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Child Status Index
Organization:
MEASURE Evaluation
Topics: Coordination of OVC care, Orphans and vulnerable children, OVC services
Partners:
Duke University
Year:
2009 Description:
The Child Status Index (with its accompanying Child Status Record) is a tool that can be helpful in assessing and tracking priority services a vulnerable child needs. Equally useful for initial assessment and follow-up monitoring, the tool focuses on essential actions and is flexible enough that users can adapt criteria to the local context. Data from the Child Status Index and community mapping of services can be used together to inform coordination of care.
Developed by MEASURE Evaluation and Duke University with PEPFAR and USAID support, the Child Status Index (CSI) is based on six domains with 12 measurable goals related to the six core services that, taken together, approximate a standard for overall child health and well-being. The CSI measures attainment of goals in six domains of care: food and nutrition; shelter and care; protection; health; psychosocial; and education and skills. The index includes a four-point scale for each goal so that the child’s well-being can be assessed as good, fair, bad, or very bad. A pictorial version of the index facilitates use with illiterate care providers.
The goals themselves, as well as the rating guidance, are phrased in ways that allow for some local variation, yet the measures are still meaningful and specific. The accompanying Child Status Record, which records status over time, indicates services received and identifies critical events that have occurred in the life of the child.
