With the support of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of HIV/AIDS, and the Displaced Children and Orphans Fund, FHI 360 assembled a consortium of leading organizations and experts to address the needs of vulnerable populations, especially children, under the Accelerating Strategies for Practical Innovation and Research in Economic Strengthening (ASPIRES) project.
The primary goal of the project is to support gender-sensitive programming, research and learning to improve the economic security of highly vulnerable individuals, families and children. Critical target populations served by ASPIRES include those infected or affected by HIV and AIDS, key populations at high risk of acquiring HIV and households in which children have been or are at risk of becoming separated from the families who care for them.
ASPIRES focuses on efficiently providing technical assistance to scale up high-quality interventions in consumption support, money management and income promotion. The project also focuses on the design and implementation of rigorous research to evaluate programs and inform a new understanding of best practices in economic strengthening.
Features of the ASPIRES approach include:
- Using current evidence and state-of-the-art approaches to promote scalable, high-quality programming
- Conducting research to expand the evidence base and promote innovation
- Building the capacity of national stakeholders to implement evidence-based programming and to monitor and evaluate programs
- Coordinating with funders, local and national governments, and global partners
- Integrating a gender perspective into research, tools, policy and standards recommendations, and technical assistance
Efforts under the ASPIRES project include the Economic Strengthening to Keep and Reintegrate Children into Families (ESFAM) project and the Family Resilience (FARE) project, both in Uganda.
Resources from this project include:
- Meeting the Costs of Family Care: Household Economic Strengthening to Prevent Children’s Separation and Support Reintegration - A Resource Guide
- ASPIRES Family Care Process Assessment: Cash Transfers for Family-Child Reintegration and Prevention of Separation
- ASPIRES Family Care Process Assessment: Savings Groups for Family-Child Reintegration and Prevention of Separation
- Household Economic Strengthening Interventions in Programs to Reintegrate Children in Family Care and Prevent Family-Child Separation: A Brief Report on Responses to an Online Survey
- Household Economic Strengthening in Support of Prevention of Family-Child Separation and Children’s Reintegration in Family Care
- Assessing the effects of a combined economic and social intervention in Uganda on child protection and economic outcomes
- Economic Strengthening and Keeping Children in Family Care: Uganda Learning Event Compiled Notes and Presentations
- How can group-based savings programs provide support for vulnerable families and their children?
- Can limited-term cash transfers confer (lasting) child protection benefits?
- Review of Vulnerability Assessment Methods for Reintegration and Prevention of Child Separation
- ASPIRES Family Care Qualitative Research Report
- ASPIRES Family Care Summary Research Report
Family Resilience (FARE) Project Documents:
- Accelerating Strategies for Practical Innovation and Research in Economic Strengthening (ASPIRES) 2015-2018: Family Resilience (FARE) Project End of Project Report
- Household Vulnerability Assessment Tool (HVAT)
- Uganda OVC Household Vulnerability Prioritization Tool (HVPT) – Adapted for FARE Project
- Family Resilience Reflection Note #1: Resilience
- Family Resilience Reflection Note #2: Cash Transfer
- Family Resilience Reflection Note #3: Household Development Plan
- Family Resilience Project in Uganda
- ASPIRES Family Care Family Resilience (FARE) Project: Endline Quantitative Findings Report
Economic Strengthening to Keep and Reintegrate Children into Families (ESFAM) Project Documents:
- Endline Report: Economic Strengthening to Keep and Reintegrate Children into Families (ESFAM) Project
- Economic Strengthening to Keep and Reintegrate Children into Families: Children and Youth Savings Groups – A Learning Brief
- Economic Strengthening to Keep and Reintegrate Children into Families (ESFAM): Matched Savings Accounts – A Learning Brief
- ASPIRES Family Care: Economic Strengthening Interventions to Prevent Family Separation and Support Reintegration of Children in Family Care (ESFAM) Project Endline Quantitative Findings Report