Advocacy - Child rights in East Africa
Overview
This project aims to reduce children’s vulnerability and poverty relating to the HIV and AIDS epidemic in East Africa.
It seeks to achieve this by ensuring that children's legal and human rights to a secure future are recognised. Priorities for advocacy and action at community and national level will include birth registration, succession and inheritance planning, to help create an enabling environment.
Background
The HIV and AIDS epidemic, exacerbated by high levels of poverty, is having a devastating impact on communities, especially children, in Eastern Africa. UNAIDS 2006 report states that an estimated 2.8 million (2.4 to 3.2million) adults and children became infected with HIV in 2006, more than in all other regions of the world combined. (AIDS Epidemic update: Dec 2006)
Together, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda account for at least half of Africa’s orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) - 1.8 million in Kenya, more than 2.5 million in Tanzania and over 2.0 million in Uganda. Despite their vulnerability, ‘children are barely noticed by programmes in place to alleviate the effects of HIV and AIDS though their numbers run into millions….’ (The Lancet 2006: vol 367, pp700-701). The urgency to meet the physical and material needs of OVC means that planning for their future is often neglected. In societies where will-writing is not common, children are particularly vulnerable, as their legal rights are not always foreseen within the legal system. Many are left homeless and without a source of income when family property is usurped by relatives or community members, after their parents die. This increased vulnerability can lead to children resorting to begging or sex work to earn a living.
This project draws on reviews, evaluations and learning from other child-centred projects that we and our partners have implemented since 2000, as well as on experience of others who are working in the field. Key learning on advocacy has influenced project design. Evidence from other advocacy projects indicates that effective advocacy is not just about changing policies or influencing government – it is also about creating environments for change at community level. Strength in advocacy also comes from networking and linking together groups that can work together for a common cause.
About the project
In order to achieve these rights, the project will target the following opinion leaders:
- National governments: with the responsibility for formulating and implementing national policy;
- Judiciary and legal profession: even where these rights are recognized in law, further support and sensitization is required with lawyers and judges to ensure that the legal system can appropriately respond to the needs of OVC and people living with HIV (PLHIV);
- Community and faith leaders: this group has responsibility and influence over meeting OVC rights at a local level, and
- Family members: our experience shows that working with the family is the first and vital step in breaking down stigma and discrimination, creating an enabling environment for the project and recognition of rights within the family.
Expected outcomes include:
- A more secure future for OVC in families engaged in the project through increased birth registration, will writing and access to legal processes for families affected by HIV and AIDS;
- A clear understanding of the rights of children and how these should be ensured at all levels from communities to government, and
- Strengthened local and national capacity to advocate for the rights of OVC and PLHIV to a secure future.