Our Strategy

Tracking the progress of Birds of a Feather programmes towards a better world for children is an important part of our work. A bird of a Feather’s Evidence & Learning Unit is to strengthen our focus on monitoring and evaluation, research and learning, and knowledge management. The Evidence and Learning team will:

• Develop, refine and share policies and guidance to support evidence building
• Prioritize and lead strategic research and evaluation that informs programming and decision making
• Disseminate knowledge and facilitate learning within the organization to influence programming outcomes
• Share evidence of programme impact through regular reports and engagement with local communities, partners and donors

Child Well-being Reports

From its very beginnings, Birds of a Feather has defined itself as a charitable organization working for the sustained well-being of Orphans and Vulnerable children. Birds of a Feather clarified its definition of child well-being including a framework of broad child well-being aspirations, each with a set of outcomes and targets. For the period Birds of a Feather has helped the OVCs, it- measures the success of its work against these targets:

• Children report an increased level of well- being (5–12 years)
• Increase in children protected from infection and disease (0–5 years)
• Increase in children who are well nourished (0–5 years)
• Increase in children who can read (by age 11 or end of primary schooling).

Annual child well-being reports analysis is carried out at the end of the year and results from standardized indicators, measured in programmes implemented to realise these targets. As a result, Birds of a Feather is able to create a report that merges findings from the beginning of the year to provide a summary account of organisational progress towards the four child well-being targets (click report cover to download).

The report is a major milestone for Birds of a Feather. It offers insight into some of Birds of a Feather’s successful programme models for achieving results in each target and reflects on challenges and priorities for meeting goals of protection, health, nutrition and education in the future. It also examines our work in disaster management and emerging evidence of the sustainability of the impact of our programming. Below are a few highlights.

Results from the previous review show that most child health conditions have consistently improved in comparison to baseline measurements. The distribution of games like the balls, provision of treatment to sick children and their parents has seen great results.

While significant progress has been made towards universal primary education, there remains a learning crisis. From the very beginning, Birds of a Feather shifted much of its focus to improving the quality of education, ensuring that orphans and vulnerable children learn to read. An approach reaping rewards in many ways as currently one orphan is at the University, three in senior secondary schools with 90% of the children at lower levels like primary and pre-primary.