USAID Program Assistance to Russian Orphans: estimation of budget and socio-economic costs and effects in long-term outlook

Project Manager: Андреева Елена Игоревна  

Project realizes in the collaboration with the experts of the World Bank Project realizes in Tomsk oblast within the framework of Assistance to Russian Orphans Program (ARO) supported by the USAID. The primary focus of the ARO activity is to promote community-based, family-centered services that will improve the current situation of the Russian orphans. (From the USAID Projects Profile, 2001)

In the previous stage ARO assisted Administration of the Tomsk oblast in development of the regional system towards prevention of child abandonment and promotion family-based system as alternative to child institutionalization. Results of these activities include the number of laws accepted by the State Duma of Tomsk oblast and directed towards supporting family-based system, and adoption of the Governor’s program on scaling up the project’s achievements.

The CFP enters the program with the purpose to estimate expenditures, necessary for the incorporation of the alternative services into the social protection system and economic effect of this innovation in the long-run outlook. Alternative services to be estimated include:

• Placement orphans in families vs. their institutionalization;

• Consulting and physiological assistance to families at risk;

• Introduction of best practices in management of social rehabilitation centers;

• Creation of social system for support to families at risk;

• Measures of bringing children from families at risk back to school.

Questions to be answered are “What’s the cost of a service?”, “From what budget it must be paid for?”, “On how much will be reduced the expenditures of the regional budget on social protection?” The CFP and the World Bank experts will develop methodology of cost estimation and socio-economic effect evaluation of introducing alternative services to answer these questions. The methodology will be then tested in Tomsk oblast, and the results will be put together in the CFP’s report and presented on the completion conference.