World Education Inc. (WEI)/Bantwana Initiative implements Pamoja Tuwalee in the Northern Zone. Pamoja Tuwalee is a five-year cooperative agreement that aims to improve the physical, psychosocial, and economic well-being of MVC and their households. The program will meet its goals by increasing access to and utilization of care and support services to 100,000 vulnerable children; strengthening human and organizational capacity of local structures to care for OVC; and increasing community awareness of, including having child participation in, advocacy efforts to promote social protection of targeted children.

The program is implemented in collaboration with the local government and aligned with national program, policy, and frameworks, as well as the first goal in the PF that relates to service maintenance and scale-up. Coordination with LGAs is central to the WEI strategy, which advocates to LGAs on the importance of providing human and financial resource support to MVC in their communities and works with them in planning and implementing activities to ensure local ownership. Capacity building of local partners further supports sustainability.

WEI adopts financial control policies that ensure efficiency and necessity of all program expenses. It also actively seeks collaboration with other stakeholders to leverage knowledge, materials, and resources. WEI uses a web-based M&E system to track services to beneficiaries and other performance indicators. Additionally, M&E training is conducted to build partner capacity in data collection, use of monitoring tools and practices, and reporting. Community-based trainers will be trained to verify monitoring activities at the partner level.

WEI is an international organization that has been implementing OVC programs throughout Eastern and Southern Africa for several years through its Bantwana Initiative. USG/T provided WEI, which is new to Tanzania, with a cooperative agreement to implement Pamoja Tuwalee based on the successes of the Bantwana Initiative throughout the region. The goal of WEI/Pamoja Tuwalee is to improve the physical, psychosocial, and economic well being of most vulnerable children (MVC). The program supports the PEPFAR OVC priorities related to strengthening community-level safety nets by emphasizing coordination with and capacity building of community structures that offer efficient and sustainable care, protection, and support to children and their households.

WEI works to strengthen local civil society to improve organizational effectiveness and technical capacities. Establishment of most vulnerable childrens committees (MVCC) to mobilize and coordinate services for vulnerable households is another critical activity that WEI supports. In addition, a school-based model for service delivery, which involves building the capacity of school communities (i.e., teachers and school committees and boards), and conducting school-based health assessments are implemented. The school-based approach is modeled on WEIs successful intervention in Swaziland where 37 schools were mobilized and actively supported MVC in their community, leading to improved access to primary healthcare and referrals, livelihoods, child protection, nutrition, HIV- prevention, and PSS.

Current guidance on OVC programming emphasizes the need for more sustainable approaches. A critical priority in FY 2012 will be to improve the quality of service delivery by supporting service providers to implement more sustainable strategies than those under PEPFAR I, which mainly focused on emergency service provision. This includes adopting a household-focused approach that emphasizes integration of economic strengthening and livelihood activities to reinforce families long-term caring capacities. WEIs expertise in strengthening household capacity to care for MVC will be leveraged to support partners in shifting from a focus on procurement and distribution to a more qualitative, comprehensive model of MVC care and support. Target populations include vulnerable children and their households, civil society organizations, teachers, MVCCs, LGAs, and local leaders.

WEI will also pilot resources and interventions from other countries in the region where Bantwana Initiative operates. For example, WEI anticipates adapting and developing a child protection booklet successfully used in Uganda, which relies on child participation through kids clubs and child advisory committees and can be used as a tool for educating and exploring issues of protection with children. To promote integration of services, WEI also plans to implement a referral system originally developed in Zimbabwe, which includes a service provider directory that enables WEI/Bantwana partners, teachers and community -based counselors to refer children to local service providers. Through these program innovations, WEI will contribute to the evidence-base of successful models for OVC care and protection in Tanzania.