

NGO perception of OVC households as seen in the twelve member focus group discussion, ten agreed that OVC households are very vulnerable. They argued that [OVC households have limited power to make decisions and even when they are able to make them they are incapacit-ated by their situation to do so. The fact they can be taken advantage of in terms of education, information gathering and sharing, limited income for example in education even with poor quality they settle for it because they are strug-gling to look for school uniform and scholastic needs (FGD Participant)]

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Others felt that the perception of these NGOs is wrong and OVC households can make decisions if empowered eco-nomically with many having social ties that are great to make them strong and others have potential that can be uti-lized by these NGOs such as knowledge and skills. Many of such OVC households need psychosocial support to have hope and source of information to build their confidence and make decisions.

The perceptions of these NGOs inform their program-ming. Nine members agreed that rarely beneficiaries are consulted because many of the OVC projects are based on what the funding is about. For example USAID advertises its RFA and state the objectives and outputs expected of NGOs for bidding and return proposals are written and when they win they carry out mapping exercises for these OVC households when budgets are already set out and work plan. Others argued that NGOs consult and sometimes they do not because most of the projects are either rights based or needs based which is known by social workers who are already working in these households .In all there is limited project participatory approaches in programming for OVC households. Many projects needs are determined as a result of what project staffs have seen as gaps in OVC households and few organizations do consult OVC house-holds which were seen as their participation but rarely do they involve beneficiaries in all stages of the project. Con-sulting with families is not participation because participa-tion involves making decisions.

In conclusion, it’s hard to meet the specific needs of OVC households when following the priorities of Donors. If projects are determined according to donor funding then reducing vulnerability will come secondary. There is need to stream line approaches that will make beneficiaries of social protection to participate and decide their needs.

3.3 Vulnerability of OVC households.Table 3.1 Showing the Demographic data of OVC households interviewed for the

study.

Fre-quency

Percent

Head of Household Female headed

household6 60%

Male headed house-hold

3 30%

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Child headed house-hold

1 10%

Age of respondents 19-30 2 20%31-50 2 20%51-70 6 60%Sex of respondentFemale 9 90%Male 1 10%Highest level of education?Adult Education 1 10%Primary education 3 30%Secondary Education 6 60%Total 10 100%

Source: Authors illustration for OVC respondent’s demography (2011)

According to table 3 above 60% of the households inter-viewed were female headed households, Male households are 30% and child headed households at 10% and when it comes to age 60% are between 51 – 70 years old of which the productivity of these people is so minimal since 90% of all these respondents have not had enough education that can enable get formal employment according to the job market in Uganda today. This makes them weak and vulner-able therefore strategies such microcredit credit that re-quires them to pay weekly may not be applicable since the kind of businesses they can do are for their daily survival.

Most of the households are thus vulnerable. All four or-ganizations interviewed aim at seeing a child growing in a family environment and capable of making decisions that will shape his/her community. Half believed children are vulnerable with no agency with the other refuting the idea that safety nets and skills in OVC households can be utilized to build their resilience and later their agency. SOS staff in the interview argued that; OVC households have the power to make their own decisions on what kind of service to be given to them, however they believe that power comes with a lot of decisions and resources which limits OVC house-holds due to their vulnerability hence their ability to know they have power is limited thus their confidence needs to be enhanced.

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But Cheney says there is need to build children’s agency than deepening their vulnerability and allowing children ca-pacity to act, legally, socially on their own behalf to secure the resources necessary for survival (Cheney forthcoming 2011).These are elderly caregivers households will they se-cure resources for their survival amidst their vulnerability. This is evidence that the social rupture thesis be studied by NGOs and sees how to help the OVC households that are incapacitated to secure resources.

To reduce vulnerability, (Subbarao and Coury 2004; Richter and Swart-Kruger 1995) as in (Gillespie et al.: 18), says vulnerability requires interventions to be carefully tai-lored and implemented within the social cultural and eco-nomic environments. Kalibala argue that it should use local contextual knowledge of child vulnerability rather than gen-eric criteria applied in international surveys and need for further analytical work is required to validate the methodo-logy, link it to child well-being outcomes and devise a prac-tical tool for service providers to refine programme target-ing (Kalibala et al. 2011: 1). Schenk in his study highlights the need to carefully consider the meaning of “vulnerabil-ity” when targeting programmes to support children af-fected by HIV and AIDS (Schenk et al. 2008: 894).

NGOs should know the various types of vulnerability that need different services and NGOs should know that the households they support are not helpless victims which sub-ject them to more abuse for example the head of OVC sec-retariat and OVC technical officer MGLSD said it’s bad printing T/shirts showing that the child get support from AIDS support organization and the child is called HIV/AIDS victim in the community which in away stigmatizes the child. Chambers defined vulnerability to suit OVC house-holds as exposure and defencelessness coming from ex-ternal and internal sides by having exposure to shock, stress and risk and lack of means to cope without damaging loss. This applies to OVC households as most of the OVC households visited majority were physically weak, econom-ically impoverished, socially dependent, and psychologically harmed (Chambers 1995: 189).

(Save the children Programme officer in Interview) be-lieve that OVC households have the power to make their decisions on what kind of service is to be given to them. In some cases, they are given what they have not asked for because of their vulnerability. Sometimes the real services are given to OVC households but not in the quantity they wanted or they are given at the wrong time for example giving them seeds for plantation when

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the planting season is over. OVC households can decide but NGOs do not carry out regular follow up for example after training in modern farming to see how they put it in practice.

This backs my argument that it’s not in the vulnerability of OVC and their households but the programming strategies that persistent vulnerability is rooted.

Figure 2.1 Photo narration of OVC household headed by a grandmother.

Source: Fieldwork 2011.

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Chapter 4: NGOs strategies to enhance child - wellbeing in OVC households

4.1 Introduction This chapter highlights the strategies used by NGOs to sup-port OVC households, how the employed strategies have failed to remove persistent vulnerability and enhance child-wellbeing plus the sustainability issues arising from NGO strategies of intervention.

4.2 Strategies used by NGOs to enhance child wellbeingDuring the study several strategies were found out to be used by NGOs to reach OVC households but for this re-search, it’s only the major NGO strategies employed in sup-porting OVC households that will be discussed to under-stand how these strategies are benefiting OVC and enhan-cing child-wellbeing. Examples of the strategies used are direct support to OVC households through education sup-port, health support, food security enhancement, and cloth-ing and shelter improvements.

Giving loans and grants to improve OVC household live-lihoods was seen as another strategy while others used community projects like recreation centres for youth and children, early learning centres for community, community clinics’ and community revolving funds with many employ-ing microcredit as a strategy and in combination others used awareness and advocacy with two having established homes/village for children. By looking at the extent to which NGOs are meeting the needs of OVC we can identify gaps in these strategies.

4.2.1 Awareness and advocacy as a strategy to reduce vulnerability in OVC households

Awareness creation/advocacy as a strategy used to enhance child wellbeing among OVC households has shed light on plight of OVC and their households. NGOs use it to report and support social inquiries by strengthening the communi-ties to report the cases of child abuse. NGOs have used awareness through radios and television giggles, provided counseling, psychosocial support, offered training in differ-

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ent areas, enforced communities to demand for their rights and influenced policy. All the organization interviewed, use the strategy to make the community and OVC households aware of their situation and to have their voices heard by government as the duty bearer. However the extent to which the strategy is enhancing child wellbeing among OVC households in Uganda, stops at meeting the needs of OVC because there are no connecting factors, awareness alone cannot help enhance child wellbeing among OVC house-holds in Uganda.

Awareness creation and advocacy as a strategy mainly sensitizes the community on their challenges and mobilizing them to stand against the injustices that violate their rights. According to the NGOs interviewed, awareness creation has created the community that is responsible to protect chil-dren from harmful practices and abuse. According to UNICEF-UNAIDS framework, one of the key strategies stip-ulated is to raise awareness at all levels through advocacy and social mobilization to create a supportive environment for children and families affected by HIV/AIDS (Moser 1998: 2).

However when it comes to child wellbeing, awareness on itself is limited in enhancing child wellbeing among OVC households as it stops at knowing there is need to protect children but the means to do so is lacking in the commu-nity. This illustrates that if NGOs in creating awareness and advocacy strengthens the community to take control of their challenges by building their capacity then awareness as a strategy will change in order to reduce household vul-nerability and build the OVC household resilience because it will be more than knowing the need to protect.

4.2.2 Microcredit and Grants to reduce economic vulnerability in OVC households

Microcredit as a strategy is working with OVC household to plan for future sustainability according to the research find-ings. Households are trained and given loans which they have to pay at a particular period of time in installments plus a small charge fee for administration. Grants to OVC households (cash boxes) on the other hand is mainly given to groups in the community (consisting of OVC households) where members start borrowing the money among them-selves to use in their small businesses and later share the money and accruing profits. Here NGOs use this strategy to promote income generating activities and projects for OVC households such that these households can be able to sup-port the OVC in promoting their wellbeing.

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According to the three NGOs interviewed, they praised the micro credit strategy and said by their records, children in these households have been able to go to school, get enough food, clothing as parents become able to support these OVC. Providing OVC households with loans and re-volving grants has made great impact by making these households stable. In two to three years, households joining micro credit are able to meet their basic needs like school related expenses, clothing and even put up small but per-manent houses .We have households who have saved up to two million Uganda shillings in their 2nd cycle and will reach over 5 million in their fourth cycle (Programme of-ficer from NGO).

However the beneficiaries were asked on the use of mi-cro credit as a strategy and 6 out of 10 said it was helping one to leave vulnerability and poverty. The 4 households’ on the other hand refuted saying micro credit helps productive groups and the way its programmed excludes some people who are very poor to whom it becomes burdensome and needs to be improved to help them.

We can afford to pay the loan monthly and not weekly as required and if there was no need to give your land title or something valuable to be taken in case you fail to pay the loan many of us would have joined but me I had nothing to give as security for the loan (Caregiver in Ttuba Kampala).

Microcredit needs able people because what I can do is simple handcrafts so I can’t make a lot of profits to pay the loan weekly (70 year old caregiver Kulambiro Kam-pala).

I wish they provide individual loans. This group system for receiving money is hard whereby we are required to form a group of 6 to 8 members. People in this village tend to select their friends and the rich ones able to pay leaving us behind who are poor and old, ill or even young heading homes. It’s very hard in Kampala be-cause people shift every month and now that the rich have taken over our land it’s hard to form membership (Parent in Kisaasi- Kampala).

It’s very good to receive loans to work but sometimes the money they are giving as a loan is too small to start a good business because you have to buy things for starting yet you have to rent the place where to work from and you receive 100,000/= (Uganda shillings equivalent to 30 Euros) as start up because the more

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loan is determined by your saving thus some of us de-cided to leave borrowing from the organizations dropped out because it required me to meet weekly yet the loan was little (Parent in Kasaana –Kampala).

The above statement from beneficiary counter pose the NGOs staff that loans has made impact because it’s still burdensome. Thus need to provide individual loans, allow them to pay monthly and enough loans to start business so that OVC households can access loans and be able to sus-tain themselves.

The overall pattern on microcredit indicate that it’s a strategy that can help the able bodied members of OVC households, but can exclude the weak and young thus it’s important for NGOs to consider the category of OVC house-holds especially the number of children per household and who is the head such that microcredit as a strategy en-hances child-wellbeing in OVC households as there is some-thing missing in the approach to meet the needs of children in these OVC households as they need skills on how to mul-tiply the loans, where to get the materials or resources.

Again microcredit as a strategy by NGOs need to be geared towards good and user friendly terms and condi-tions to improve OVC situation not to make profits like profit organizations or banks. NGOs asking OVC households for collateral for the loans are limiting many OVC house-holds to access these loans. Much as these households were trained and after appraisal qualifying to get loans, the criti-cal vulnerable OVC households like child headed house-holds and elderly care givers were excluded by the support.

On the strategy of grants, 8 out of 10 OVC households appreciated the one time grant that it was very successful in changing their lives and that of their children. (A parent in Masuliita Central- Wakiso) said I can now send my two grand children to school and eat two meals a day because of the grant that opened my eyes to start business.

However the two households complained of the little amount given to them to start income generating activities. They give us little money for example I was given 50,000/= Uganda shillings (15 Euros) to start an income generating activity for my 8 grand children. I kept the money looking for what to start because I had told the organization I was going to start pan cakes selling but cooking oil raised and money was not enough to start so when the grand children were sent from school because of fees I gave up the busi-ness( A grandmother in Biika- Masuliita Wakiso).

There is need to carry out a feasibility study before giv-ing out grants such that OVC household are given the

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grants that can enable them start an income generating activity because 15 Euros in today’s economy is not suffi-cient to run any business thus OVC households if they are to get support its should take into consideration the number of children in the household such that its able to transform their lives and reduce vulnerability.

In case of grants, this strategy seemed uniform in sup-porting all OVC but the amount given by these NGOs to OVC households was too small to make a difference in these households and later enhancing child wellbeing. For exam-ple Most NGOs were giving 20 to 50 Euros per OVC house-hold yet majority had more than 5 members in each house-hold to start an income generating project. Though some successful case studies were documented by these NGOs, there is needed to increase the amount to make a positive change that enhances child wellbeing.

The study findings above indicated that most OVC households were female headed households, few male households and child headed households with many above the age of 51 years. This makes them weak and vulnerable therefore strategies such microcredit credit that requires them to pay weekly may not be applicable since the kind of businesses they can do are for their daily survival. The mi-cro credit as an NGO strategy should be revised since it only targets the able members than the vulnerable house-holds.

The literature highlights the progress over ten years. Mathie and Coady International Institute (2001) argued that microfinance is an important tool for fighting poverty in the developing world by providing access to credit for in-vestment, financial services and savings services to enable poor people acquire income-producing and household as-sets and to cope with unexpected events (Mathie and Coady International Institute 2001: 1).This has been refuted by Lakwo after ten years saying “Taking the case of Uganda and by using a consensual people-centred relevance test to assess the impact of microfinance on poverty alleviation, microfinance is shown not to improve the well-being of cli-ents much, with only marginal well-being gains achieved by clients”(Lakwo 2010: 1).

The research found out that; incomes raised through micro credits are useful. NGOs thus can be identified as vi-able alternative economic centres. NGOs have also got the necessary capacity to mobilize the poor for economic devel-opment and it shows that social networks are very efficient for community support and there is a significant level of support by the NGOs to the OVC households. However, the

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support of marginalized groups such as widows, child headed and the elderly is still minimal and efforts should be adhered to those households.

4.2.3 Community projects as a strategy for reducing vulnerability among OVC households

The study findings indicate that community projects have enhanced the wellbeing of OVC especially in emergency or war torn areas by starting recreation facilities inform of a play ground for children and community clinics. The com-munity Outreaches like VHTs, VCT, immunization and de-worming have helped all children to receive services includ-ing the OVC. The use of existing structures like village courts has helped the orphan children to have a voice for example in case of land grabbing by relatives though need to be enriched. Community revolving projects like send a cow, a goat have also been successful. Using indigenous knowledge and existing structures and systems have been helpful as it’s easy for sustainability. The beneficiaries were happy with the community projects but all NGO staffs in the study said Community projects are challenging because the community does not want to contribute.

When an NGO puts up a clinic in the community even with their input and collaboration they fail to get time and even fail to fulfill their commitment to pay the user fees. (FGD participant)

People know what they want, but the channels for OVC households to voice their views are minimized. The way their voices are captured is where the challenge lies and it is what is needed to be done that the vulnerability in the OVC and community will be reduced because devel-opment cannot come from outside. The community has to appreciate their challenges and come up with action plans in their own means and ability and this has to be integrated into government plans but it should start from the bottom (Programme officer Save the Children Uganda).

The above quotes show that Community projects are benefitting the OVC households but NGOs are avoiding us-ing the strategy because of sustainability challenges. There is need to plan for sustainability right from inception of the project such that community projects can improve child-wellbeing among OVC households and reduce vulnerability.

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4.2.4 Institutionalization as a strategy for reducing vulnerability among OVC households

Villages/Babies homes do provide shelter and home for chil-dren in crisis. SOS Kakiri is an example of institutionaliza-tion that was visited during this research. The shelter in Gulu was due to war, in Fort Portal due to the hard to reach areas and next they are targeting Karamoja where children are suffering bringing many to the streets of Kampala.

SOS has seen many achievements with some of their children graduating from universities and others currently enrolled in universities. However the long term serving staff had this to say

Institutions should be the last resort though it can be debatable on what is the time when it should be the last resort. Family placement is the best option. Institution is a heavy investment so if there are fam-ilies willing to take up an extra child; they should be supported by government. Family strengthening pro-gramme builds the capacity to care for family needs especially OVC needs. Also resettling children in res-idential care kills children’s creativity; their pro-gress is low compared to children outside the resid-ential care (SOS programme manager).

SOS feels it’s still a hypothesis that needs to be con-cluded through a study or a research to get to know the truth about creativity but the experience with these chil-dren has indicated so. This is supported by Mutangadura who criticised institutionalism in favour of foster care in communities as seen to be sustainable. “Setting up and run-ning an orphanage is not only generally outside the cultural context of Sub-Saharan Africa but also is unlikely to be sus-tainable on financial grounds” (Mutangadura 2000: 32). Santa’s study suggests that “in the area of housing, foster care appears to be more cost effective than institutional care (orphanages)” (Santa‐Ana‐Tellez et al. 2011).

Many Donors have started funding institutions or orphanages but they are very expensive and few chil-dren are reached and fail to meet children’s develop-mental needs and do not prepare them for adult life in the community like culture patterns, language customs though serves as a temporary, last resort response, but not long term solution (Programme manager UORDP).

Institutions would be a good strategy to give a home to the homeless children in society. However most of the

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good few institutions are run by NGOs yet they are short lived with few run by international support that is per-manent. If government children’s institutions were not having chronic underfunding that make their rehabilita-tion a mockery with basic requirements to facilitate re-habilitation. For example institutions for juvenile offend-ers are understaffed with many of the staff being wel-fare assistants yet reception and remand centres for children have funding gaps. But NGOs should look at an-other strategy than orphanages (Director UCRNN).

It’s therefore remaining a challenge as to when institu-tions should be the last resort because children in critical conditions need care and a home especially those aban-doned and neglected. According to the research findings, institutionalisation is helping children to enhance their wellbeing especially those that need rescue but when you compare the costs involved it would be cost effective to reach many in OVC households. It’s important that NGOs look at institutions for children as last resort and where there is a person willing to take up more children should be supported such that children continue to grow in their com-munities, learn their traditions that will be beneficial during adulthood as raised earlier and reduce OVC vulnerability.

4.2.5 Partnerships, Networking and Collaboration as a strategy for reducing vulnerability among OVC households

Through networking, NGOs refer their beneficiaries to other NGOs or government for continued service or new services to bridge the service gap. The use of partnerships has improved the service delivery for OVC like immuniza-tion, vitamin and deworming of children in all villages mainly mobilized by NGOs. However, there is need to im-prove and strengthen monitoring and evaluation to estab-lish outputs, outcomes and impact and know the processes. Resource mobilization and allocation to OVC programmes at all levels from central to district by government is needed. OVC programme should be part of local govern-ment assessment for example ministry of local government carries out assessment at the district level for their projects such as agriculture, roads, National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS). MGLSD advised NGOs to work as one to have a comprehensive package and in consultation with government district strategic plans, use government stan-dards and frames which many are shying away.

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(Moser 1998) identified challenges in effective and re-sponse to OVC as limited awareness of available services, national government in partnership with international agen-cies and other stakeholders to know what is done and what remains to be done to satisfy the rights for OVC and ensure their wellbeing (Moser 1998: 2).

Respondents from the focus group discussion said that at the moment partnerships, networking and collabora-tion is based on who knows who and hard to send a benefi-ciary to another NGO to receive a service if you do not know someone there. Many NGOs are working to fulfil their set objectives and do less partnership making it hard to meet all the needs of OVC households. (FGD participant)

To increase services for OVC households therefore it’s important to partner with other NGOs and government sec-tors, to have OVC households needs addressed holistically. This will enhance child wellbeing among these households hindered by poor programming of NGOs. But this should be in accordance with economic and social policies such that state and civil society implementation is balanced, know where it’s appropriate and the implications of privatization of state responsibility taken into consideration such that there is harmony in service delivery. Work within the framework of the government because it is the legal re-sponsibility of government to provide services to its people, as a duty bearer. The government has put in place frame-works and standards but their monitoring is not efficient hence need for collaboration to know who is doing what and avoiding duplication of services.

4.2.6 Direct services to OVC households as a strategy for reducing vulnerability among OVC households

The Seven out of ten OVC households interviewed praised the direct support they receive from NGOs like books for children, beddings, clothes, seeds for planting, garden tools among others. They said NGOs had done a good job where government has not reached .Others said some OVC house-holds due to conflict and jealousy have failed to come out of poverty and vulnerability. However three households re-futed that and said this:

NGOs trust political leaders too much and yet this peo-ple in our community identify their relatives who had few OVC to look after so the direct support to these households could have started something like a school

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or a clinic where many of us would gain from (A parent in Kalongero – Wakiso).

NGOs help a lot but they have a habit of delaying to give us what they promise. For example one officer promised me seeds of beans but delivered them very late when the season had passed and I ate them (A caregiver in Masuliita –Wakiso).

The direct services since makes changes should be worked on in programming by the NGOs but should be very careful not to create dependency and if assistance is to be given it should come in time. However the issue of depend-ency given the vulnerability of these households is import-ant. Direct services should put into consideration the issue of dependency such that OVC households can survive when projects end thus building their resilience. The issue of sus-tainability according to the finding was a challenge yet funding comes to an end or when donor priorities change these households will be left vulnerable.

In conclusion, there is no single intervention/strategy that is fit for OVC intervention as seen above as all have ad-vantages and disadvantages so it’s imperative to note that joining strategies to suit a particular type and conditions of vulnerable children and their households is important espe-cially in poverty stricken countries. Adato and Basset ar-gued that “AIDS-affected families are diverse with respect to poverty level, education, and household structure, stage of illness progression ability to work, dependency ratios and access to assets. They argued for a mix of approaches rather than a single approach” (Adato and Bassett 2009: 72).

This is concluded by Okumu in her study that “The mul-tidimensional nature of child poverty requires a multi-pronged approach in effectively tackling it” (Okumu 2010). According to (Mushunje and Mafico 2010: 269) the tradi-tional standardised support from government and NGOs may not respond because it assumes households require same services and concluded that support methods should continuously evolve and be responsive.

This dynamism of OVC households captured in the study shows the different types of households and how each strategy is benefiting them differently for example Micro-credit is less burdensome to some households compared to the elderly and child headed OVC households. Hence NGO strategies have to interact with local conditions to trans-form OVC lives.

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NGOs should consider the type of intervention to be used in each OVC households by studying first the strength and weakness of each type. Different OVC households re-quire different interventions so programming mechanisms need to be improved to fit the conditions of OVC to enhance child-wellbeing.

4.3 Sustainability issues arising from NGO strategiesThe study findings indicated another issue of sustainability a rising from NGOs strategies. All the NGOs visited were dependent on Donor funds yet all households visited were not self sustainable in case the NGO support ended because of their source of income.

Table 4.1 Showing How NGOs finance their activities

WaysFre-

quencyPer-

centProposal writing 4 100%Through fun-

draising 0 0%

Government Aid 0 0%Starting up pro-

jects 0 0%Source: Authors illustration of NGOs source of income (2011)

The table4 above shows that these NGOs fully depend on proposal writing leaving the OVCs at the mercy of donors. All the four NGOs interviewed all said their major support come from Donors something not sustainable as donor fatigue and projects small life time makes enhance-ment of child-wellbeing which takes a long period of time un reachable.

Figure 3.1 The main source of income for OVC household

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Farming20%

Small scale Business

30%

Other50%

Source: Authors illustration of income source for OVC households visited in the study (2011)

Figure 2 above is a pie chart showing the main source of income in percentages of the 10 households interviewed, 20% of these households depend on farming, and 30% do small scale businesses such as operating food stuff kiosks, selling water and passion juice etc, 50% said others such as selling local alcohol, selling porridge, building, boda-boda (motorcycle) riding, selling chicken, looking after cows, selling fire wood etc. Something not showing self sustain-ability in case NGOs support ended.

Table 5.1 Showing average monthly income for OVC households.

Response Frequency PercentWhat is the average income level (per month) for

your household?50,000/= and be-

low 3 30%

100,000- 150,000/= 4 40%

160,000- 250,000/= 2 20%

300,000- 490,000/= 1 10%

Source: Authors illustration of monthly income for ten OVC households visited

In table5 above, only 1 respondent out of 10 earns between 300,000 – 490,000 shillings, the biggest percent-age (40%) earns between 100,000 – 150,000/= and 30% of the respondents earn 50,000/= and below per months

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which cannot sustain these households with OVCs.

Figure 4.1 Type of Support received from NGOs

Direct support to your household

Micro credit loan

Other

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5

5

2

1

50%

20%

10%

Percent Frequency

Source: Authors Illustration of type of Support received

Figure 3 shows what kind of support the respondents received the majority 50% received direct support, 20% re-ceived Micro credit loans and only 10% received said others which included a goat to rear. The direct support however is not sustainable and requires NGOs to keep giving these households.

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Figure 5.1 The use of the support given to Households

Paid school

fees

Renovated our house

Started up a small

business

Paid off my debts

House rent

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

Perc

ent

Source: Authors illustration of Support given to OVC households

Figure 3 above further stresses it that 50% of the bene-ficiaries received direct support, 20% received loans, but figure 4 above that 30% of the beneficiaries used the sup-port to pay school fees, 10% paid off debts, 10% also renov-ated their house making it 60% in figure 3 who received dir-ect support combined with others.

The 20% who received micro credit loans in figure 3 started up small businesses in figure 4. This still leaves a question on the kind of interventions made by NGOs, giving a household support for paying off school fees for the child does not reduce the vulnerability of this child because this support will not continue until the child completes his or her studies. This was found out by Nyambedha on the most serious problem saying it was the inability of the orphan households to afford school fees although others were also

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prominent (Nyambedha et al. 2001: 83).NGOs should think of sustainability plans for OVC

households’ right from inception of such projects. Most NGOs interviewed are donor dependant and the beneficiar-ies are also NGO dependants through direct support as seen as in figure 3 and figure 4 above which does not re-duce their vulnerability and making them self sustainable since the support is used for school fees, paying house rent and debts. More sustainability strategies that are realistic and reasonable should be put in place .The use of existing systems and structures should be encouraged so as to take over when donor funds end.

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Chapter 5: OVC households’ perceptions of NGOs interventions.

5.1 IntroductionThis chapter shows that reducing vulnerability in OVC households require several factors to be improved for a bet-ter environment of OVC and their households. The OVC households have to play a big role; the community efforts to protect them by acting as support circles instead of imped-ing their survival and resources. The service Providers have to be prepared to change their programming mechanisms including strategies that meet their special needs to reduce vulnerability in OVC households. This is analyzed after un-derstanding the key achievements from strategies, and the gaps existing as given by OVC households.

Figure 6.1 OVC household’s opinions on how effective are NGO strategies in enhancing child-wellbeing in their area

Some howVery effective

Total

4

6

10

Frequency

Source: Authors illustration of OVC households visited their opinion

Figure 5 represents question that was asked to 10 OVC households and it reveals that out of the 10 OVC respond-ents, 6 said the NGOs are very effective in enhancing child-wellbeing in their area, while 4 said somehow meaning they are not convinced with the NGO interventions.

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5.2 Key achievements from these strategies to enhance child wellbeingThe research got some of the key achievements by inter-viewing respondents from OVC households on what they like about NGOs in enhancing child-wellbeing among OVC households in Uganda.

They said NGOs have spearheaded in creating a healthy nation especially dealing with HIV/AIDS like TASO, others have set up clinics in remote areas where government has not reached. They have also brought in transparency and accountability by putting in place mechanisms and channels that have sensitized the public to demand quality services from government as the duty bearer. Some ray of hope has come in through NGOs for example in hard to reach areas, war and conflict areas where many children especially OVC services are given. NGOs have raised advocacy on plight of OVC and their households and influenced policy at different levels. They have reported child abuse cases and supported social inquiries by strengthening the communities to report the cases of child abuse. NGOs have provided counselling, PSS and offered training in different areas such orphan care, will making. Directly, NGOs have started ECD centres, improved nutrition and food availability given chil-dren right to play , provided scholastic materials, provided a home in case of emergency and crisis.

However amidst the achievements, a lot is still desired by OVC households as given by OVC households.

5.3 Gaps in these strategies employed by NGOs to reduce vulnerabilityThe study interviewed OVC households to know the gaps and these vary from financial, infrastructure in some areas, attitude of the beneficiaries, quality with donor require-ments as loopholes impeding enhancement of child- wellbe-ing among OVC households. However, others blamed them-selves saying OVC households have tendency to regard themselves to be very vulnerable that they can’t manage to do anything but think everything is to be done by NGOs with some OVC households seemingly contented in their poverty.

Financial constraint was given as a gap where by NGOs would want to help in scaling up intervention but they are limited by the finances. This was true because all the 4 NGOs including 2 secretariats mentioned financial con-straint as the biggest problem. Hence unable to have a

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holistic approach of intervention and reach a big number of OVC households and their children.

Hard to reach areas with poor infrastructure limits the work of NGOs yet resources allocated to OVC households are less/ limiting. Infrastructures in the hard to reach areas like mountainous areas yet staff transportation facilities are very minimal. An example was given where volunteers use ordinary bicycles to carry out home visits to OVC house-holds end up tired as they have to push it instead of riding it.

More still, the other gap was seen in the issue of quality versus quantity for example the high targets/ numbers needed by Donors compromise the quality of services for OVC households’ .The funders sometimes take on targets which NGOs have to comply with and in the end compro-mise the quality services because of too much numbers with low resources.

Another gap is in moving from experience sharing to best practices sharing which need to be documented and need financial input. Most NGOs do not share their best practices but few had their work documented for sharing apart from staying on organizational computers.

The voices of the OVC who sometimes are left behind because they cannot walk long distances to attend meetings and send representatives who represent their voice was a gap that NGOs need to bridge. It was found out that even in community meetings such people rarely attend and voice their challenges because meetings and trainings are held far from the homes.

The other gap that constrains achievement of objectives given inadequate funding is late disbursement of funds. NGOs take long to give OVC households what they re-quested.

Big targets set to be reached with little resources were another area given for example, NGO providing a goat or a pig to a whole family which cannot enhance child wellbeing. Sometimes, donor requirements for example numbers make NGOs target numbers instead of child wellbeing.

The ability of organizations to think towards a compre-hensive package is limited yet it’s what will enhance child wellbeing. NGOs need to discuss with donors on numbers and give what is enough to make change. Analysis of the gaps in the NGOs strategies in reducing vulnerability indi-cate that programming mechanism need to be streamlined by redesigning approaches to support OVC households.

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5.4 Factors that can reduce Vulnerability in OVC householdsThe factors to reduce vulnerability according to the study are situated in improving the family to play its role, strengthening community to protect OVC households, changing the perception and programming of service providers and using existing systems and structures.

5.4.1 OVC Households: Their role and attitude change

The study highlights that the way an organization looks at the household matters. The resources of the family should be looked out first before looking at their needs, this helps in seeing the strength of each family and resources the fam-ily has for example, the family structures, the system in the home, the permanent house, grandparents that can counsel the young ones, identify what is lacking to make the family stable. In agreement Kristen Cheney argues for building more productive model through understanding of children’s perceptions of their circumstances (Cheney 2010: 13).

So in reducing vulnerability among OVC household, households/family has a big role to play in reducing the vul-nerability at home and it’s the existing resources of these households that NGOs work upon to enhance child- wellbe-ing. “Comprehensive OVC care calls for sustainable social development programmes focusing at strengthening the family unit” (Kibaalya et al. 2006: 1) so the family will have to play a big role for vulnerability to reduce in OVC house-holds and NGOs should strengthen the household as a unit of protection that will reduce persistent vulnerability.

5.4.2 Community efforts to protect OVC households

The community plays a big role in protecting OVC house-holds. Most of the households visited for interviews com-plained of the political leaders interfering in the NGOs work and other OVC households felt they were very unfair in helping NGOs to identify households. Land grabbing was given as a challenge in the community that made these households more vulnerable. For vulnerability to reduce, community has to be strengthened and safety units able to operate fully for children to have support systems in their community. This was agreed upon by Lombe saying that “We contribute to the current discussion on the orphan crisis by proposing a multifaceted approach utilizing institu-

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tional characteristics, with greater potential to strengthen community capacity and empower vulnerable children” (Lombe and Ochumbo 2008: 1).

It’s the role of the community that child headed house-holds can stay and strive without land grabbing in their community. This is supported by a study carried out by Emily Ganga that “ Communities need to make collaborat-ive efforts to assist all OVC to live a more or less normalized family life within their poverty stricken Child headed house-holds” (Ganga and Chinyoka : 1). From the above, it’s there-fore paramount for any strategy of NGO intervention to consider the community as factor that can hinder or pro-mote child-wellbeing.

We are happy with the child protection committees at the village level in Northern Uganda. Irrespective of the war, poverty and disease that has plundered that region, the extended family has been able to absorb the many orphans thus NGOs should support village orphan care committees to be strong to respond better to the needs of OVC and their households. (Programme Coordinator AFC)

In conclusion, NGOs strategies should strengthen the capacity of family and community such that children and their families are not left vulnerable by giving hope and in-creasing the local capacity of community members to solve their challenges. Although the budgets of the families are stretched but their willingness alone to add on another child can be supported to ensure that OVC household’s vul-nerability is reduced.

5.4.3 Service providers’ perception and programming

The factor of service providers to end vulnerability will re-quire the efforts of the NGOs, Donor community and gov-ernment to improve the way they have been supporting NGOs in order to enhance child wellbeing because basing on the study, it’s not the inability of OVC households but the loopholes in OVC service providers that the limitation to reduce OVC vulnerability in Uganda is rooted.

The NGOs should work within the framework of the gov-ernment because it is the legal responsibility of government to provide services to its people because as the duty bearer government has been left out by NGOs. There is need to put a policy by government to work with NGOs for example,

43

USAID could complement government education to educate OVCs in government schools to benefit many OVCs.

Donors should work through government to ensure all children supported especially OVC get assistance; they should review their objectives with government to show sustainability and comprehensiveness.

The district officers should take a leading role in harmo-nizing to reduce resource wastage through common under-standing for example probation officer can organize meet-ing to share information such that they can know what other NGOs are doing and sharing information by actors and services offered to improve service delivery at district level and enhance child wellbeing.

Financial constraint has been another area limiting their scale of work and Government departments have been slow in carrying out work and forwarding children issues from one level to the other. For example the com-prehensive ECD policy has been on slow pace to be cross cutting and holistic. Review of children’s act has taken long, slow paced, taking it as not a priority by state so legal reforms becomes a long process hence a limitation or even a challenge (Director UCRNN)

In most cases donors influence the kind of support given to the beneficiaries and sometimes it increases stigma amongst the communities especially when it comes to HIV victims where by the donors require NGOs to make bold and well visible brands to all their equipments such as cars, motorcycles, IEC materials such as T-Shirts this causes isol-ation of such victims, once these branded cars visit these households the neighbours start spreading the gospel mak-ing the victims more traumatized. For this case there for donors should re - visit their policies and consult from the district leaders or the NGOs they support to avoid such mis-takes. Kendall (2008) argues for better understanding of development efforts targeted to function in practice be-cause current development discourses and frameworks may sometimes operate to make the lives of vulnerable children and communities harder and less secure (Kendall 2008: 365) hence the donor support should fit in the local context and conditions.

Improve coordination among local government and NGOs. Improve and strengthen monitoring and evaluation to establish outputs, outcomes and impact and know the processes. Increase resource mobilization and allocation to OVC programmes at all levels from central to district by government. OVC programme should be put as part of local

44

government assessment for example ministry of local gov-ernment carries out assessment at the district level for their projects such as agriculture, roads, National Agricul-tural Advisory Services (NAADS). Political leaders should stop interfering in OVC programming especially hiring staff based on political background rather on their qualifications and willingness to work. The donors should continue to fund NGOs directly but there is need for strong partnership amongst the NGO, Government and the Donor communities for easy coordination and improve of service delivery to OVCs to enhance child wellbeing amongst OVC households

In conclusion, for vulnerability to end service providers have to play their role in coordinating the services to OVC households, stream line their approaches to benefit these households by tackling real challenges than donor priorities or NGOs objectives.

5.4.4 Using existing Indigenous structures and systems

The use of indigenous structures and systems will help to reduce vulnerability and improve OVC households to en-hance child-wellbeing. This means using existing structures and systems like enhancing traditional village/family courts, churches, indigenous materials and use of collaboration, networking and partnerships to include referral. Based on the study findings, Nyambedha recommended that “inter-ventions planned should build on the existing potentials in the community and pay attention to focused traditional kin-ship institutions, self help groups, and women groups” (Nyambedha et al. 2001: 94).

The ministry wants to see all organizations working closely with existing structures such as the local child protection committees or the district level OVC coordi-nation committees, in order to increase the chances that these structures will continue to carry out activities even when the donor funds run low or the end of the funding period causes the programme to close. (OVC Technical adviser Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development) echoed in agreement.

The above quote emphasizes the need to strengthen what is available in the community that is indigenous such that when donor funds and resources are no more its able to continue supporting the OVC households hence reducing vulnerability.

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Chapter 6: Implications for Responsive Programming and Conclusion.

6.1 Introduction

This chapter brings out the key findings that are crucial for future responsive programming and need for streamlining in NGO approaches to support OVC households in order to reduce vulnerability and enhance child- wellbeing. This chapter highlights issues of quality and quantity with meet-ing donor requirements, politician’s involvement in NGO work, limited use of government frameworks and standards need to improve NGOs institutional structures, partner-ships, weaknesses of NGOs programming, and lessons they have learnt over time, sustainability of OVC households and a conclusion.

6.2 Quality and quantity with Donor requirementsSome of the limitations spelt out in the focus group discus-sion as constraints faced in ensuring child wellbeing among OVC households is the issue of the Donors setting high tar-gets. The Donors should not only focus on the issue of quantity( bigger numbers to be reached) but also the issue of quality especially following the quality standards set by the government (Technical OVC officer Ministry of Gender )

The findings indicated that many of the NGOs are com-promising the quality service to reach many numbers as re-quested by donors. For example through the stiff competi-tion NGOs with many OVC numbers to reach win the USAID grants for OVC households. This has compromised on the services given to these households.

Donors and NGOs need to change their strategies of in-terventions especially when dealing with OVC households to reduce vulnerability and enhance child-wellbeing. Strict policies that address general issues rather than specific needs of OVC households should be avoided. There is need to streamline strategies of NGOS and donors to have proper service delivery in OVC households to reduce vulnerability.

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6.3 Politicians involvement in NGOs interventionsThe OVC households interviewed mentioned that Local leaders have failed to protect the children in their com-munities and have not involved NGOs in issues concerning land especially for the orphans. Sometimes NGOs have no capacity or not aware of such incidences. The beneficiaries cited that one of the factors hindering NGO efforts in en-hancing child-wellbeing in the communities is the use of political leaders/ politicians in identification and selection of OVC households plus other involvements in NGO innerva-tions.

Leaders and politicians involved in identifying vulner-able households select only their supporters and relat-ives leaving the vulnerable people with no help at all. Community leaders have hindered NGO interventions in their communities due to their selfish motives. Politics has become a problem as leaders use NGOs interven-tions as a way of soliciting support from the community. (FGD member)

NGO should be strategic in involving politicians in the selection of OVC households though needed in the monitor-ing and evaluation of projects. However the NSSPI stipu-lates that in case of external of support, the community shall be responsible for identifying and selecting the benefi-ciaries of the programme and OVC and their households identify their needs and solutions (Ministry of Gender, la-bour and Social Development 2004: 42). There is need to use the political leaders as required by government but also know when to involve them such that the good NGOs sup-port is not ruined by their negative and hidden agendas. Understanding of different categories of OVC households and their conditions plus knowing their different levels of vulnerability across households and children will help NGOs to verify the households selected for support.

6.4 Limited use of government standards and frameworks (Limited coordination at district level)The service highlighted in quality standards promote the understanding that caring for OVC is a shared responsibil-ity, hence the need for children, families and community participation, public-private partnerships, referrals and net-

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works for sustainable service delivery (Ministry of Gender, labour and Social Development 2005: 32).

Most of the recommendations given by NGOs inter-viewed indicated not working within the government frame-work, the reason might be they are not aware of these flame works which then leaves a question to the NGO board, measures should be put in place to give enough sensitization to these NGOs, revising the NGO registration policy and ensure all activities implemented by each NGO falls under the National strategic program plan of interven-tions (NSPPI) for orphans and other vulnerable children. Further research should also be carried out to find out whether all the NGOs in Uganda are aware of the OVC ma-terials and frame works availed by the government of Uganda.

Having read through the mapping guidelines by ministry of Gender, it shows that it’s a participatory framework that shows how community identifies challenges and resources in their geographic area. It examines the causes of vulner-ability; identify the most vulnerable children and their households in the community, resources and services avail-able, gaps between their needs, develop a plan to address the gaps in support thus creating a sense of ownership, commitment of support for these efforts within the com-munity. This alone shows that government frameworks need to be utilised for effective implementation of OVC pro-jects and programmes.

The findings indicated that the government frameworks are not used by NGOs and government budgets do not al-low follow up on the implementation of these standards by ministry. The systems must be reviewed, evaluated and monitored frequently and continuously for effectiveness and impact among the OVC households.

6.5 Improved institutional structures of NGOsNGOs need to work on their institutional structures to make a positive difference in OVC households. Their human re-source and other organization controls and systems need to improve such that planning; controlling, implementation and programming for OVC are very easy and fruitful. The interview with ministry official showed that it’s a challenge. NGOs should tell the community how much they have and OVC –MIS. Direct expenditure to OVC has not been submit-ted. NGOs should use and employ qualified staff with proper replacement measures, recruit openly to get people willing to work not relatives where you find the CEO is the

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husband, the wife is director and children are staff what kind of an organization….(Technical OVC officer MGLSD)

It’s because of duplication of services doing one thing with different wording instead of combining efforts with different objectives to meet. Lack of coordination by NGOs as they act in isolation due to lack of formal and informal partnerships among NGOs and the trickling of resources to the households is less than 10%. NGOs spend a lot of money on administration and salaries with less left for these households (Director UCRNN)

The recommendations UCRNN gives NGOs to enhance child wellbeing among OVC households in Uganda are that there is need to harmonize the interventions by these NGOs, the district coordination offices should be enforced such that the NGOs share budgets, work plans, information and forge away forward and action plans such that there would be improved transparency and accountability to make positive changes in the child wellbeing. The district officers should take a leading role. Harmonizing to reduce resource wastage through common understanding for ex-ample probation officer can organize meeting to share in-formation such that they can know what other NGOs are doing and sharing information by actors and services of-fered to enhance child wellbeing and improve service deliv-ery at district level.

The FGD gave the recommendation to NGOs to think of comprehensive services like vertical and horizontal. The vertical where services are backed up with other services for example to improve income or livelihood it would be easy for OVC households to first solve the education and health challenges and horizontal comprehensiveness whereby to start an income generating project like Piggery for OVC households, there is need for training, follow up linking them to market, medication sources for their pig-gery, business skills and information and existing sources of technical workers.

Management of NGOs is becoming inefficient because directors hire relatives so it becomes personal investments. Yet government is the pace setter who are assessed at the end of the day. There is need to harmonize the interven-tions by these NGOs, the district coordination offices should be enforced such that the NGOs share budgets, work plans ,information and forge away forward and action plans such that there is improved transparency and accountabil-ity for positive changes.

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NGOs do run their own agenda they do operate outside the national objectives yet the international agencies for example assess the government objectives not the NGOs objectives. If seen as partners it would be a solid format to report. For example some NGOs do not use the chil-dren’s act. Many NGOs are burdened with numbers yet Donor requirements can be negotiated by government easily and NGOs would have a right to refuse donor re-quirements that would compromise OVC rights. (Head of OVC secretariat MGLSD).

6.6 Public private partnerships and uniting to reduce vulnerability in OVC householdsThe FDG members agreed that there should be creation of formal partnerships for a holistic approach to OVC plight than a single service which is not comprehensive. This will also help in continuity of services to OVC households until they reach stability. The partnership should also be with government especially taking up the Public private partner-ship at the district level which can improve information sharing in coordination committees here the district needs are shared and issues of duplication is solved. NGOs need to start institutionalizing the existing government standards by sharing and distributing these standards and frame-works to be used by these NGOs for example quality control standard, and NSSPI.

Some NGOs do not use the children’s act. Many NGOs are burdened with numbers yet Donor requirements can be negotiated by government easily and NGOs would have a right to refuse donor requirements that would compromise OVC rights. (OVC technical advisor MGLSD).

Through TSOs, the resource materials can be rolled out in-form of training orientation and the coverage can be high since the gap is on rolling out, NGOs coordination at dis-trict level need to be improved especially NGOs working with government on good frameworks like mapping led by ministry of gender which is in every district for example CSF have been a good example of a well monitored and su-pervised project with funds being utilized to benefit OVC yet with good reporting mechanisms and NGOs should sup-port initiatives of districts for mapping and dialogues to know the number of OVCs, emerging services and engage the local people.

NGOs need to align their interventions to district OVC strategic plans which should be revised each time. This co-

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ordination will make changes and action plans imple-mented. The CAO should sign on proposals to show they have been authorized and agreed upon on the need of OVC and the community. District OVC needs should be given pri-ority than the Donor requirements.

NGOs need to organize and foster partnerships to give a multi- sectoral intervention to OVC needs. The Public pri-vate partnerships should be encouraged to improve OVC service delivery and enhance child-wellbeing. There is need to use district and national level standards and frameworks to increase partnerships and collaboration. This will im-prove the quality of services and a comprehensive package to enhance child-wellbeing will be created.

In conclusion partnerships, coordination and collabora-tion at the district level overlaps and need to be strength-ened for social protection to OVC households. All strategies of NGOs need to be in harmony with government structures and policies to avoid double support to OVC households and utilize resources to provide a comprehensive package to OVC households.

6.7 Weaknesses in NGO programmingAnother issue raised from the focus group discussion is that, the voices of the OVCs are sometimes left behind be-cause they are usually not well represented e.g. in meet-ings. NGOs should ensure that meetings and trainings are held where the OVC households are able to reach such as holding community village meetings and trainings in vil-lages than in fancy hotels.

“Exposure to extreme poverty among young children by OVC status was relatively small and did not explain the greater malnutrition and ill-health seen in OVC” (Watts et al. 2007: 584). Meaning it’s the poor programming mechan-isms that OVC households are still in vulnerability.

OVC households complained of delays sighting disburse-ments of funds and giving them seeds when the season for planting has passed. This should be noted especially in fu-ture programming.

6.8 Sustainability for OVC households. The research findings indicate that all OVC households were not able to sustain themselves as majority depended on direct support from NGOs yet NGOs were dependent on NGO support. The current NGOs strategies are lacking the sustainable impact among OVC households. Most NGOs

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give short term support yet its insufficient to the number of OVCs in the household. With the level of vulnerability in OVC households, there is need for long term support that will contribute to reduction of persistent vulnerability exist-ing in OVC households currently.

6.9 Lessons learnt by NGOsThe respondents spelled out lessons the NGOs have learnt while employing different strategies are: NGOs excluding youth from their interventions increases vulnerability for example reproductive health issues are a major cause of vulnerability like early pregnancy leading to school dropout, then early marriage, producing many children, getting sex-ual diseases HIV/AIDS inclusive among others. Thus to avoid such future vulnerabilities leading to OVC, youth pro-grammes should be incorporated when dealing with OVC.

NGOs gave sharing reports and information, designing and implementing OVC projects, transparency and account-ability, meetings, communication strategies to be important to achieve set out objectives and for programming of OVC interventions. Another area is resource mobilization in the community especially non monetary resources through their involvement and participation.

Birth certificates are crucial for OVC and death certifi-cate for OVC households especially when the head of the family passes on, the formation of cluster best learning practices at the district level and sub county level such that organizations doing similar services should sit together to discuss issues of OVC for example child protection commit-tees.

Under family capacity building, resources of the family should be looked out first before looking at their needs, this helps in seeing the positive in the family and see the good resources the family have for example, the family struc-tures, the system in the home, the permanent house, grand-parents that can counsel the young ones, then identify what is lacking to make the family stable. Another lesson is that singling a child on his own as OVC is stigmatizing.

The lessons SOS has learnt while employing the strate-gies is that direct service if can be avoided is better be-cause it creates dependency. Also NGOs should work to supplement government efforts for example, government health care centres can be enhanced by putting up genera-tors to provide power at the health centres or motivating teachers in Universal Primary Education (UPE) than paying for OVCs in private schools.

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The lessons Save the Children has learnt while employ-ing the strategies is that working closely with district offi-cials, NGOs enhances delivery of services. Sharing work plans, achievements, makes referral and coordination eas-ier. Support supervision improves coordination, partnership and referral of OVC for holistic service delivery.

In conclusion these arguments seem to suggest that there is a correlation between government loopholes in so-cial protection of OVC households that relates to the vulner-ability of these households.

6.10 ConclusionThe study highlight that the problem of vulnerability among OVC households and lack of sustainability plans will con-tinue to aggravate amongst the Uganda households in car-ing for OVC if NGOs strategies in enhancing child-wellbeing amongst OVC households do not change. It will, however take time, money and a combined effort for many stakehold-ers including the Donor community, Government, and NGOs.

This paper suggests that there is need to re-strategize and involve all stakeholders and look at the OVC house-hold’s strength, build on it to improve the designing of in-terventions and mechanisms for OVC households. Different OVC categories and their conditions should be considered in determining the strategies to use. Revision of micro credit strategy to be less burdensome to the critical vulner-able household like Child headed households and those headed by elderly caregivers to enable them access micro credit loans to reduce their vulnerability or else the grand-parent and child headed households are likely to stay in persistent vulnerability as they have few if any able pro-ductive members that contribute.

The level of their vulnerability is situated in their efforts to support their own households and the type of support they receive from the support circles like extended family. The nature of vulnerability should be important in program-ming such that right strategies are used correctly to ad-dress the challenge of poverty that is increasing vulnerabil-ity in OVC households.

The paper shows that supporting community projects started by NGOs such as community clinics, stopping land grabbing of OVC, Community should be supported to care for OVC households and institutionalization should be the last resort for OVC support. There is need for sensitizing local leaders in child protection issues, taking precaution in using the political leaders in interventions as they end up

53

targeting the wrong households of OVC. Donor should work in partnership with government and stop demanding NGOs to reach large numbers of OVC no matter the impact. Re-strategizing the giving of direct support to households will empower vulnerable individuals and enable them to take control of their lives.

The study highlighted need for understanding between donors and NGOs to come up with action on the issue of quality and targeted numbers to increase child- wellbeing and address donor driven agendas. The debate indicate how NGOs strategies are designed out of context but represent-ing the Donor priorities and interests than meeting specific needs.

NGOs working in coordination with others and using the available government standards and frameworks for inte-grated and comprehensive OVC support. The strategies need to pay attention to the condition and category of households but also form partnerships for continuum of care in OVC service delivery. The community and the family as a unit of care need to be strengthened and supported in collaboration with all social networks and also bring on board the state than a single intervention done by NGOs.

The government should be more strict in monitoring NGOs activities to ensure there is no duplication in service delivery and be able to measure their impact on the commu-nities right from grassroots (community level) in doing so, family structures will be strengthened and the level of vul-nerability in OVC households will reduce and children’s wellbeing will be enhanced.

It’s not the inability of OVC households but spending more than they bring in as incomes brought by the loss of active members of their households that persistent vulnera-bility continues to exist. It’s the poor programming and in-correct strategies that persistent vulnerability is still rooted in OVC households irrespective of the NGOs effort. The un-derstanding of supported OVC household’s context and con-ditions will transform and reduce persistent vulnerability to enhance child-wellbeing.

The study therefore is benefit to Government, NGOs, Development partners and private sector organizations in-volved in the enhancement of child-wellbeing in OVC house-holds in Uganda. The analysis of NGOs strategies for child- wellbeing in the OVC households will be useful to the policy makers as a case study for; Ministry of Finance and Eco-nomic Planning (MFPED), Ministry of Local Governments (MLG), and Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Develop-ment (MGLSD), both international and indigenous NGOs,

54

and private sectors as well. The study gives up-to date liter-ature for students in the specific field of Development Stud-ies, and other broad sectors of humanities and social sci-ence studies.

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Appendices

Appendix 1. List of Organisation in the study

1. Save the children in Uganda2. World Vision international Uganda3. Action for children4. SOS children’s village Wakiso5. Health Child6. Uganda Rural orphans development programme7. Uganda Child Rights NGO Network8. Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Develop-

ment(OVC secretariat)

Appendix 2. Three selected NGOs illustrating com-mon NGOs activities and programmes.

World Vision International Uganda - community care system. World Vision Uganda (WVU) has had good success with

Community OVC Care Coalitions (COCC) in Luwero and Masaka districts. Over the last few years, WVU's Kaswa and Kasangombe Community OVC Care Projects formed OVC Care Coalitions composed of all existing OVC care groups and organizations in each sub-county in the dis-tricts. Each coalition identifies monitors, assists and pro-tects the most vulnerable children and provides or links them to services essential for the wellbeing and growth of the child. COCCs provide help in primary education, food security, participation in income-generation schemes, AIDS prevention and care, life skills training, psychosocial sup-port and advocacy to OVCs, their families and communities.

A standard minimum basic package is assured every OVC groups coordinate better and uses resources more effi-ciently. Scaling up was achieved quickly, and services now have a better chance of being sustained. Lessons learned: COCCs increase community collaboration and unity; they bring together different people to work on a shared crisis. More communities have embraced the OVC issues as a com-munal rather than an individual family's problem. Through appreciative inquiry, communities have realized that they have the potential to resolve difficult issues around them. Recommendations: To increase level of involvement and

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commitment, more time must be devoted to the mobiliza-tion phase. Social events can be added to the OVCs' calen-dar: sports, drama and other forms of entertainment. COCCs can be trained to do better in service delivery, and local resource mobilization. This has been even presented at conferences as best practices(Raskin et al. 1996). A study on OVC community responses in Northern Uganda showed that the community is under severe pressure from a range of factors; but community initiatives are not col-lapsing – as the ‘social rupture’ thesis predicts. Instead, they are dynamic and constantly evolving through various mechanisms to respond to the challenges of meeting the needs of the orphans ((Harvey 2004b) .This shows how community still is still socially resilient that if supported OVC vulnerability will reduce and child-wellbeing en-hanced.

SOS Children’s Village Wakiso - Institutionalisa-tion.

SOS children’s village Wakiso works in four areas/re-gions that are Fort Portal in Western Uganda, Gulu in Northern Uganda, Kakiri and Entebbe in Central Uganda. The SOS s objective is to see a child growing in a family en-vironment and capable of making decisions that will shape his community. The types of OVC they target are children who have lost parental care and children about to lose parental care (short term care). In this, they target or-phans, abandoned OVCs, abused OVCs and children about to lose care. The strategies that SOS uses to reach out to OVC households are established children homes or villages, micro credit loans and community training and awareness. The children villages care for the children who have lost parental care and the family based care programme is a residential care for children who have lost any care. It’s a long term resettlement programme. The kind of service they offer to OVC households and OVCs in those areas are resettlement, psychosocial counseling, education support, housing support, income generation, advocacy, medical care and providing a home/village to children. Carry out ca-pacity building for the entire community, Education centres like kindergarten, primary and secondary which is open to the community at a cost. Housing or residential care, each household has 10 children aged 0-13 years manned by a hired mother with a family budget and the 14 years and above youth who reside at home, have youth leaders. Medi-cal care and nutrition is for all children in the residential

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care programme and also open to the community at a fee. The youth leaders are professionals who provide career guidance and other social work. Each youth leader manages 12 youth. SOS also runs the family strengthening pro-gramme that is for children with parents, SOS develops a child development plan which runs for 3 years working with the family, so it monitors the level of support to the family for example, first year its 100%, second year 60% and third year 10%, so it’s a phase out progressive family plan aiming at building the capacity of the family to be self reliant such that families are able to grow and be able to support their children. The community trainings and awareness target the whole community than family level support to have ben-efits.

SOS uses different approaches, working with other agencies to meet the holistic nature of needs for example; they handle the legal needs through police, probation of-fices and Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA). Health through government health centre II and Marie Stopes and education through ministry of Education, Compassion Inter-national and sourcing for bursaries in schools such as Hill Side Academy, Kitende, and Gayaza They also network with micro finance organizations such as FAD to provide households with loans, to prevent children from losing parental care. This is evidence enough to show that it’s not a binary model that all NGOs believe in one theory. Even though SOS believes in social rupture thesis, through their experience they have learnt that community strengthening is the way in reducing vulnerability than institutionalism which is short term rescue method.

Save the Children Uganda and partnerships with government.

Save the children operates in more than 10 districts in Uganda (8 zones) where credible organizations put in a bid. Save the children as the Technical Service Organization (TSO) selects the organizations it will partner with in the various districts (Kampala, Mpigi, Wakiso/Entebbe Munici-pality, Kiboga, Mubende, Mityana, Nakasenke, Luwero, Nakasongola, Masaka/Municipality, Kalangala, Rakai and Ssembabule. The type of OVC, Save the children targets is a cross section of all categories, they do not discriminate. They believe that not all orphans are vulnerable and not all vulnerable children are orphans. They look at street chil-

58

dren, children affected and infected by HIV/AIDS, children with disability, children in contact with the law, children in need of alternative care, OVCs in hard to reach areas such as barracks, islands and mountainous areas. The objectives of Save the Children are enhancing the capacity of local governments to plan and manage, enhancing condition of OVC programmes at local government level, monitoring and evaluation of data collection to improve planning and re-source mobilization.

The kind of services offered to OVC households and OVC in particular include education support, advocacy, health and nutrition, child protection, child rights and governance, HIV and AIDS, livelihoods and food security. The above ser-vices are meant to fight children’s rights, deliver immediate and lasting change, emergency, recovery and development setting. Their Vision is to see every Ugandan child attains the right to survival, protection, development and participa-tion. Save the children strategic framework is designed to ensure that all children in Uganda realize their rights to be safe, educated and healthy. Their strategy is to look at chil-dren directly and indirectly through partnerships.

Save the children determines OVC needs by using the guide of Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development (MGLSD) which provides steps on how to engage in OVC activities. They guide service providers and districts on OVC need for example, the mapping guide – community mapping to strengthen programming for orphans and other vulnerable children. This guide helps on understanding the orphans and other vulnerable children, planning and pre-paring community mapping for OVCs, identification of vul-nerabilities, the services and resources that are used, ac-tions and recommendations, data, follow up activities and reports. Save the children also uses the National Strategic Programme Plan of Intervention (NSPPI), Nation Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children Policy (NOP) and Public Pri-vate Partnership (PPP)- a strategy of how government can help Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in supplementing the government services. This is enhanced by TSOs (like Save the Children) where district offices and CSOs meet to-gether in meetings, share reports, achievements and the TSO’s work is to foster this communication (PPP). The OVC needs are determined by consulting community based lead-ers. They have directorate services in each district they work with handle issues of children and the OVC work itself cuts across several disciplines. OVC needs are diverse so through partners, they implement a range of activities for

59

example, livelihoods, education in Karamoja (ABEK pro-gram), and breaking barriers in Amuru district.

The factors that influence strategies that enhance child wellbeing among OVC households of Save the Children in-clude the government policies and frameworks, direct sup-port/needs of children and donor needs for example USAID determines the scope of work as the funder and decides the core areas which have to be included in the Request For Application (RFA) which will be competed for through bid-ding of organizations who design projects to meet the nec-essary services for OVCs. Service delivery is targeted by districts that are underserviced due to limited resources. Save The Children as a TSO, supports the organization and carries out assessments of the organization for example, District OVC Coordination Committees (DOVCCC) in each district, the PPP which is promoting referral, partnership and collaboration which is in the end benefiting the child.

Service delivery is targeted by districts that are under-serviced due to limited resources. Save The Children as a TSO, supports the organization and carries out assessments of the organization for example, District OVC Coordination Committees (DOVCCC) in each district, the PPP which is promoting referral, partnership and collaboration which is in the end benefiting the child.

The strategy that has been effective in positively influ-encing child wellbeing among OVC is creation of coordina-tion committees; district OVC committees which make the services and needs of children are identified. The other strategy is capacity building on issues related to OVC for example quality services, entering of CSOs and Non Gov-ernmental Organizations (NGOs), training and support su-pervision. This shows that NGOs private and public partner-ships are possible to improve OVC services, reducing vul-nerability and able to enhance child-wellbeing.

Appendix 3. Interview schedule for NGOsSTRUCTURED INTERVIEWS SCHEDULE FOR

NGOSThis questionnaire is intended to solicit views from you

as an interviewee about the effectiveness of NGOs strategies in improving child- well being among OVC house-

60

holds in Uganda. I would like to thank you for honouring me with your time to answer the following few questions.

Name of organization ___________________________ Posi-tion or respondent ___________________

Date of interview: ______________________________QSN NO.

QUESTION RESPONSE COMMENT

1 How many districts of Uganda do you operate in?

1. Only one 2. Two – Five3. Six – Ten 4. Ten and above

2 What kind of services do you offer to OVC House Holds and OVCs in those areas?

1. Resettlement2. Psychosocial / counselling 3. Education support4. Housing support5. Income generating 6. Legal support / advocacy 7. Medical 8. Others __________________

(Specify)3 What type of OVC do you target? 1. Orphans only

2. Abandoned OVCs 3. OVCs in hard to reach areas4. Abused OVCs 5. Any OVC 6. OVC in former war conflict

areas. 7. Others(specify)

____________________

4 How do you determine OVC needs? 1. Conducting a baseline survey2. Consulting local leaders 3. Influenced by the donor 4. Management decides 5. Others (Specify)

………………………

5 What are the factors that influ-ence your strategies in enhan-cing child-wellbeing among OVC households?

1. Direct support 2. Micro credit 3. Institutional establishment 4. Environment 5. Government policy6. Donor needs7. Others(specify):

_________________

6 What strategies does your or-ganization use to reach out to OVC households?

1. Direct support 2. Loans 3. Community projects4. Established children

homes5. Government policies

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6. Others(Specify) ____________________

7 Which of these strategies have been effective in positively influencing child wellbeing among OVC house-holds?

State them.

8 Do OVC households have the power to make their own de-cisions on what kind of service to be given to them or it’s the service provider who decides?

1. Yes 2. No3. Some how4. Service provider decides5. Not sure

9 How do you finance your activities? 1. Through fundraising 2. Proposal writing 3. Government aid 4. Through starting up projects

10 What objectives do you target to achieve through those strategies?

1. __________________________2. __________________________3. __________________________4. __________________________5. __________________________6. __________________________

11 What lessons have you learnt while employing those strategies?

1. __________________________2. __________________________3. __________________________4. __________________________5. __________________________6. __________________________

12 What are the constraints that affect achievement of object-ives given the strategies ap-plied?

1. Meeting donor requirements2. Government policies 3. Extended families 4. Financial constrains 5. Others (Specify)

_____________________________ ___________________________________________________________

______________________________

13 Is there anything else you would want us discuss?

Thank you for your time.

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Appendix 4. Semi structured questionnaire for households

STRUCTURED QUESTIONNAIRE FOR OVC HOUSEHOLDS.

The purpose of this questionnaire is to solicit informa-tion from you as a beneficiary of NGO support to analyze the extent to which NGO strategies are effective in enhanc-ing child-wellbeing among OVC households in Uganda.

OVC vulnerability has persisted in OVC households in Uganda irrespective of NGO support the research seeks to know why?

Code _______Date of interview ________________Community where

the data was collected: ___________________

Qsn No

Question Response Comment

1 Who is the head of this household? 1. Female headed house-hold

2. Male headed house-hold

3. Child headed house-hold

2 Age of respondent 1. 18 below2. 19-303. 31-504. 51-705. 71 and above

3 Sex of respondent 1. Female2. Male

4 What is your highest level of edu-cation?

1. Adult Education2. Primary education3. Secondary Education4. Post Secondary edu-

cation5. No formal education

5 How many children below 18 do you take care of in your house-hold?

1. 1-32. 4-6

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3. 7-104. 11 and above

6 How many of those are OVCs 1. None 2. All3. Only one4. 2-55. 6-10

7 What is the main source of income for your household?

1. Farming2. Wage employment3. Small scale Business4. Other (specify)

……………

8 What is the average income level (per month) for your household?

1. 50,000/= and below 2. 100,000- 150,000/=3. 160,000- 250,000/=4. 300,000- 490,000/=5. Above 500,000/= &

above

9 Are you registered under any NGO in your community?

1. Yes 2. No

10 If yes have you ever received any financial support from this NGO?

1. Yes2. No If no skip to 14

11 If yes what type of support did you receive from this NGO?

1. Direct support to your household

2. Micro credit loan3. Through community

projects4. Institutional care for

the children5. Other (Specify)

……………

11 Were you consulted on the type of support to be given to you by the NGO?

1. Yes 2. No

12 If yes, did you receive the type of support you suggested?

1. Yes 2. No

13 How did you use the support given to you?

1. Paid school fees2. Renovated our house3. Started up a small

business

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4. Used it for medication of the children/adults

5. Paid off my debts 6. House rent 7. Others

(Specify) ...................................

14 Apart from financial support what other services have these NGOs provided to your community to en-hance the wellbeing of the chil-dren in your community?

1. Psychosocial support 2. Advocacy 3. Legal support4. Shelter5. Trainings 6. Others

(specify)....................................

15 What other services do you feel they should provide to the com-munities that are missing.

16 In your opinion how effective are NGO strategies in enhancing child-wellbeing in your area?

1. Not effective at all2. Some how 3. Very effective 4. Sometimes they are

and sometimes they are not.

5. Not all

16 In your opinion what could be the factors hindering NGO efforts in enhancing child-wellbeing in this area?

17 What recommendations do you

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give NGOs to enhance child- well-being in your area?

PLEASE THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR COOPERATION AND YOUR VALUABLE TIME

Appendix 5.Key informants guideINTERVIEW GUIDE FOR KEY INFORMANTS

This questionnaire is intended to solicit views from you as a key informant about the effectiveness of NGOs strategies in enhancing child-wellbeing among of OVC households in Uganda. I would like to thank you for honour-ing me with your time to answer the following few ques-tions.

1. Name of institution represented: ____________________________________ Date ________________

2. Position of respondent in the institution: ______________________________

3. As an institution what would you want to see NGOs do in enhancing child-wellbeing among OVC households in Uganda?

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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4. Do you think NGO’s interventions have been effective in addressing OVC challenges?

(1. Yes 2. No 3. Some how 4. Not sure )

5. What strategies do you use to ensure NGOs enhance child-wellbeing among OVC households in Uganda?

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6. How many NGOs are working on OVC situations in Uganda? ________________________________

7. Do you think there are some NGOs which operate without fully registering? (1. Yes 2. No )

8. What role does this secretariat play in coordinating with NGO activities in Uganda

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9. What achievements have you registered in enhancing OVC activities among NGOs working with OVC house-holds?

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10. What are some of the limitations/constraints you have faced in ensuring the above?

67

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

11. In your own opinion what are some of the factors hindering NGOs in enhancing child wellbeing among OVC households in Uganda?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

12. What are your recommendations to NGOs to enhance child-wellbeing among OVC households in Uganda?_________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

13. Is there anything else you would want us discuss

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Please thank you so much for your cooperation and your valuable time.

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Appendix 6. Predetermined questions for FGD

FOCUS GROUP PREDETERMINED QUESTIONS The overall objective of this research is to address the

question of ‘’to what extent are NGO strategies effective in enhancing child-wellbeing among OVC households in Uganda.’’ 1. What do you like about NGOs in enhancing child-wellbe-

ing among OVC households in Uganda?

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. With regard to the statements above, what should be improved?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. What do you think are some of the major NGO strate-gies employed in supporting OVC households?

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________4. With regard to the statements above, In what ways do

they enhance child wellbeing in Uganda?

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. What strategies do you know that are successfully used by NGOs to enhance child-wellbeing among OVC house-holds in Uganda?

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6. What do you think are the NGO perceptions of OVC households?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________7. And how does it inform their programming for OVC

households?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________8. What lessons have you learnt while employing these

strategies yourself?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________9. As implementers what do you think are some of the lim-

itations/constraints faced in ensuring the above?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________10. Do you think NGOs interventions have been effective in

addressing OVC challenges?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________11. Is there anything else you would want to recommend to

NGOs in enhancing child well-being in Uganda

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thank you all for your response.

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