Development Ratings

UK and Ghana staff have put in place a monthly reporting system to help AfriKids UK and Ghana manage the complex range of operations. The system collects the most suitable performance indicators for each project as a matter of best practice management, recording results and achievements. Consequently, AfriKids Ghana has the capacity in place to determine how projects are progressing and to spot problem areas when they occur. It is therefore already operating practices that will stand it in good stead when it becomes independent. All programmes have budgets with objectives and outputs linked to overall charity goals. Information recorded includes, for instance, attendance in school, the number of field worker visits to beneficiaries at their vocational training centres and with their families, progress with repaying loans, etc. The system might seem relatively time-consuming but the benefit is in having a clear picture of activities, responsibilities and outputs. The task for local staff is to optimise time spent in the field but still allocate sufficient time to record data and results. A full beneficiary database is being put in place.

AfriKids counts the number of direct or primary beneficiaries of projects as well as the indirect secondary family and community members affected by the programmes. It does not include the wider community benefitted from awareness raising or behavioural change. In this region, there may be up to 10 members in each household.

• Operation Fresh Start: Over 16,000 beneficiaries at a cost of £7.46/beneficiary;

• Operation Sirigu: Over 15,000 beneficiaries at a cost of £7.33/beneficiary;

• AfriKids Medical Centre: 40,000 patients treated;

• Operation Zuarungu: Over 15,000 beneficiaries at a cost of £4.26/beneficiary. Due to income generating support and NHIS registration, families now provide their children’s school lunches and uniforms. In 2007, the first families began providing school fees in the form of goat sales at market;

• Operation Mango Tree: 290 children cared for over a year at a cost of £147.27/child/year;

• Operation Sunlight: 742 children were rescued from or prevented from entering the gold mines in 2007 resulting in over 7,000 family beneficiaries of alternative income generating activities, schooling or training at a cost of £8.61/beneficiary;