Building resilience: a rights-based approach to children and HIV/AIDS in Africa

Supporting caregivers and communities is the most effective way to protect HIV and AIDS affected children in Africa
By: Richter LM & Rama S
Published by: Child Rights Information Network (CRIN), 2006
Via: Eldis

This paper sets out the situation facing children affected by HIV and AIDS in Africa, assesses the responses to date, and offers recommendations for effective approaches. It finds that efforts have so far been generally piecemeal and inadequate to the size of the problem, and government efforts have been weak. To better protect children, the paper emphasises the importance of strengthening caregivers’ and households’ commitments to the well-being of children. This requires that, instead of delivering uncoordinated – and often unsustainable – external programmes and projects that attempt to reach children directly, interventions should instead be directed at the concentric circles of care and influence that surround children, such as families, schools, neighbourhoods, and extending outwards to the media, legislative frameworks, and policies that have a bearing on children’s lives. The paper recommends that responses to HIV and AIDS-related issues should:

• be holistic and lie along a "response-continuum" from government interventions to the support of informal networks
• engage with all stakeholders, including consulting and involving children
• be based on an in-depth analysis of the situation and be strategic
• recognise the root causes of the spread and impact of HIV and AIDS, including gender inequality and must address both men and boys, and women and girls
• support family-based care initiatives while avoiding, as much as possible, residential and institutional care for children. Responses should therefore focus on mitigating parental death and should enable caregivers to secure economic and social resources to provide for children’s protection and care.

(http://www.crin.org/docs/save_children_hiv.pdf)