Join us as Catholic Relief Services (CRS) showcases innovative and
promising practices from its orphan and vulnerable children (OVC)
programming around the globe.
Who it is for: People interested in children, colleagues working in
organizations supporting orphans and vulnerable children around the
world, policy makers, and donors.
View the schedule.
Though peace was declared in 2003, Liberia continues to struggle to recover after 15 years of civil war. Addressing widespread poverty, providing employment for youth and ex-combatants and increasing domestic food production are all substantial needs. Though Liberia has no shortage of fertile land, many people, especially youth, see farming as an occupation of last resort rather than a viable business opportunity. Consequently, Liberia has to import most of its food, resulting in inconsistent supplies and high prices. On average, Liberian households spend 70 percent of their income on food—a situation that will only worsen as global food prices continue to rise, unless local agricultural production increases dramatically. Through the Agriculture for Children’s Empowerment (ACE) Project, ACDI/VOCA is addressing these needs by engaging youth and demonstrating that farming can be a profitable enterprise.
The ACE Project is developing entrepreneurship and bringing farmers into profitable value chains with the goal of increasing income, improving nutrition and enabling caregivers to better support their children. The project aims to:
- increase local production of key staple foods by supporting paddy rice development in four communities in Bong and Nimba counties, and vegetable production in two communities in Montserrado County;
By increasing household income and making farming more attractive to caregivers and youth, ACE aims to have a significant and sustainable impact on the wellbeing of Liberian children and the economic viability of their households and communities. ACE is one of five initiatives under the AED STRIVE Program exploring effective means of reducing the vulnerability of children and youth through economic strengthening.
Ruth Campbell
Managing Director, Enterprise Development
ACDI/VOCA
50 F Street NW
Suite 1075
Washington, DC 20001
United States
RCampbell@acdivoca.org
September 2008 to August 2012
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.
CARE designed the "5x5 model" to illustrate and integrate critical early childhood needs into a simplified holistic and replicable program, capable of delivering early childhood development interventions in resource constrained areas through community based childcare centers catering for the 2-8 year old age group. This document is part of the "Promising Practices" series.
This fact sheet provides a brief overview of how the Child Status Index (CSI) can be used by community health works to monitor the wellbeing of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). The CSI measures six broad areas of a child's wellbeing: food and nutrition; shelter and care; protecting health; psychosocial; protection; and education and skills. The CSI is designed so that measurement can be performed by people living in the same communities as the affected children, who are in the best position to monitor the health of those children on a regular basis.
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.
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.
This paper examines how social protection can be used to protect children and families affected by HIV and AIDS, and specifically, how well cash transfers can fare with respect to securing basic subsistence and reducing poverty, while also protecting the human capital of children - specifically, their education, health and nutrition. The paper reviews evidence to date on the impacts of programs under different designs, and reviews key policy debates that accompany decisions about whether to adopt cash transfers and how to design them to be responsive to the context of HIV and AIDS. In particular, it examines systems, experiences and dilemmas of targeting, and the debate on conditionality, i.e. whether cash transfers should be conditioned on beneficiaries' participation in education and health services.
Download the paper brief and key findings here, or download the full paper below.
