South Sudan Psychosocial Impact Evaluation

LASER PULSE partners with USAID South Sudan to evaluate the impact of psychosocial support on children’s well-being, literacy, and math outcomes within an existing and expanding project in South Sudan. 

This evaluation project places universities (Indiana University, Purdue University, University of Notre Dame, Makerere University) and Catholic Relief Services in partnership with USAID to use research to inform decision making about future directions for the UNICEF-led Integrated Essential Emergency Education Program in South Sudan. It also applies lessons learned to guide development strategy in the broader fields of education in emergencies and in social and emotional learning. The purpose of the impact evaluation is to seek an evidence base for psychosocial intervention in a conflict setting through an evaluation of the impact of psychosocial support interventions in the context of South Sudan. 

The impact evaluation gathers and compares information from groups receiving the intervention and those who do not. The evaluation utilizes social-emotional learning outcomes to assess the impact of psychosocial support, with an additional focus on literacy and numeracy outcomes.