Social Protection: How Important are the National Plans of Action for Orphans and Vulnerable Children?

Abstract

This briefing paper emerges from a review of 14 national plans of action (NPA), or in the absence of a NPA, outputs from the rapid assessment analysis and action planning (RAAAP) work for orphans and children made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS.1 The purpose is to analyse the way that issues of social protection are incorporated into these plans and to highlight areas within the plans where social protection activity may be needed to achieve stated outcomes.2 Annex 3 summarises, country by country, the social protection content of each NPA. SOCIAL PROTECTION NEEDS FOR OVC HIV and AIDS have generated a major livelihood crisis for many families in SubSaharan Africa. The consequences of the pandemic have been devastating – significantly reduced life expectancy, a dramatic weakening of livelihood systems, and a dramatic increase in poverty and vulnerability for all categories of people, especially children. The number of children affected by HIV/AIDS has escalated, evidenced by increasing numbers of ‘single’ and ‘double’ orphans, as well as an increase in the numbers of institutionalised, abandoned and street children. Numbers and estimates vary, but a recent study estimates that of the 48 million orphans in Sub-Saharan Africa (single and double) of any cause in 2005, 12 million (25%) were attributable to AIDS.3 At the end of 2005 there were an estimated 8.2 million orphans of AIDS in the twenty countries of east and southern Africa, representing 54% of the global total.4 Within this context and given the prospect that the situation is unlikely to improve significantly in the near future due to the long-incubation period of HIV/AIDS and severely undermined livelihoods, the need for social protection for vulnerable children is urgent.