Across the hardest-hit countries of sub-Saharan Africa the HIV/AIDS epidemic is causing immense distress and impoverishment to children. In this region alone, some 12 million are estimated to have lost one or both parents to the disease, but this headline figure misrepresents and understates the magnitude of the problem.
The challenge for policy is not to reach 12 million individual children needing assistance, but to design policies and interventions that address the diverse needs of a range of poor and vulnerable children in societies affected by AIDS – a far more ambitious task.
The articles in this IDS Bulletin discuss the complexity of HIV epidemics and their impacts on children, as well as the importance of factoring in the role of such children in the dynamics of the epidemic itself.
Themes covered are: poverty is the backdrop but not the driver of the epidemic; inequities by age, gender, geographical origin and economic status mark vulnerabilities and create circumstances where transmission can flare; it is important to define ‘family’ within local contexts to avoid misunderstandings; the majority of children of concern are aged 11 and older (not the younger children who tend to excite western compassion); the fundamental rationale for responding is that children have rights; migrants tend to fall between the cracks; and diversity of circumstances must be acknowledged.
The combination of policy case studies and comparative quantitative political science analysis draws important conclusions about how to make policy work, from inception to implementation.
Table of contents
Introduction: Children, AIDS and Development Policy (pdf) Alex de Waal, Jerker Edström and Masuma Mamdani
Poverty, Food Insecurity, HIV Vulnerability and the Impacts of AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa Stuart Gillespie
Between Exceptionalism and Revisionism: Children and Global AIDS Policies Alex de Waal
Inter-generational Linkages of AIDS: Vulnerability of Orphaned Children for HIV Infection Lucie Cluver and Don Operario
Researching the Determinants of Vulnerability to HIV Among Adolescents Kelly K. Hallman
Adolescent Girls’ Vulnerability to HIV Infection in Dar es Salaam: The Need to Link Protection with Prevention Beyond Behaviour Change Richard Mabala
How Best to Enable Support for Children Affected by HIV/AIDS? A Policy Case Study in Tanzania Masuma Mamdani, Rakesh Rajani and Valerie Leach
Formulating and Implementing Socioeconomic Policies for Children in the Context of HIV/AIDS: South African Case Study Debbie Budlender, Paula Proudlock and Lucy Jamieson
Policy Process for Children and AIDS in Cambodia: Drivers and Obstacles Jerker Edström, Jenne Roberts and Andy Sumner, with Choub Sok Chamreun
Politics and Policy Outcomes on Children Affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa Per Strand, Mary Kinney and Robert Mattes
Can a Developing Country Support the Welfare Needs of Children Affected by AIDS? A Perspective from Tanzania Valerie Leach
Can a Developing Country Support the Welfare Needs of Children Affected by AIDS? Considering the Issues in Zambia Malcolm F. McPherson
Affording Support in the Response to the Welfare Needs of Children Affected by AIDS Chris Desmond
Financing the Welfare Needs of Children Affected by HIV/AIDS: The Case of Brazil Amy Nunn and Francisco I. Bastos
Editors
