Data and Monitoring Tools

Monitoring and research are essential processes in ensuring the relevance and effectiveness of programs, and the scope and type of service provision. They are integral components of analysis, strategic planning, and implementation for government and non-governmental organisations seeking to effect change, support or provide services.

Monitoring is an on-going process of gathering information e.g. statistics and tracking inputs and outputs, enabling the evaluation of what is working, and providing a mechanism for accountability. Combined with research, it facilitates the planning of improved resource allocation and service delivery. Research and monitoring can also help raise awareness of the gravity of a situation, both nationally and internationally. It should help convince those who are putting time, energy and money into supporting programmes that their efforts are worthwhile and should be continued.

Results of monitoring and evaluation should be fed directly back into programmes to correct weaknesses and improve performance. The outcomes of research and monitoring should also help improve child care policies. Results can be used to inform future programme design, prompting a decision to replicate an effective intervention in other areas or to discontinue an intervention because it is expensive and not making any beneficial changes.

The literature in this section provides statistical data on vulnerable children from a wide range of sources, as well as guidance and examples of data collection, indicators, analysis, and research methods regarding issues relating to vulnerable children.

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Children and Youth in Care - Hotel Placements

Ministry of Children and Family Development, British Columbia, Canada, 02 Jun 2016

This special report from the Ministry of Children and Family Development in British Columbia, Canada presents findings on the number of children in care in the province who were sent to stay in hotels.

Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) data for Fiscal Year 2015

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Children's Bureau, 01 Jun 2016

This report provides preliminary estimates of U.S. Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) data for Fiscal Year 2015.

Global Social Welfare Volume 3, Issue 2: Special Issue on Measuring Better Care

Global Social Welfare, 01 Jun 2016

This special issue of the Journal of Global Social Welfare grew out of a 2014 symposium co-hosted by the Better Care Network and the

Household Vulnerability Assessment Tool (HVAT)

AVSI & FHI 360, 26 May 2016

The Household Vulnerability Assessment tool (HVAT) is for assessment of families selected through the vulnerability prioritization process. This adapted tool helps to obtain in-depth baseline information about a family’s level of vulnerability to family-child separation, which will be used for monitoring progression of FARE beneficiary families’ vulnerability to family-child separation.

Demographic Profile of Children aged 0-17 in Zambia

Zambia Central Statistical Office , 04 May 2016

This presentation from Zambia's Central Statistical Office, given at the Zambia National Consultation to Accelerate Care Reform, provides data on children in Zambia, including the legal definition of a child, how many are living in Zambia, where they live, and their living arrangements.

Who Cares for Children? A Descriptive Study of Care-Related Data Available Through Global Household Surveys and How These Could Be Better Mined to Inform Policies and Services to Strengthen Family Care

Florence Martin & Garazi Zulaika - Global Social Welfare, 29 Apr 2016

This paper offers an analysis on orphanhood and living arrangements data based on available DHS and MICS surveys from 77 countries from sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, North Africa/West Asia/and Europe, Central Asia, and South and Southeast Asia.

Measuring Better Care: Building the Evidence to Inform Policy and Practice Around Children’s Care

Mark Canavera & Florence Martin - Global Social Welfare, 26 Apr 2016

This editorial piece from the Journal of Global Social Welfare introduces the journal's special issue on measuring children’s care arrangements.

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Measuring Children’s Care Arrangements and Their Educational and Health Outcomes Internationally

Mindy E. Scott & Elizabeth Karberg - Global Social Welfare, 19 Apr 2016

Given the importance of children’s care arrangements for their development, this essay summarizes efforts to measure trends in children’s care arrangements in two regions of the world—Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

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Determinants and Consequences of Children Living Outside of Parental Care in Lao People’s Democratic Republic: Views and Experiences of Adults and Young People in Family and Residential Care

Mónica Ruiz-Casares, Saithong Phommavong - Global Social Welfare, 16 Apr 2016

This study explores the determinants of child-parent separation and the consequences of existing alternative care arrangements from the perspectives of adults and young people in Laos.

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A Forgotten Population: Estimating the Number of Children Outside of Households in Cambodia

Beth L. Rubenstein, Lindsay Stark - Global Social Welfare, 14 Apr 2016

This manuscript reviews the issues facing children outside of households and argues for the importance of gathering robust data about this population to formulate responsive policies and services, mobilize resources, and foster accountability.

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