The framework considers families and communities as the foundation of an effective, scaled-up response. The framework's key strategies are as follows:
- 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;
- Mobilize and support community-based responses;
- Ensure access for orphans and vulnerable children to essential services, including education, health care, birth registration and others;
- Ensure that governments protect the most vulnerable children through improved policy and legislation and by channelling resources to families and communities;
- Raise awareness at all levels through advocacy and social mobilization to create a supportive environment for children and families affected by HIV/AIDS.
This study tested an economic intervention to reduce HIV risks among AIDS-orphaned adolescents. Adolescents (n=96) were randomly assigned to receive the intervention or usual care for orphans in Uganda. Data obtained at baseline and 12-month follow-up revealed significant differences between the treatment and control groups in HIV prevention attitudes and educational planning.
Research about children's lives conducted in the volatile setting of armed conflict places particular demands upon researchers. The suggestion that researchers should, whenever possible and appropriate, involve children as meaningful participants in that research may seem unreasonable or inappropriate. However, the production of this paper has been motivated by the conviction that participatory research is especially valuable because of the emergency context. Firstly, such an approach is likely to yield richer and more detailed data than a conventional, adult-led approach. These data can be invaluable to the design of interventions. Secondly, engagement in well-planned research activities can offer direct benefits for young participants by enhancing their skills and awareness. In settings of conflict where the young may be required to play an expanded role in their own protection and in the care of others, their personal development is especially important. Our aim here is to equip researchers to most safely and profitably pursue participatory research with children and, to that end, we explore the specific conceptual, ethical and methodological issues concerned.
This paper considers the situation of youth and adolescents affected by war and displacement throughout the world, and provides a summary of the key issues to be explored with regards to their protection. It draws upon insights and experience from researchers, practitioners and war-affected young people themselves in an attempt to better understand the challenges they face during war and the resulting implications for policy and practice.
The report: presents an analysis of vocational training (VT) programming and the actors involved in northern Uganda; offers VT providers concrete recommendations for programming at each stage in the VT cycle, including best practices and lessons learned; and guides VT programs and youth participants through a market-assessment and self-assessment to integrate market information into program design and create links between VT and the private sector.
The report documents outcomes from the Special Session on Children. It contains 21 specific goals and targets for improving the well being of children the next decade, and four key priorities: promoting healthy lives; providing quality education for all; protecting children against abuse, exploitation and violence; and combating HIV/AIDS.
During the past few decades, Bangladeshi children under age 10 have experienced significant improvements in nutrition, and sex differences in child nutrition have declined significantly regardless of family structure, a major change from previous observations in Matlab. However, our attempts to understand child nutritions in develop countries are hindered by problems with the measures used to evaluate health. The anthropometric proxies commonly used to judge nutrition (MBI, weight-for-age and height-for-age) often fail to capture the true health status of children in undernourished populations. Further the standard of comparison based on U.S. children misclassifies a large number of children in Banglades as malnourished, especially in the adolescent years. We explore nutrition in Matlab, Bangladesh, using measures of acute and chronic morbidity to assess whether and how anthropometric indicators of nutrition accurately reflect the health of children in this population.
On behalf of a group of multisectoral child-focused organizations, Save the Children organized a review and analytical discussion of indicators most commonly used to assess the impact of microfinance on children. This study was conducted by Sarah Gammage and Sharon Williams of Development and Training Services, Inc. (dTS); it was financed by the anonymous donors of Wellspring Advisors with additional support from CARE and World Vision.
This report summarizes the findings of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)-commissioned study, "Impacts on Children from Microfinance Initiatives. The results of the study showed that when family income improves, the priority areas of spending are generally those that benefit children. Education is the highest priority for spending, followed by health care. Housing and nutrition are other areas of spending that were identified by the study participants.
This report summarizes the findings of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)-commissioned study, "Impacts on Children from Microfinance Initiatives." The results of the study showed that when family income improves, the priority areas of spending are generally those that benefit children. Education is the highest priority for spending, followed by health care. Housing and nutrition are other areas of spending that were identified by the study participants.
Livelihoods programming is gaining increasing attention in Northern Uganda as the region transitions from an emergency situation to an early recovery environment. For many youth, vocational training is at the crossroads of livelihoods support, economic recovery, education, and rehabilitation and reintegration. Our report (forthcoming May 2008) will aim to provide program planners with relevant tools and concrete recommendations for incorporating economic planning into vocational training through thoughtful engagement of youth in decision-making about vocational training, market analysis, pre- and post-training market linkages and integration with the private sector.
This is the second of four case studies examining social transfers to OVC in Swaziland. Such social transfers began in the early 2000s as a response to rapidly rising numbers of AIDS orphans as well as rising vulnerability in the population at large, due to a combination of adverse factors and trends.
