Running a programme

The Rambo village community meet to discuss how to improve the oprhan support programme, Burkina Faso. © 2004 Gideon Mendel for International HIV/AIDS Alliance

This section looks at some of the principles and key elements involved in carrying out and supporting activities for orphans and other vulnerable children. Getting Started, Doing the Work and Improving the Work cover practical details. Key points about running a programme are clearly explained in the global strategic framework which was introduced in 2004. These include:

  1. Ensuring that all activities are consistent with human rights principles as laid out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
  2. Five key strategies (see below) to guide and direct responses to the needs of orphans and other vulnerable children.
  3. Seven elements of programming guidance (see below) intended for those carrying out specific local programmes.
  4. A monitoring and evaluation framework, including an agreed set of core national-level indicators.

The Global Strategic Framework

In 2004, a number of organizations agreed a global strategic framework to guide responses to issues facing orphans and other vulnerable children. These organizations included UNICEF, UNAIDS and USAID. This shared framework is intended mainly for senior policy-makers. It also provides valuable guidance to those working with orphans and other vulnerable children at different levels, for example, those working with local communities. The framework brings together several other documents on the subject which have appeared since 2000. These include Children on the Brink and Draft Principles to Guide Programming

Key strategies

The global framework outlines five key strategies to guide and direct responses to the needs of orphans and other vulnerable children. These are:
  1. Strengthen the capacity of families to protect and care for orphans and vulnerable children by prolonging the lives of parents and providing economic, psychosocial and other support. This may be done in a number of ways including economic strengthening, providing psychosocial support, supporting carers, supporting succession planning, prolonging the lives of HIV positive parents and strengthening young people's own life skills.
  2. Mobilize and support community-based responses. This strategy outlines key elements of community mobilization including engaging local leaders, enabling local communities to talk more openly about HIV/AIDS, organising and supporting cooperative activities and providing and supporting community care for children and young people without any family support.
  3. Ensure access for orphans and vulnerable children to essential services, including education, health care, birth registration and others. Key services for orphans and other vulnerable children include education, birth registration, health, nutrition, water and sanitation, judicial protection and placement services for children and young people without family care.
  4. Ensure that governments protect the most vulnerable children through improved policy and legislation and by channelling resources to communities. This strategy includes a wide range of provisions. These include ensuring that governments develop policies, strategies and action plans to guide national responses, enhancing government capacity, ensuring that resources reach local communities, ensuring that each country has a supportive legal framework and establishing mechanisms to ensure information exchange.
  5. Raise awareness to create a supportive environment for children affected by HIV/AIDS. This strategy includes conducting a situation analysis, tackling stigma, silence and discrimination and strengthening and supporting community mobilisation efforts at community level.

Elements of programming guidance

The global framework provides seven elements of guidance for those working on local programmes with orphans and other vulnerable children. These are:
  1. Focus on the most vulnerable children and communities, not only children orphaned by AIDS. Programmes which target only those orphaned by AIDS may increase stigma and discrimination. Care is also needed when using terms to refer to children within a particular project. People from within a particular community are best able to identify those children in greatest need.
  2. Define community-specific problems and vulnerabilities at the outset and pursue locally determined intervention strategies. When a new programme starts in a particular community, it should be designed particularly to meet the needs of orphans and other vulnerable children in that community. This will involve identifying orphans and other vulnerable children and analysing the local situation facing them. Community members should play a central role in all these processes.
  3. Involve children and young people as active participants in the response. Children and young people should not be seen as a passive, powerless group who need to be given help. They need to be allowed to actively participate in all aspects of activities which affect them.
  4. Give particular attention to the role of boys and girls, men and women and address gender discrimination. For example, much of the burden of caring for vulnerable children and sick adults falls on women. Also, vulnerable girls are more likely to drop out of school than boys. Women are particularly vulnerable to HIV infection and are often excluded from owning or inheriting land.
  5. Strengthen partnerships and mobilise collaborative action. Working with other organisations can be a very good way of improving the activities being carried out.
  6. Link HIV/AIDS prevention activities and care and support for people living with HIV and AIDS with support for vulnerable children. Such activities include home-based care for people who are ill and HIV/AIDS prevention. Greater linkages with development activities in general avoid over-identification with HIV/AIDS and a risk of increasing stigma and discrimination.
  7. Use external support to strengthen community initiative and motivation. External support should strengthen and build on existing community initiative and motivation. Great care should be taken to avoid undermining or replacing community initiatives.

Monitoring progress

The global framework contains a section on monitoring and evaluation. It is particularly focused on monitoring and evaluation at national level. It presents a table of agreed core indicators for use at this level.

Resources

Guide de prise en charge des orphelins et enfants rendus vulnérables par le VIH/Sida au Sénégal (Fr)Guide de prise en charge des orphelins et enfants rendus vulnérables par le VIH/Sida au Sénégal (Fr)

Cet outil est une adaptation de “Building Blocks: Africa Wide Briefing Notes “ au contexte Sénégalais. Il contient des stratégies et des principes que les ONG/OCB peuvent suivre dans leur travail avec les Orphelins et Enfants Vulnérables (OEV).
Synergie pour l’enfance, Alliance Internationale contre le Sida & HACI, Ngagne Mbaye et Charles Becker, 2006, PDF, 174 pages, 2110 kb

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Family and community interventions for children affected by AIDS (Eng)

This document explores the impact of HIV and AIDS on children and provides OVC programming principles. It also contains a large annotated bibliography.
Human Sciences Research Council (HRSC), Linda Richter, Julie Manegold, Riashnee Pather, 2004, PDF, 182 pages, 671 kb

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A Framework for the Protection, Care and Support of Orphans and Vulnerable Children Living in a World with HIV/AIDS (Eng)

This framework is based on lessons learned over many years. It considers families and communities as the foundation of an effective, scaled-up response.
UNICEF, 2004, PDF, 23 pages, 397 kb.

Orphans and Other Children Affected by HIV/AIDS (Eng)

This UNICEF fact sheet presents the basic facts about the effects of HIV/AIDS on children and then proposes strategies and principles to be followed in responding to these.
UNICEF, 2002, PDF, 2 pages, 499 kb.

Children on the Brink: Strategies to Support Children Isolated by HIV/AIDS (Eng)

This major and key publication about work with children affected by HIV/AIDS contains statistics on children orphaned by HIV/AIDS from 88 countries, analysis of the trends found in those statistics, and strategies and principles for helping the children.
Hunter, S. and Williamson, J., UNAIDS, UNICEF and USAID, 2004, PDF, 46 pages, 6.3 mb.

Principles to Guide Programming for Orphans and Other Children Affected by HIV/AIDS: UNICEF and USAID 2000 (Eng)

This document was produced following the 13th international AIDS conference in Durban in July 2000.
UNICEF/USAID, 2000, PDF, 13 pages, 187 kb.

Policies for Orphans and Vulnerable Children: A Framework for Moving Ahead (Eng)

This clear and concise document focuses on recommending an 'OVC policy package' which can be used by nations seeking to respond positively to problems being faced by orphans and vulnerable children.
Smart, R., POLICY Project, 2003, PDF, 36 pages, 1056 kb.

Community Mobilization to Mitigate the Impacts of HIV/AIDS (Eng)

This short paper states the prime importance of families and communities in responding to the impact of HIV/AIDS.
Donahue, J. and Williamson, J., Displaced Children and Orphans Fund, 1999, PDF, 9 pages, 43 kb.

A Review of Current Literature of the Impact of HIV/AIDS on Children in Sub-Saharan Africa (Eng)

This excellently-referenced article was published in AIDS 2000 Year in Review and provides a clear and concise summary of many of the issues relating to children and HIV/AIDS in Africa.
Foster, G. and Williamson, J., FACT/DCOF, 2000, PDF, 21 pages, 65 kb.

Orphans and Other Children Made Vulnerable by HIV/AIDS: Principles and Operational Guidelines for Programming: Guiding Principles for Working with Orphans and Other Children Made Vulnerable by HIV/AIDS (Eng)

This document is written with the aim of providing guidelines to National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to assist them in helping communities and families to strengthen traditional coping mechanisms to address the needs of orphans and other children made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS. (Part 2 of 5)
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 2002, PDF, 6 pages, 178 kb.

Orphans and Other Children Made Vulnerable by HIV & AIDS: Appendices (Eng)

This document is written with the aim of providing guidelines to National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to assist them in helping communities and families to strengthen traditional coping mechanisms to address the needs of orphans and other children made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS. This fifth part comprises five appendices to the document and a list of references. (Part 5 of 5)
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 2002, PDF, 9 pages, 100 kb.

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Care for Orphans, Children Affected by HIV/AIDS and Other Vulnerable Children (Eng)

This publication's starting point is that there is a massive need for responses to problems being experienced by children as a result of HIV/AIDS.
FHI Impact, 2001, PDF, 22 pages, 459 kb.

Children Affected by AIDS in Zimbabwe (Eng)

This is a detailed assessment of children affected by HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe.
USAID, 2000, PDF, 80 pages, 600 kb.

OAU Labour and Social Affairs Commission: Draft Common Position on Strategies to Support Orphans and Vulnerable Children Affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa (Eng)

This common position is the output of an OAU meeting held in Algeria in 1999.
OAU, 1999, PDF, 13 pages, 167 kb.

Building a Future for Families and Children Affected by HIV/AIDS: Designing Care and Protection Programs for Children Affected by HIV/AIDS (Eng)

This report is based on assessment of responses to problems faced by orphans and vulnerable children in a number of countries.
Hunter, S., UNICEF, PDF, 48 pages, 324 kb.

Children and Families Affected by AIDS: Guidelines for Action (Eng)

This is a very detailed document examining ways in which organisations might intervene effectively for the benefit of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS.
Williamson, J., DCOF, 1995, PDF, 108 pages, 776 kb.

Best Practices for Care of AIDS Orphans (Eng)

This brief paper gives a Canadian perspective on a wide range of issues relating to children orphaned by AIDS. 
ICAD, 2002, PDF, 4 pages, 103 kb.

Eastern and Southern Africa: Extract from UNICEF Regional Analysis Report: East and Southern Africa Regional Office (Eng)

This is a short extract from UNICEF's 1999 annual report for East and Southern Africa. It focuses on the findings of national-level rapid assessments conducted in 13 countries, and a more-detailed study in Zambia.
UNICEF, 2000, PDF, 2 pages, 135 kb.

Children in Families Affected by the HIV Epidemic: A Strategic Approach (Eng)

This paper explains that families and communities are extremely important in responding to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. 
Reid, E., UNDP, 1993, PDF, 9 pages, 190 kb.

Orphans and Other Children Made Vulnerable by HIV/AIDS: Principles and Operational Guidelines for Programming: Practical Programming Step by Step (Eng)

This document is written with the aim of providing guidelines to National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to assist them in helping communities and families to strengthen traditional coping mechanisms to address the needs of orphans and other children made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS. (Part 3 of 5)
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 2002, PDF, 13 pages, 821 kb.

Children in Need Network Website (Eng)

The Children in Need Network (CHIN) is a Zambian organization which illustrates the value of building partnerships in work with orphans and vulnerable children. 
Children in Need Network.

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2002 East and Southern Africa Regional Workshop on Children Affected by HIV/AIDS: Implementing the UNGASS Goals for Orphans and Other Children Made Vulnerable by HIV/AIDS; 25-29 November 2002; Windhoek, Namibia (Eng)

This is the report of a workshop which brought together stakeholders in East and Southern Africa to reinforce awareness of the impact of HIV/AIDS on children and their caregivers and to build commitment to action particularly at the government level.
Loudon, M., UNICEF, USAID, SIDA, NORAD, International Save the Children Alliance, UNAIDS, FHI, Government of Namibia, 2002, PDF, 46 pages, 802 kb.

Africa's Orphaned Generations (Eng)

This report by UNICEF illustrates the situation of orphans and other vulnerable children in sub-Saharan Africa.
UNICEF, 2003, PDF, 52 pages, 763 kb.

FHI Focus on Care for Orphans, Children Affected by HIV/AIDS and Other Vulnerable Children (Eng)

This document summarises lessons learned from countries dealing with issues of child development, child survival, children of war and HIV/AIDS in order to produce up-to-date, high quality information for the care and support of orphans and other vulnerable children.
FHI, 2003, PDF, 2 pages, 223 kb.

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FHI Focus on Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Prevention, Care, and Support Programming (Eng)

This document describes the main technical elements of a comprehensive approach to HIV/AIDS for individuals, families and communities.
FHI, 2003, PDF, 2 pages, 222 kb.

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A Family is for a Lifetime (Eng)

This document discusses the principles that should be followed when responding to orphans and other vulnerable children and highlights the shortcomings of institutional forms of care.
USAID/Synergy Project, 2004, PDF, 85 pages, 925 kb.

Civil Society Involvement in Rapid Assessment, Analysis and Action Planning (RAAAP) for OVC (Eng)

This document provides an analysis of the OVC situation and the response in each country, and with this analysis, explains how to produce a national plan of action involving civil society organizations.
Gosling, L. UK Consortium on AIDS and International Development, July 2005, PDF, 2920kb, 67 pages

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