Our strategic choices

The strategic review conducted in 2013 led to the redefinition of the organisation’s strategic objectives and the decision to develop a limited number of increasingly evidence-based core interventions to achieve them, aligning our programming with international quality standards. War Child’s core programming area, psychosocial support, will be integrated into all core interventions, taking into account the lessons learnt from the evaluation study of the psychosocial life skills methodology, I DEAL, in 2013, as well as lessons learnt from other project evaluations.

In 2013, War Child’s projects achieved good outcomes, while evaluations also identified valuable lessons to further improve our programming, replicable models, and innovative projects. We also revised and developed various new guidelines and training packages, including:

• Our psychosocial support life skills methodology, I DEAL, was reviewed based on the findings of a three-year evaluation study and input from five country programmes. We also developed and rolled-out ten ‘how to’ videos on the I DEAL exercises. More on the I DEAL evaluation can be found here.

• In cooperation with Pi Research, a Dutch institute specialised in developing evidence-based interventions for youth care and education, War Child in Lebanon explored the adaptation of the I DEAL methodology for a younger age group of 6 to 10-year-old children in emergency settings. This adaptation will be further developed, tested and finalised in 2014.

• A two-level e-Learning course was developed and launched to introduce field staff to War Child programming online.

• A training pack on Creative and Participatory Facilitation was tested in two countries (DR Congo and Burundi), and finalised.

• Guidelines for the Identification, Referral and Support of Children in Need of Additional Psychosocial Support (ISR Guidelines) were developed and finalised and are already in use in three countries (oPt, Lebanon and Afghanistan). The guidelines are a necessary addition to develop more extensive psychosocial support programming for children in conflict areas. Accompanied by a training pack, they will enable field workers to develop their skills to provide tailored psychosocial support and refer children to specialist organisations where necessary.

• A Child Friendly Space package was developed based on interagency guidelines and training.

War Child has already started developing a version of the I DEAL methodology for use in emergency response situations. This methodology will be rolled out in 2014. War Child will be developing a new results framework in order to report against our strategic objectives. The strategy review process highlighted once more that replicable, standard models would allow for the better implementation, monitoring and evaluation of projects. To this end, War Child will develop six core interventions between 2014 and 2016 to support the implementation of quality programming. As War Child aims to work closer to conflict, developing or adapting our interventions to emergency settings will be key.

Added to My report add to My report