Measuring the Enabling Environment of Children's Groups

World Vision supports more than 27,000 children’s groups with a membership of over 1,500,000 children worldwide. These groups vary in their membership size, structure, and activities, but all are grounded in promoting children’s rights and well-being, as well as the well-being of others in their communities. From November 2024 to May 2025, World Vision teams in Cambodia and Mongolia, in partnership with WVI Global Centre staff and AEQUA Strategies, piloted child-friendly methods to measure if and how children's  groups enhance well-being outcomes for children and others in the communities they live in.

This evaluation examines how children's group settings itself promotes the behaviour changes and outcomes that programmes aim to achieve, testing a hypothesis that children's groups create an enabling environment that enhances well-being beyond the effects of standard Area Programme benefits alone.

The research engaged five stakeholder groups: children participating in Area Programmes (APs); children participating in membership groups; parents and caregivers; local government authorities; and World Vision staff and facilitators.

Download the full Technical Report to see the findings from Cambodia and Mongolia, as well as strategic recommendations and a call to action to strengthen children’s groups as partners in creating lasting, positive change.