Case Study

Social Impact Assessments

SOS Children's Villages International

Social Impact Assessments

Bosnia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Swaziland

Variable

The Brief

Having previously constituted to the development of SOS CVI’s social impact model and pilot study in Ethiopia and Swaziland, the Research Base was commissioned to deliver separate social impact assessments of its Children’s Villages in Tanzania (Zanzibar), Bosnia, Hungary and Bulgaria, including assessment of its Family-Based Care (FBC) and Family Strengthening  (FS) programmes. The FBC programme provides care for children no longer under their own parents’ care within a family-like environment, where trained ‘mothers’ and ‘aunts’ provide care within the Children’s Village setting. The FS programme assists families and communities in order to prevent further abandonment through interventions such as childcare, education and training, and counselling.

Project Approach

Our approach was guided by SOS CVI’s predefined evaluation model that comprised a series of indicators to assess:

     •     Individual-level impact on programme participants

     •     Community-level impact

     •     Social return on investment (SROI)

     •     Additional insights into relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability based on the OECD-DAC REEIS model

Primary data was collected through field interviews with former FBC and FS programme participants, conducted by locally recruited researchers who received additional training from The Research Base, as well as interviews with FBC and FS programme staff, community-based organisations and local government representatives; all of which were conducted by Research Base team members. A virtual ‘control group’ was developed by using secondary data sources, using official government data and international sources such as the World Bank.

Impact

The client identified a number of reasons for commissioning the social impact assessments: organisational learning on the impact and outcomes of its work, demonstrating value to current and future donors, and remaining accountable to the children, families and other stakeholders with whom they work. The final report presented to the client sought to meet all three of these objectives by drawing evidence-based findings from a thorough analysis of primary and secondary data and establishing relevant and achievable recommendations to further improve organisational capacity, working relations with other stakeholders and overall programme delivery.