Policy and Strategy Study of Social Development Services Centers

Social Development Services Centers (SDSCs) are social services providers operating under the mandate of the Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA) to restructure its agencies, including SDSCs. The role of the centers and their impact on the communities they serve had to be is evaluated accordingly. Evaluation covered the operational, institutional and relational aspects of the services provided by the centers.

The objective of the study carried out by TEAM International was to: 1) Assess the current supply of, and demand for, the services covered by SDSCs in the communities they serve, 2) Audit the operations of SDSCs and their relations with supervising agencies and implementing partners, 3) Make clear recommendations as to the future deployment, outreach, organization and supervision of SDSCs 4) Provide a detailed methodology to extrapolate the study later on by MoSA.

The study considered a representative sample of 30 SDSCs (20 rural and 10 sub-urban) in accordance with the TOR. It consists of two phases:

–   A pilot study covering 5 SDSCs considered representative of the diversity of situations, and the communities and target groups served by the 5 SDSCs. The purpose of this study was to: 1) Test the hypothesis regarding the SDSCs, 2) Test the methodology developed in this regard, and 3) Identify key issues to be addressed with the extended sample of 25 other SDSCs.

–   A wider study of the larger sample of 25 SDSCs was carried out based on the findings of the previous study in order to formulate recommendations on future role of the centers as to strategic social development versus social service delivery.