Monitoring mobile populations in Uganda

Since the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005, families in northern Uganda have been, and continue to be, highly mobile as they move from internally displaced camps back to their homelands. Therefore, tracking and monitoring student beneficiaries of child labour programs that remove children from exploitative labour and place them in relevant education programs has proved to be a challenge. The Livelihoods Education and Protection project funded by the United States Department of Labor implements a two-point strategy to track and monitor students:

(1) regular follow-up of all beneficiaries (every six months); and

(2) a verification process (every term).

The follow-up process checks the progress of each student to ensure that they are receiving education, counseling and support.

The verification process involves collecting the list of beneficiaries for each targeted school, then project staff or community mobilizers go class to class to conduct a roll call. Absent students are noted and class-mates are asked about the movements of the absentees. If a child is still within the area, they are counseled to return to school. If absent students have transferred to another supported school nearby, the staff or mobilizers confirm their enrolment with the school administration – these students remain on the project register and undergo continued follow-up. If absentee students have transferred to a non-supported school, they are considered to be drop-outs from the USDOL project, however it is noted that they have not dropped out of school.

The verification process also checks and confirms beneficiaries’ age, class, school attendance, knowledge of child labor, and their knowledge of how they were selected for support, as well as conducting a check of the regional offices’ filing systems, completion of forms, and progress of child protection committees and community-based child labor monitors. Hence, the project successfully monitors the highly mobile student beneficiaries through a comprehensive and rigorous process.

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