Transcript Document

Using data to inform policies:
Reducing Poverty by Supporting Caregivers,
People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWA) and
Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC)
February 10, 2006
Candace Miller, Sc.D. MHS
Fundamental Principles of Statistics…
“Official statistics provide an indispensable element of
the information system … serving the government, the
economy, and the public with data about the economic,
demographic, social and environmental situation.”
United Nations Statistics Division, http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/statorg/FP-English.htm
How is data gathered at the national level?
Health surveys
Demographic Health (DHS)
Multiple Indicator Cluster (MICS)
AIDS Impact (AIS)
Behavioral Surveillance, Sexual Behavior (BSS,
SBS)
Economic surveys
Core Welfare Indicators Questionnaire (CWIQ)
Income Expenditure Household (IEHS)
Living Standard Measurement Survey (LSMS)
Find surveys at http://www.measuredhs.com/hivdata/ & http://www4.worldbank.org/afr/poverty/databank/survnav/default.cfm
What data is gathered
Health Surveys
Panel (age, gender,
education)
Relation to household
head
Parental survivorship 0-14
Housing characteristics
and asset ownership
Nutritional status (0-4 and
15-49 year olds)
HIV prevalence (New!)
Care indicators (New!)
Economic surveys
Household questionnaire
Community questionnaire
on available resources,
social capital etc.
Indicators of usage,
satisfaction with public
services
Income and expenditure
data
Additional modules
(impact of HIV/AIDS)
New Care and Support Indicators
External support for chronically ill persons
Medical, emotional, material, and social support
External support for orphan and vulnerable
children care
Medical, emotional, material, social and school related
assistance
UNAIDS, et. al. Guide to monitoring and evaluation of the national response for children orphaned and made vulnerable by
HIVAIDS. 2005. http://data.unaids.org/Topics/M-E/ME_NationalResponseOVC_guide_en.pdf
Zimbabwe: Survey on Orphans and other Vulnerable
Children in Rural and Urban High Density Zimbabwe
What we know:
40% are OVC
Most children live with surviving
parent and extended families
Children’s relationship to
household head
>1 in 10 cares for chronically ill
40% receive support with OVC;
20% receive support with PLWA
Child growth failure, health care
access, schooling, psychosocial
well being and basic material
needs by OVC
What we don’t know:
What is the composition in OVC
households? How many adults &
older person households?
What is SES of affected
households? (assets vs. income)
Health, basic needs, etc. by OVC
status and by caregiver’s age,
gender and SES?
Who receives support by age,
location, gender, SES?
Is support adequate?
UNICEF, Government of Zimbabwe, November 2005
How does data inform policy and programmes?
Demographic shifts in household composition, growing
orphan population, HIV prevalence
Identifies existence of vulnerable families (e.g. growth
failure in 0-4, women 15-49; lack of assets)
However,
Data could identify vulnerable households, communities,
regions
Still,
Data does not tell us what families need to survive
Data does not tell us how families survive (coping
mechanisms)
Gaps and challenges around data limitations
Disaggregation of key indicators
Age, gender, SES (wealth vs. income)
Lack of key indicators
Care and support
Income and expenditure
Relationship with public sector; receipt of
resources
Lack of more frequent data collection in high
prevalence areas and longitudinal data
What can be done now?
Disaggregate data
Household composition in homes of OVC and PLWA
(dependency ratios, SES, # of working adults, older
person households by age and gender)
Examine rate of child growth failure, schooling, etc. for
OVC, by household (age, SES, household composition)
Use prevalence data
Identify/quantify vulnerable households (child and older
person households with OVC and PLWA)
Identify vulnerable communities
Identify vulnerable children, caregivers for PLWA
Collect / present data on all ages
Use of and problems accessing health and other public
services, frequency and presence of food, sexual activity,
Future surveys
Ideal survey
Household panel with parental survivorship for all children
HIV prevalence data on all ages (18 months+)
Caregiving and income-earning activities
Care and support indicators for OVC and PLWA
External sources of support (all types)
Income and expenditure data
Indicators of access and satisfaction with public services
Community-level indicators, such as social capital
Additional indicators of health and well-being for all
More analyses of new and existing data
With indicators of health and well being, use of,
access and satisfaction with public services, and
measures of income and support, we can better
understand needs and target policies and
assistance based on these needs at a level that
reduces poverty and reduces and prevents poor
health.
For more information contact Help Age International at http://www.helpage.org or Candace Miller at
[email protected]