Selection Process

DGASPCs (General Directorate of Social Assistance and Child Protection), federations and NGOs were invited to recommend services models aimed at preventing the separation of the child from the family, based on the information held about their demonstrated impact at local or national level. The recommendations were submitted by completing Form 1 for Model Identification.

The initiators of the services and activities recommended by Form 1 were contacted and invited to submit additional information on the practices, by completing Form 2 (Service/intervention form). The following categories of information were requested: general data, description of the service/intervention (context, activities, budget, human resources, material resources); service/intervention approach; expected and obtained results; service/intervention evaluations; service/intervention sustainability and replication potential; dissemination of results and lessons learned; self-assessment of the fulfilment of the six evaluation criteria proposed through the methodology.

First, a conformity assessment was performed by the World Bank team, where the models – for which the information required in Form 2 existed – were selected. Then, each service/intervention was evaluated by two or three sector experts (social, education, health), depending on the types of activities carried out.

The evaluation criteria were:
1. There is a correspondence between the activities and the expected results of the National Strategy on the Protection and Promotion of Children’s Rights 2014-2020.      
2. There is objective, minimal evidence of positive and tangible impact.                                          
3. It has the potential to replicate with existing local resources, in the context of rural communities in Romania.
4. The results and lessons learned were disseminated.
5a. It has at least two years of ongoing operation and there is evidence of the sustainability of the activities.
5b. If it is less than two years old, the intervention can be included in the category of innovative practices.
6. It is based on a participatory approach.

The services/interventions that obtained YES to all six criteria, from all evaluators, passed to stage 4 – validation by phone/online.

The validation by phone/online of the evaluated services/interventions comprised three steps:
1) Validation with the organization implementing the service/intervention, on the following topics: success factors, constraints, replication potential, lessons learned, service/intervention sustainability.
2) Validation with other relevant institutional actors or specialists at local level, on the following topics: dissemination, partnership and participation, impact at community level, service/intervention sustainability.
3) Validation with the persons who benefited from the service/intervention in question, on the following topics: partnership and participation, impact at community level, sustainability of the service/intervention.

If data collected during the validation stage confirmed the information in the documents used for the evaluation and if the beneficiaries validated the service/intervention (considering that their voices are heard and their needs are satisfactorily addressed), then the practice was selected as a model and was included in the “Handbook of alternative models for the development of the activity to prevent child separation from the family” and on the website www.comunitate.copii.ro.

For more details on the selection process, please check the Methodology chapter available in the “Handbook of alternative models for the development of the activity to prevent child separation from the family”.