This document discusses the link between youth livelihoods and HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa, focusing on Zambia, Swaziland, Botswana and Lesotho. It is based on a study conducted by the Education Development Center (EDC) in early 2005 that was conducted to identify key experts, studies, and relevant demographic data on urban youth unemployment and HIV/AIDS initiatives in the four focus countries.
This is the third of four case studies examinging social transfers to orphans and vulnerable children (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 larget due to a combination of adverse trends and factors. The four policies are neighbourhood care points, shcool bursaries, chiefs' fields and farm input support to child-headed households, and while these have seperate origins in Swaziland government and institutional structures, as well as in partnerships with donors, they were brought together in 2006 in a single over-arching strategy called the National Plan of Action for OVC 2006 - 2010 (Swaziland, 2006).
