Success Stories

Child protection refers to the protection of our children from violence, abuse, exploitation, and neglect, as enshrined in the legally binding international agreement known as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which Kenya ratified and domesticated through the Children Act of 2001 and the Kenyan constitution. The Kenyan government has developed and adopted UN-defined rights and policies which it has put into practice for the protect children. Thousands of children are still exposed to violence and abuse, neglect, sexual exploitation, emotional abuse among others. In order to effectively apply and enforce these child protection policies, children protection organizations, institutions, agencies and children protection officers working to protect children must have access to high-quality data.

According to UNICEF, about one in two young adults in Kenya experienced violence as a child based on the 2019 Violence Against Children Survey, implemented by the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection. This found that 46% of 18 to 24-year-old women faced at least one type of violence – physical, emotional or sexual during their childhood, as well as 52% of young men in the same age group. The prevalence of child marriage among girls stands at 23%.

HealthIT is a USAID funded activity whose goal is to contribute towards enhancing evidence-based decision making by all health and child protection sector stakeholders through leveraging and strengthening integrated information systems. The activity provides technical assistance to Kenya’s Directorate of Children's Services (DCS) which is the implementing arm for children's rights and services, under the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection.

Child Protection Information Management System (CPIMS) is a system that is used to manage the collection, processing, synthesis and reporting of data to support data-driven decision making for the Directorate’s programs on a day-to-day basis. It provides accurate, timely and consistent national data for evidence-based programming on children protection issues. CPIMS and is able to track the services provided to a child across all service points as well as all processes from use of individual pieces of data for case management to the generation of reports. This web-based system is used across the country and also helps to facilitate monitoring and evaluation of child protection interventions. Unlike the previous manual system, which was prone to errors, unavailability of timely data, the CPIMS system is easy to use and provide real-time data, and is accessible from anywhere at any time.

The system was built ground up over time with the support of USAID and UNICEF. HealthIT has worked with DCS to ensure roll out of CPIMS throughout the whole country, from the initial 12 pilot counties to a national footprint where CPIMS is available and used in the whole country; 47 county children offices, 290 sub county children offices, 30 statutory institutions and in Charitable Children Institutions in seven counties.We have been instrumental in the systems’ rapid evolution to meet the needs of a wide spectrum of stakeholder needs. These efforts have addressed the many challenges experienced before.

At the national level, Samuel Ochieng, Team Lead for CPIMS within DCS, State Department of Social Services says that

before CPIMS they used to have a lot of issues as regards to child protection data collection as it was a manual system and it was majorly a system using spreadsheets. Using it was hectic as the spreadsheets had little information. Now CPIMS is a key thing when it came to data collection and review.” “Standardization of data was a big problem because officers would forward the information, the way they deemed fit. That became a big problem because coming up with an annual report was a bit of a challenge as consolidating reports manually from 47 counties and 386 sub-counties was close to impossible. Those are some of the circumstances that necessitated the development of the CPIMS. If you look at the Children Act of 2021, we as a directorate are mandated to come up with a national database on all interventions and all programs for children. remarked Mr. Ochieng.

He noted that the directorate was keen to develop an integrated case management system that brought together all the DCS service points whether in county, sub county, statutory or charitable institution, the 116-toll free line and other donor supported programs so that they are able to plan and use the data for decision making and reporting. He also shared that as a directorate, Kenya as a state party was required to report to the UNCRC, the African Charter on People and Human Rights, and thus it was critical to have a reliable system with quality reliable data in place. Kenya is now able to meet its international reporting obligations.

I would like to thank HealthIT because when we started the system, they offered key support in several critical areas such as development, configuration and hosting of the CPIMS system. HealthIT also collaboratively with the directorate developed several guidelines like the CPIMS manual and the data protection protocol manuals among others. They also assisted with the development other items such of the CCI module and that of counter trafficking module which is happening now There was also supported data review through Routine Data Quality Assessments (RDQA), validation of the Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) data until we reached a level of confidence for the integration of the OVC system (which was being used by USAID partners) and the DCS. DCS officers and charitable children’s institutions were also trained on how to use the system, do research and write proposals system as well as helping with the development of data collection tools collaboratively with HealthIT. The project also supported us to carry out Training of Trainers (ToT) training and that becomes a good sustainability plan for the DCS as a roadmap towards self-reliance.- Added Mr. Ochieng.

The DCS has further also been able to successfully develop and pilot a community data collection tool called the Vurugu Mapper and a data portal that has data pulled from the CPIMS The portal can be accessed by citizens all over the world. This data portal is also linked to their e-learning portal for anyone who want to learn about the CPIMS. HealthIT has been on the fore front to also offer technical assistance to optimize the CPIMS in terms of integration with other systems such as the OVC system, 116 toll free line with CPMIS, Vurugu Mapper and are currently working towards integration with other systems like the enhanced single registry and the integrated population system, and the SOS system all geared towards continuous generation of high-quality available data for decision making.

On what he thinks has been the impact of CPIMS he says

among other things, it has greatly raised the profile of child protection in Kenya, thanks to its ability to generate high-quality data. This high-quality data meets Kenya Nation Bureau of Statistics standards and is thus included in the annual household economic survey. The inclusion was a milestone as it provided publicity about child data. This has elevated the status of the directorate as it in turn brought in support from other partners that the directorate is now working with. Reporting with CPIMS at all levels, be it the county coordinators, sub county officers across the country, all institutions that fall within the DCS scope and the about 150 charitable institutions is compulsory All this has helped the uptake of the CPIMS to be exemplary. The Uptake of the CPMIS was also supported by UNICEF and SOS-he concludes

Mr. Ochieng's sentiments were shared by Humphrey Wandeo who is Kisumu County’s Children’s office coordinator.

Prior to the CPIMS, our data at the county level was raw and most of the time one had to go through the paperwork to sort out data for the month and in some instances, the year. Data collection was very manual, very unreliable and unverifiable. The uptake of CPIMS at county level has been good so far even though most officers had difficulty in using it but after training they can now analyse the data for our use and for our partners, we even have data champions. The beauty of it is if I want data for last month, I just check it in the system, unlike before where getting such information would be difficult. Unreliability had previously been the bane of our data. It made other organizations and societies to look down upon us but ever since we started using the CPIMS system our data has been reliable and verifiable; those same groups are now asking to use our data for their own projects. Data now available at the county level informs the necessary interventions that we need to put in place and the decisions required thereafter, the system has been very useful to us. As to what makes the system a success, I would say the continuous upgrading of the system to meet the continuous emerging needs

Organizations' ability to serve their clients with readily available data, data analysis that pin points trends necessary in planning, case management, and interventions has improved as a result of CPIMS’s availability and use.

Margaret Kagwiria, manager Nairobi Children’s Rescue Centre says life post CPIMS is no different at the institutional level.

We used to collect data manually via admission, lock-up and exit books and a “physical CPIMS” and in terms of data quality, it wasn’t an accurate process, but CPIMS has since changed that. It has reduced the number of materials we are using compared to when we used to do individual care plan, where every child needed to have their own file. We have since managed to trace back 278 lost children back to their families by simply keying in the Case Record Sheet in the system. The CPIMS has also helped a lot when doing case management as one can easily follow-up on what services a particular child has received before you exit them from the institution and the system. All of the officers here know how to use CPIMS”-added Margaret.

Sentiments that were echoed by Mark Keya, manager Kisumu Children’s Remand Home

We used to collect data manually via population, dispersal, integration and admission registers before the CPIMS and in terms of data quality, it wasn’t an accurate process, but what I’d say is that CPIMS came to strengthen the manual system and data collection system as a whole, our data now is of high quality.” “CPIMS led to the change in perception and attitudes of most officers towards the use of computers/IT and some of them who were resistant to the use of CPIMS have slowly started accepting it as they now see the need through consistent training of the officers. This training of officers HealthIT has been diligently doing over time as well as developing training manuals and guides.-Added Mr. Keya.

All the stakeholders however agree that the system needs to be continuously updated, monitored and evaluated to ensure its continued relevance to users.