AFRICA HEALTH & HIV/AIDS REGIONAL OFFICE

CHILD
PROTECTION
ASSESSMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF

HIV & AIDS

An assessment conducted in Eastern & Southern Africa

Final Report By
Tapfuma Murove (Africa Child Protection Adviser)
&
John. M. Njoka (Consultant)

Technical Review Team:

Stuart Kean – WV UK
Clive Beacon – WV UK
Dr. Jane Chege – WVI Africa
Komborero Choga – Africa Sponsorship
Jane Kwao Sarbah – Africa CIM
Stefan Germann- MoL

August, 2008


 Table of Contents

Executive Summary iii

Acknowledgements vii
Glossary of key terms viii
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations ix

1. INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Objectives of the assessment 1
1.2 Assessment Methodology 2
1.3 Scope and limitations 3

2. THE CONTEXT: HIV & AIDS AND CHILD PROTECTION IN

AFRICA 4
2.1 Background 4
2.2 HIV, Orphan trends and implications 4
2.3 Principles behind child protection in Africa 6
2.4 World Vision policy and guidelines on child protection 7
2.5 Child Protection Programming in World Vision 10

3. STUDY FINDINGS 13
3.1 Background to the six countries 13
3.2 Knowledge and perception of child abuse 20
3.3 Knowledge and perception of child protection 15
3.4 Community-level protection: government structures and other actors 22
3.5 Legal protection: policies, laws and processes 35

4. IDENTIFIABLE CHALLENGES AND GAPS 42

5. LESSONS LEARNT 46

6. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 46

7. ISSUES FOR A CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY IN AFRICA 53

ANNEX I: Sector Specific Recommendations from dissemination meeting 55

ANNEX II: Key references 62
ANNEX III: Socio-demographic characteristics of the survey respondents 64

II
Executive Summary
The overall objective of this assessment was to review the current situation of child
protection in the context of HIV & AIDS programming in the selected countries with
a view to developing recommendations on possible technical support action points for
programs on child protection in Africa.

Specific objectives were at two levels: community level child protection and legal protection
at a national level. The community level objective sought to determine current community
level child protection interventions, capacity and material requirements for strengthening
community led child protection in the context of community care and support for OVC
(Community Care Coalitions, Channels of Hope and life skills for children).

The legal protection level objective aimed to assess existing national level legal protection
frameworks and instruments for OVC care and support, identify existing initiatives and
gaps on legal protection in order to come up with key legal protection issues, capacity
requirements and possible frameworks for legal protection programming in the context of
HIV & AIDS.

Therefore the assessment, on which this report is based, sought to highlight current
child protection practices and processes at both the community level and also in the
broader context of national legal protection (frameworks and environment) that impact
on child protection. This was meant to result in the identification of program gaps and
opportunities for World Vision to consider as it seeks to strengthen its child protection
interventions in the region. This was done under the background of increased numbers of
abused orphans and other vulnerable children due to HIV & AIDS and its related problems
in the countries where World Vision currently works.

The assessment was carried out in six countries, three from East Africa and three from
Southern Africa as follows: Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Swaziland
between February and May 2007.

Data was gathered using a combination of techniques including review of secondary

sources, semi-structured interviews of 277 households, 103 key informant interviews,
230 FGD participants, 100 children in child participation forums, direct observation and a
regional child protection planning workshop.

The regional dissemination and planning workshop was attended by 20 participants

from the Africa regional HIV & AIDS and sponsorship technical teams, representatives
from the 6 National Offices and World Vision UK that supported the process financially
and technically. An external partner that specialises in legal protection issues in Kenya
(CRADLE) also presented and made some significant contributions to the legal protection
findings and recommendations. Therefore the results and recommendations of this
assessment were widely discussed and validated by the participants at the regional
workshop.

The assessment shows that knowledge of child protection and child abuse is visible in
communities but this has not been translated into concrete actions towards creating a
protective environment for the child, support to existing systems and structures, and
effective monitoring and evaluation of efforts at community level. What exist are disjointed
and stand-alone community initiatives that don’t enhance child protection.

III
Generally civil society is stronger in child protection work compared with government,
which should be the main custodian of children’s services and overall protection. In most of
the countries, WV activities on child protection were rated positively, relevant, sustainable
and participatory.

However, there are challenges of legal protection particularly regarding the role of the
state, inadequate knowledge on legal instruments, poor networking, weak advocacy by WV,
low child participation capabilities, limited child-friendly materials, persistence of cultural
barriers and inadequate monitoring and evaluation.

While National Offices from the 6 countries are engaged in some notable efforts towards
child protection, there are identifiable opportunities on which to build in working with
governments, other non-state actors and the communities. Below is a summary of key
findings and recommendations at community, legal protection, World Vision staff capacity
and strategy levels.

Community level key findings:

1. Child protection is not well integrated into CCC and CoH trainings and resources
2. Community based workers (volunteers, facilitators and home visitors) have limited
skills to deal with child protection issues
3. Counselling and skills for communicating with children are particularly lacking at
community level
4. Simple resources and materials including guidelines on child protection for
communities are not in place
5. Legal support service for children including networks and referral systems are
limited
6. Facilitation of community led child protection initiatives is missing
7. Communities need support to assess, monitor and report child rights issues
8. There is a lack of integration of child rights issues across WV’s sectors at
community level in general
9. Lack of clear indicators on child rights issues at program level and tools for
measuring and monitoring the indicators.

Legal protection key findings:

1. Information on legal protection of children in communities is limited

2. Community based workers lack skills on legal protection of children
3. Materials on legal protection of children are not accessible in local languages
4. WV is not actively involved in the provision of legal aid to children who require it
5. World Vision does not have strong linkages with networks and institutions that
offer legal protection services for children
6. World Vision has limited involvement in child rights advocacy activities and does
not systematically engage with national and local networks on legal protection.

Findings on capacity of World Vision staff:

1. Staff across all sectors require more training on child protection issues
2. Capacity on legal protection is particularly missing
3. Development facilitators face capacity challenges to facilitate child protection issues
at community level

IV
4. Training and resources on child participation methodologies is required by
community based workers, home visitors and development facilitators
5. Child rights advocacy and networking skills are at a minimal
6. Capacity to monitor and report child rights issues require strengthening
7. There is inadequate training, materials and guidelines to support staff in child rights
programming at ADP level

Strategic level key findings:

1. There is a lack of an integrated strategy at regional and national levels on child

rights including protection
2. There is also a lack of clear integrated strategy results in limited support to
programs which in turn translates into unsystematic and fragmented child rights
activities across countries
3. A regional capacity building strategy on child rights issues with guidelines on how
countries can integrate child rights issues across all sectors is missing
4. World Vision has a good child protection policy that outlines systems and
procedures but this is largely limited to its concern to make the organization a safe
environment
5. However, guidelines to translate the existing child protection policy into
programming at community level require strengthening.


Recommendations related to the above findings are as follows:

Level of findings: Recommendations:

Community
l Integrate child protection into CCC, CoH and
sponsorship materials and trainings
l Provide materials and trainings on child
counselling and communication skills for
volunteers and community facilitators
l Develop simple guidelines to facilitate child
protection initiatives at community level
l Support establishment of networks, registers and
referral systems on legal protection at
community level
l Develop simple tools that communities can use
to assess, monitor and report child rights issues
l Develop clear indicators on child rights issues at
community level in line with LEAP
l Support development of integrated child rights
strategy for programs.

Legal protection
l Provide simple information and materials on legal
protection in local languages
l Train development facilitators and other
community workers in basic legal protection
issues to support children in communities
l Establish linkages and network with local
institutions that offer legal protection services
(including government)
l Come up with clear strategies and activities on
child rights advocacy at both national and ADP
levels
l Partner with other agencies that provide legal
protection support to vulnerable children.

World Vision Staff

l Provide ongoing training to staff on child rights/
protection at different levels
l Develop simple fact sheets and sensitize staff
on child protection issues related to the
collection and use of information from children
– photographs and narratives
l Partner with institutions that can train staff and
provide guidance on legal protection
l Identify materials and experts to train staff on
child participation methodologies
l Provide simple materials and train staff on child
rights advocacy

VI
 l Develop tools and guidelines to support staff in
facilitating assessment, monitoring and reporting
of child rights/protection issues at community
and national levels
l Design guidelines to support staff to identify
child protection issues and integrate child
protection activities into sector programs

Strategy Level l Develop an integrated regional child rights

strategy that includes child protection
l Design guidelines to support National Offices to
systematically plan for cross sector integration of
child rights/protection
l Support National Offices to develop integrated
national child protection strategies
l Develop regional and national capacity building
strategies on child protection
l Come up with a strategy to support or facilitate
community led child protection.

VII
Acknowledgements
This study could not have been undertaken without the participation of several persons and
institutions, who we wish to thank.

A lot of appreciation goes to the Africa regional team members from HIV/AIDS and Child
Sponsorship, World Vision UK, and others who made valuable comments and contributions
to this process.

Secondly, the six National Office Study Teams who provided support to the Consultant at
the NOs and the ADPs - without these teams the assessment would have been impossible.

Thirdly, the 103 key informants, 230 FGD participants, 277 individual respondents and 100
children who provided the data for this study - this report could not have been written
without your participation.

Special mention also goes to the children from all the six countries who took part in this
assessment.

VIII
Glossary of key terms
Child Protection:

The special safeguards and care accorded to children because of their evolving
physical and mental maturity, their reliance on adults, and the complex and
often criminal nature of protection violations. While all children require protection,
greater vigilance is needed to protect those at greatest risk – including children
affected by HIV & AIDS, poverty, orphaning or other loss of parental care, disability,
natural disaster and conflict – and special attention is needed to the particular risks
facing girls in these situations.

Community level child protection:

Activities undertaken by local/community based organisations, organised groups and
structures, which should address and prevent issues of child abuse and exploitation.

Legal protection:

Governments and national level actors have laws, policies, legal instruments and pro
cesses in place for handling countrywide issues and concerns affecting the welfare
and rights of the child. These actions include enacting and enforcing policies and laws
protecting children from abuse and exploitation in line with international instruments
touching on the child.

OVCs:

World Vision’s definition of orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) includes:

Orphans – children who have lost one or both parents to any cause; Children whose
parents are chronically ill; Children living in households that have taken in orphans;
Disabled children; and, Other children the community identifies as most vulnerable,
using criteria developed jointly by the community and WV staff in an ADP.

Advocacy:

This includes efforts at both local and national level that seek to influence policies,
actions and processes for creating a protective environment for the child, particularly
OVCs. These efforts can be undertaken using both formal and non-formal strategies
and by local, national and international agencies.

Networking:

Networking is a process of relationship building in which agencies and organizations
strive to learn more from each other for the mutual benefit of achieving the stated
visions and missions. Networking can be horizontal (with same calibre of
organization) and vertical (with different calibre of organization), formal or informal,
and can be undertaken at local, national and international levels.

IX
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations

ACK - Anglican Church of Kenya

ADP - Area Development Programme
AIDS - Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
ANPPCAN - African Network for the Prevention and Protection Against Child
Abuse and Neglect
APAP - Action Professional Association for People
BCC - Behaviour Change Communication
BEAM - Basic Education Assistance Module
CCC(s) - Community Care Coalitions
CCPW - Community Child Protection Worker
CoH - Channels of Hope
CPCA - Counsel for People’s Causes Association
CPN - Child Protection Network
CRS - Customer Relations Service (Sponsorship)
CSOs - Civil Society Organisations
DCRLO - District Community Relations Liaison Office
DTT - District Training Teams
DVCPSO - Domestic Violence Child Protection and Sexual Offences
ECD - Early Childhood Development
EFA - Education for All
EWLA - Ethiopia Women League
FAO - Food and Agricultural Organisation
FGD(s) - - Focus Group Discussion(s)
GoZ - Government of Zimbabwe
HIV - Human Immunodeficiency Virus
IEC - Information Education Communication
IFSO - Integrated Funds Support Organisation
ILO-IPEC - International Labour Organisation-International Programme on the
Elimination of Child Labour
KAACR - Kenya Alliance for the Advancement of Children
KURET - Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Together
LHRC - Legal and Human Rights Centre


MAGGA - Malawi Girl Guides Association
MDGs - Millennium Development Goals
MoE - Ministry of Education
MoH & SW - Ministry of Home Affairs and Social Welfare
MoH - Ministry of Health
MoWA - Ministry of Women Affairs
MVCs - Most Vulnerable Children
NCPs - Neighbourhood Care Points
NERCHA - National Emergency Response for the Control of HIV/AIDS
NGOs - Non-Governmental Organizations
NO(s) - National Office(s)
NPA - National Plan of Action
OSJ - Organisation for Social Justice
OVCs - Orphaned and Vulnerable Children
PEs - Peer Education
PSSP - Primary School Support Programme
RBA - Rights Based Approach
SPSS - Statistical Package for Social Scientists
SWAGAA - Swaziland Group Against Abuse
TAMWA - Tanzania Media Women Association
TANGO - Tanzania Association of NGOs
UN - United Nations
UNCRC - United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
UNICEF - United Nations Children’s Fund
USAID - - United States Agency for International Development
WFP - World Food Programme
WVE - World Vision Ethiopia
WVI - World Vision International
WVK - World Vision Kenya
WVM - World Vision Malawi
WVS - Worlds Vision Swaziland
WVZ - World Vision Zimbabwe
ZWLA - Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association

XI
1. INTRODUCTION
Although the assessment, on which this report is based, used HIV & AIDS programming
as an entry point, it raises critical questions and issues regarding the entire practice and
processes of child protection in the countries covered (Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe,
Swaziland and Ethiopia). While the interpretation of the results of this assessment is limited
to the specific ADPs from the 6 participating countries, the issues emerging, as well as the
recommendations, can go a long way in influencing cross sector child protection thinking and
integration efforts within World Vision in Africa.

1.1 Objectives of the assessment

According to the terms of reference, which forms Annex I of this report, this assessment
sought to analyse the current situation of child protection in the selected countries with a
view to recommending concrete action points for an integrated child protection strategy.
The objectives of the assessment were categorised into two areas as follows:

(a) Community led child protection

1. Identify and review child protection materials, strategies and activities being used by
ADPs in the implementation of CCC, CoH and prevention models
2. Identify capacity requirements of programs in terms of material resources, training
and other technical skills for strengthening community child protection in the
context of HIV & AIDS
3. Define areas to be considered in the design of a regional child protection technical
support strategy based on assessment.

(b) Legal protection issues and strategies

4. Identify organizations involved in work on inheritance rights and other legal

protection strategies and highlight gaps in such strategies
5. Review national legal frameworks and assess capacity building strategies that are in
place for implementation of child protection frameworks
6. Identify existing networks of organizations on legal protection including capacity
requirements and recommend how WV can contribute to address such capacity
gaps.

In line with the objectives, the key deliverables for the Consultant included:

l Review secondary sources, tools and existing background

materials and information on child protection from the
study countries and the region
l Review and finalize the Study Guide
l Review and finalize the research tools/
questionnaires
l Develop a socio-demographic questionnaire to
screen the respondents
l Develop and clearly outline the assessment
methodology and process
l Review and adjust tools and assessment
processes in the field as appropriate


l Review and identify child protection gaps in existing training materials for the HIV &
AIDS team (Africa HOPE Initiative) – CCC, CoH and life skills training guides and
materials
l Provide technical leadership for the assessment and data collection in 6 countries
l Map out organizations and projects that focus on legal protection in the 6 countries
l Identify legal protection projects that can be scaled up or WV can partner with
l Identify areas for technical support and recommend trainings and resources/
materials on child protection needed by National Offices, ADP, communities and
children
l Collate, consolidate and analyze data or information from the field
l Prepare and give exit debriefs on key study findings to the study teams and National
Offices after field work
l Analyze socio-demographic data using SPSS or another quantitative package
l Write up the draft report to be circulated for feedback to National Office Teams and
the Regional Study Technical Review Team
l Review feedback information, consolidate all the information and produce a final
report
l Present the final report and facilitate action planning at a 4 day regional study
dissemination meeting in May 2007.

1.2 Assessment Methodology

The methodology adopted included a triangulated use of:

l Review of secondary data from WVI and ADPs as well as other sources such as
UNICEF (including the website), country-specific organizations dealing with child
protection, among others. These documents included Adventure Unlimited, CCC
Toolkit, ADP Guidelines, NPAs on OVCs, UNCRC reports, school curriculum
materials, among others. A list of all the documents reviewed is presented as
Annex II;
l Key informant interviews with WVI National Office and ADP staff working on child
protection and HIV/AIDS, government, donor and civil society actors. A total of 103
key informants were interviewed spread out as follows: 20 in Kenya, 17 in Tanzania,
18 in Malawi, 14 in Swaziland, 16 in Zimbabwe and 18 in Ethiopia;
l Focus group discussions with CCC members, home visitors, parents/guardians. In
total 23 FGDs were held with 3 in Kenya, 4 in Tanzania, 4 in Malawi, 5 in Swaziland,
4 in Zimbabwe and 3 in Ethiopia. With each having an average of 10 persons, the
FGDs covered approximately 230 participants;
l Semi-structured interviews with individual household members within the
communities. A total of 277 interviews (out of 300 targeted) were conducted with
the following breakdown: Makuyu ADP in Kenya (40), Kafulu ADP in Malawi (47),
Kisongo Makuyuni ADP in Tanzania (50), Hurungwe ADP in Zimbabwe (49),
Mpolonjeni ADP in Swaziland (48) and Kemissie ADP in Ethiopia (43). A description
of the demographic characteristics of the 277 respondents forms Annex III;
l Nine (9) child participation forums (2 in Kenya, 1 in Tanzania, 2 in Malawi, 1 in
Zimbabwe, 1 in Swaziland and 2 in Ethiopia) were held with approximately 100
children aged 7-11 and 11-14 using games, song and drama, story telling, drawing and
discussions;
l Direct observation of visible aspects of child protection, e.g. materials, structures and
relationships with children;


l Photographic depictions of visible aspects of child protection was undertaken in
Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia, e.g. community structures, nature of child
participation and such facilities and services as the materials being used; and
l A regional child protection assessment workshop, which shared the first draft of
the report and validated the findings, including charting out critical areas for the
future. This workshop was attended by participants from the 6 countries drawn from
child sponsorship, child rights advocacy and HIV & AIDS departments.

In total the study covered a sample of 710 respondents.

1.3 Scope and limitations

The study was conducted in six countries selected to represent Eastern and Southern Africa.
Given the time and other resource constraints, the following limitations should be taken into
account when interpreting the issues raised in this report:

1. The six countries cannot adequately represent the entire Eastern and Southern
Africa regions, let alone Sub-Saharan Africa or the whole of Africa, with all its cultural,
linguistic and politico-economic diversity;
2. Field visits were carried out in one ADP in the countries covered hence the
community level aspects rely heavily on the information from the key informants
at national and sub-national levels. Data from the households should therefore be
taken to represent the specific ADP and not the entire country – inferences about
the countries are made using information from secondary documents and key
informants;
3. The time allocated for the study (one week field work) in each country was highly
ambitious particularly to allow for comprehensive briefing of the National Office
Study Teams so that they could maximize on data gathering; and
4. The approach of having National Office Study Teams meant that these teams should
have undertaken adequate prior preparations so as to optimize the envisaged
participatory (especially with the children) data gathering processes with the
Consultant. This was not always the case, which meant that opportunities for getting
in-depth data could have been missed in a few cases.

In order to reduce the impact of the foregoing limitations on the study’s reliability and
validity, the process was steered to benefit substantively from secondary sources, thereby
providing for generalizations across countries and the entire region.


2. THE CONTEXT: HIV & AIDS AND
CHILD PROTECTION IN AFRICA
2.1 Background
Children affected by HIV and AIDS are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation caused by
parental loss, poor access to social services, poverty and the need to work in order to
earn a living. Their rights to inheritance and other aspects of legal protection are also
compromised. Community-led initiatives to protect children need to be encouraged and
strengthened. However such initiatives should not be isolated from overall protection
frameworks and strategies on legal protection of children at national level.

Under the HOPE initiative, there is potential for strengthening community led child
protection initiatives in the context of CCC, CoH and Prevention models. However for this
to happen, there is a need to review models, strategies, training materials and community
level activities being used to protect children by WV. Current strengths and gaps need to be
known so as to develop a technical support strategy for integrating and strengthening child
protection under the models.

Accordingly, the rationale for this assessment was to highlight what practices and processes
are being implemented at the community level in the context of the broader legal protection
frameworks pertaining to child protection. The identifiable gaps and challenges would then
lead to viable recommendations for an integrated child protection strategy in the context
of HIV & AIDS. The latter is expected to strengthen capacities for child protection at both
the community and broader legal levels. While HIV & AIDS models in Africa were used as
an entry point, this study interrogates the practice of child protection in a way that leads
to recommendations that can be adopted to improve child protection programming across
sectors in WV’s ministry.

This integrated child protection assessment was conducted in 6 countries, which are Kenya,
Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Ethiopia. These countries were selected in terms
of their strategic role in WVI work on child protection as well as the heavy concentration of
OVCs compared to other countries within the region.

2.2 HIV, Orphan trends and implications

The HIV pandemic has continued to ravage the continent of Africa leaving an extremely
undesirable legacy; the orphaning phenomenon. Most deaths of people in the reproductive
age groups (15-49) are accounted for by HIV & AIDS. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) accounts for
80 percent of the HIV-orphaned children in the developing world (see also UNICEF, 2007:
The State of World’s Children 2007).

A recent UNICEF report (2007) entitled Africa’s Orphaned and Vulnerable Generations:
Children Affected By AIDS, which updates the 2003 report on Africa’s Orphaned
Generations, points out that HIV & AIDS affects society and children in a way that
denies children opportunities for survival, growth and development. National goals and
targets outlined in critically important international instruments such as the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
(UNCRC) are being reversed or made difficult to achieve in much of SSA.Yet this part of the


continent is already poor with poverty levels close to 65 percent in some countries. HIV is
compounding this poverty.

This does not in any way imply that children of the non-poor are not affected by HIV &
AIDS. They can also be abused sexually (and in other ways) as well as experience the
difficulty of accessing social services.

All children are directly or indirectly affected by HIV & AIDS in three major ways: Firstly,
as research on child and adolescent sexuality is increasingly showing, children below 18
years can be infected with HIV hence jeopardizing their growth and survival, in addition to
experiencing stigma and discrimination. Given that children are still at early stages of their
growth and development, the HIV pandemic has more adverse effects on them compared
with adults.

Secondly, children with HIV positive or ill parents and guardians are at risk physically
and emotionally as they can lose a caretaker and breadwinner. They may also collectively
experience stigma associated with the pandemic and have the potential to become orphans.
The high costs of caring for an ill parent or caregiver such as medical bills, food, entertaining
visitors and mourning of the dead further deny children vital resources that could be used
for survival and development.

Thirdly, when nurses, teachers and other caregivers in society are at a high risk of dying from
HIV & AIDS related illnesses, provision of vital social services for children such as education
and healthcare becomes a far-fetched reality for most children. Given the role of parents as
primary stage protection agents, children who become orphans as a result of parental death
also face compounded risk when social services collapse in society.

Table 1 below shows statistics on orphans in the selected 6 sub-Saharan countries that were
covered by the assessment.

Table 1: Orphans in the study countries, 2005

% of No. of Children Orphans

orphaned Projected as a %
Region/ Total children orphans by AIDS orphans of all
Country orphans who are due to
orphans AIDS as % of all by 2010 children
orphans by 2010
Kenya 2,300,000 13 1,100,000 46 2,500,000 13
Tanzania 2,400,000 12 1,100,00 44 2,500,000 12
Malawi 950,000 15 550,000 57 1,100,000 15
Swaziland 95,000 17 63,000 66 120,000 22
Zimbabwe 1,400,000 21 1,100,000 77 1,300,000 20
Ethiopia 4,800,000 11 - - 5,100,000 11
SSA 48,300,000 12 12,000,000 25 53,100,000 30

Source: Extracted from UNICEF (2007) Africa’s Orphaned and Vulnerable Generations: Children Affected By
AIDS. Quoting from UNAIDS and UNICEF, 2006.

From the statistics, it is clear that a quarter of all orphans in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are
due to HIV & AIDS, with Zimbabwe and Swaziland having the highest toll. In all the countries
and within the region, the effect of HIV on the child population is substantial at over 10
percent and 12 percent in SSA and projected to hit 30 percent in the next three years.


Beyond the statistics, being an orphan is in itself a phenomenal issue since it carries with
it untold suffering, stress and depression associated with the loss of parents. There is an
opportunity for some unscrupulous persons in society to take advantage of the least
protected and vulnerable orphans through labour exploitation for their survival. Other risks
faced by the children are associated with the practice of taking care of siblings, sex trade,
sexual harassment, defilement and other forms of abuse. Even when left under the care of
relatives, orphans may still miss out on school hence depriving them of an opportunity for
development which is a vital child and human right. The UNICEF report (2007) indicates that
most orphans are aged 12-17 years, which is a vulnerable age for them to be abused in the
above and other ways.

Being an orphan is also in itself a form of stigma in some African societies. It is in this regard
that WV Tanzania has adopted the use of the term “Most Vulnerable Children (MVCs)” as
opposed to the popular term of “Orphans and other Vulnerable Children (OVC)”, which
carries negative connotations that stigmatizes children.
Adult members in some communities in Africa have a tendency to grab away land and
other property bequeathed to orphans (FAO proposal on Children’s Property Rights and
Livelihoods in the context of HIV & AIDS, April 2006). In such communities, land belongs to
the adults hence relatives of a deceased parent will comfortably take away land and other
disposable properties leaving the children to fend for themselves and, at times, homeless.

Therefore even non-orphaned children are at risk of suffering in the context of such non-
protective environments especially when more and more parents and guardians as well as
other caregivers continue to be decimated by the HIV pandemic.

In this study, the implications of the HIV pandemic for child

protection are contextually taken to be enormous and
phenomenal. A clear strategy for child protection has to
recognize the above and other various dimensions
of the pandemic that compromise the protective
environments of the child in Africa.

After this review of the impact of HIV & AIDS on

children in Africa, it is critical to take note of key
principles behind child protection in Africa. These
principles which are presented in the next section
form the basis of child protection programming
in WV and other child focused organizations.

2.3 Principles behind child

protection in Africa
In Africa, there are five main policy
instruments that set the minimum
standards on the rights of the child
(Stuart, 2007). These rights have
implications for conditions that can
assure children in Africa of a protective
environment. These instruments are outlined
below:


a. Convention on the rights of the child (CRC) 1989, whose pronouncements are divided
into four broad child rights pillars, namely, the right to:

l Survival, development and protection from abuse and neglect;

l Freedom from discrimination;
l Have a voice and be listened to; and,
l Have their best interests be of primary consideration.

b. African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of Child (1990). This instrument echoes the
CRC 1989;
c. 1990 World Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children,
which provides for 10 points to improve children’s lives;
d. 1996 Economic Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, a treaty that
provides for the protection of economic and social rights; and,
e. 2000 Millennium Summit Document, which provides for the 8 MDGs, including
universal primary education by 2015.

On the whole, these international instruments provide for the following key child right
norms:

l Non-discrimination l Right to adequate standard of living

l Best interests of the child
l Right to respect the views of the
child
l Right to life
l Right to survival and development
l Right to protection from abuse and
exploitation
l Rights of children deprived of
family life
l Right to the highest attainable
standard of health
l Right to housing
l Right to education
l Right to birth registration
l Right to protection from economic
exploitation
l Right to protection from armed
conflict
l Right to protection of the family
l Prohibition of marriage under age of
18 (Africa)

2.4 WVI Policy and guidelines on child protection

In the process of making some of the above instruments operational, WV has a policy and
guidelines that are meant to frame child protection programming. World Vision’s policy and
child rights related advocacy call addresses the following issues/principles:

l Stop the needless deaths of parents;

l Stop the needless deaths of children;
l Improve the lives of orphans and vulnerable children;
l Preserve an HIV-free generation; and,
l Eliminate unacceptable vulnerability of girls.

This informs World Vision’s definition of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) adopted in
this study which includes:

l Orphans who are children who have lost one or both parents to any cause;


l Children whose parents are chronically ill;
l Children living in households that have taken in orphans;
l Disabled children; and,
l Other children the community identifies as most vulnerable, using criteria developed
jointly by the community and WVI staff in an ADP.

This definition of OVC aligns with globally accepted good practice and allows for
community-led identification of the most vulnerable children within HIV/AIDS affected
communities regardless of the cause of vulnerability. In this assessment, the data is
interpreted in line with this definition and conceptualization of child vulnerability. It is in the
context of World Vision’s policy and programming objectives on children protection that this
assessment is situated.

The overall objective of WVI’s strategic mandate 4 is to be an authoritative voice at all levels,
driving change; while the specific objectives are to:

l Drive a global consciousness on issues of justice, causes of poverty and the rights of
the child by leveraging our experience of walking with the poor;
l Empower those we work with – children, families, communities, churches and
supporters – as advocates;
l Create a world-wide movement that will have greater voice and impact for children;
l Develop key relationships with institutions and policy makers at all levels to achieve
greater advocacy influence and mobilize global agreements; and,
l Play an active role monitoring and influencing policy on priority child rights and
development issues.

Child sponsorship, which is the hallmark of WV’s programming and operations at the local
level, is seen as the creation and nurturing of a mutually beneficial relationship between
children, their families, communities and sponsors that contributes to the transformation of
all towards wholeness of life with dignity, justice, peace and hope.

Several vulnerabilities can be cited with regard to sponsorship and children, particularly
OVCs. These vulnerabilities are quite important especially when looking at the current
protection practice of vulnerable children in the context of HIV & AIDS in the ADPs from
the assessed countries. Points of child vulnerability in child sponsorship include:

l Selection and registration of children in the sponsorship programme, combined with

a programmatic bias of focusing on the RCs, has at times led to exclusion of some of
the most vulnerable children;
l Marketing and communication including the use of child information and images at
both the National and Support Office levels may inadvertently expose children
despite the procedural and electronic safeguards.
l Children’s contact with adults, e.g. WV field workers and sponsors during home and
sponsor visits, despite the chaperoning standard are a potential point of vulnerability
l Monitoring and reporting systems that do not have consistency and collection of
information that involves limited participation of children.
l Lack of confidentiality of child health issues e.g. if a child is infected by HIV/AIDS and
such information is mishandled, it can lead to the child being vulnerable;
l Misuse of child information: child information is supposed to be kept under lock and
key. Failure to do this can lead to someone misusing the information to hurt the
child; and,


l Distribution of direct benefits: staff may take advantage of the children by enticing
them.

Therefore from the above points which in part reveal World Vision’s current child protection
practice, we are pointed to critical areas for consideration not just under sponsorship
programming but also health and HIV &AIDS and other sectors of World Vision’s work. Such
areas for consideration under an integrated child protection program should touch on:

l Basic operational understanding of the child protection concept and principles;

l Mainstreaming child protection into the field worker’s daily roles and responsibilities,
i.e. programmatic implications of child protection;
l Identification of key child protection issues such as physical, sexual and other forms
of abuses of children and children’s rights;
l Linkages between sponsorship and child protection in the project design, monitoring
and evaluation of the ADP, and the sponsorship management project as a sub-set of
the programme;
l Understanding WV protection policy and procedure for monitoring, reporting and
managing child protection issues;
l Understanding of child rights and participation issues by staff;
l The challenge of creating awareness of child rights issues at household level by
community level workers
l Reinforcement of integration between child protection and HIV & AIDS, sponsorship
and other sectors.

These points are further confirmed by the results of this assessment especially in relation to
the need for adopting an integrated child rights strategy at both regional and National Office
levels.

The foregoing issues are vital for thinking and strategizing on cross sector child protection
programming within WV at regional, national and ADP levels. This is important because
the results and recommendations of this assessment should be read in line with current
organizational policies, guidelines and practice on child protection or child rights in general.

2.5 Child Protection Programming in World Vision

Child protection has been defined in the various WVI Child Protection policies to include
all activities, programmes and processes for enhancing the well-being of the child. The
“best interests of the child” guide these policies, hence an attempt is made to incorporate
prohibitions and guidelines to behaviour for WV staff and visitors, including consultants. The
WV conceptualization looks at child protection mainly from an operational perspective, as
exemplified by the signing of child protection policies which spell out DOs and DONTs
for staff and visitors who come into contact with children. However, it should be noted
that child protection is more than this normative operational approach to do mainly with
administrative procedures.

It is critical though to note that World Vision International’s work on child protection is
informed by key global frameworks and guidelines on the care and support of vulnerable
children. This assessment also looks at World Vision’s work in this perspective.

From a programming perspective, where UNICEF leadership is undisputed and WV’s work
is related, children have a right to personal safety and well-being. This inalienable right is


threatened by HIV & AIDS, which casts a shadow on national and international development
goals, including those set in the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development
Goals, Education for All and ‘A World Fit for Children’. Accordingly, the Unite for Children.
Unite against AIDS campaign, launched by UNICEF and UNAIDS in October 2005, highlights
the protection and support of children affected by AIDS. Countries have responded by
developing National Plans of Action (NPAs) on orphans and vulnerable children, but these
efforts need a stronger focus and implementation.

According to a 2006 pre-publication report by UNICEF (Child Protection and Children

Affected by AIDS: A Companion Paper to The Framework for the Protection, Care and
Support of Orphans and Vulnerable Children Living in a World with HIV and AIDS), ‘child
protection can be viewed as constituting the special safeguards and care accorded to
children because of their evolving physical and mental maturity, their reliance on adults, and
the complex and often criminal nature of protection violations.’

While all children require protection, greater vigilance is needed to protect those at greatest
risk – including children affected by poverty, orphaning or other loss of parental care,
disability, natural disaster and conflict – and special attention is needed to the particular risks
facing girls in these situations.

The UNICEF document proposes The Protective Environment Framework applying a human
rights approach to child protection by recognizing and supporting governments’ obligations
to protect children while acknowledging the responsibilities and potential contributions
of others in the private and civil sectors. Putting this framework into practice requires
an increased focus on the capacities, systems and structures needed for protection, and
recognition of children’s resilience, as well as the importance of their participation. All such
efforts need to be underpinned by better monitoring, including disaggregating data to reflect
the different experiences of boys and girls and at various ages.

Child protection programming therefore entails processes for:

l analyzing and understanding the specific protective environment;

l integrating programmes to respond to this environment;
l supporting structures and systems that enhance and utilize the capacities of
governments/states and non-state actors to actively promote protective
environments in a sustainable manner; and
l monitoring these processes.

Thus, while social service is a critically vital ingredient of child protection, direct social
service provision does not per se constitute protection since it may occur in the absence of
strengthened structures thereby creating a non-protective environment for the child from a
concrete and sustainable view.

Child protection is a right in itself but also the process of child protection must be rights-
based in terms of incorporating the principles of programming which are; participation,
non-discrimination, openness and transparency, responsibility and accountability. The rights
approach to child protection means that both state and non-state structures have to take
part in child protection programming and be able to benefit from these efforts in terms of
enhanced capacity for child protection.

10
2.5.1 Community level child protection and legal
protection
Based on the above, it may well be said that World Vision’s work on child protection
currently focuses on community and legal protection levels as informed by UNICEF and
other guiding frameworks. However, this is not happening in a systematic way that integrates
the community and legal protection levels.

At the community level, child protection is ideally expected to constitute activities

undertaken by local/community-based organisations, groups and structures, which should
address, prevent and deal with issues of child abuse and exploitation.

In terms of legal protection, governments and national level actors need to put in place
policies and processes for handling countrywide issues and legal concerns affecting the
welfare and rights of the child. These actions include enacting and enforcing policies and
laws protecting children from abuse and exploitation in line with international instruments
touching on the child.

These two levels overlap when, for instance, community level actors have to work in
implementing legal instruments. Conversely, legal protection has to eventually create impact
and be felt at the community level, where child abuse and exploitation is found. It is dealing
with an overlap of these two levels that World Vision should consider doing more work on
than is its present practice and this is a critical gap to note as revealed by this assessment.
In view of the above, this assessment was carried out at a timely moment when protective
environments are beginning to be created and developed by WV and other agencies within
the resident countries at both national and sub-national structures. The assessment provides
an opportunity for the WVI’s Africa HIV/AIDS, Sponsorship, Children in Ministry and other
sector regional teams to strategize and pull together the various efforts and come up with
a coherent and programmatic direction on child protection in the context that goes beyond
just that of HIV & AIDS programming.

11
3. STUDY FINDINGS
The assessment found that generally child protection programming exists in WV among the
communities and stakeholders in the 6 countries. Unfortunately, concrete action towards
creating a protective environment have been lacking and opportunities for working together
for child protection are being missed in all the countries.

Findings of this assessment are presented in the following sequence; background to the six
countries, general knowledge and perception of child abuse and protection, community level
child protection issues, ADP level child protection issues, the role of government and other
actors in child protection and country specific legal protection issues.

3.1 Background to the six countries

Kenya covers a total area of 582,646 km² and lies between 3º and 5˚ south of the equator
between 33˚ and 42˚ east longitudes, Nairobi being its capital city. The country is home
to about forty three indigenous communities with diverse traditions and cultures, which
have a bearing on child protection (Republic of Kenya’s UNCRC Report, 2006). The total
Kenyan population is estimated to be 32 million with females accounting for a slightly higher
proportion of 51%. Population projection estimates the country’s population at 43 million by
2020. The distribution of population is uneven, the most densely populated areas being found
in the urban areas, around Lake Victoria, the highlands and the coastal strip which have fertile
soil and well distributed, reliable rainfall.

Infant mortality rate per 1000 is 71 while under-5 mortality rate is 105. The country has a
total of 2,300,000 orphans of whom over half are as a result of HIV & AIDS. OVCs problems
include malnutrition, abuse and exploitation and overall neglect. Kenya has had growing
numbers of internal and external refugees and asylum seekers, including children, from
neighbouring countries and children who have been the victims of ethnic clashes.

Kenya’s economy has undergone major reforms over the past ten years. These include the
removal of import, price and foreign exchange controls which has opened up the domestic
economy to stiff competition. The lowest growth rate was recorded in real GDP at 0.2%in
1993 and 2.8%in 1992 declining to 1.8%in 1998. However, the economy recovered from
negative growth of 0.2%in 2000 to record a modest growth of 1.2%in 2001 and today it is
growing at an estimated rate of 6.1%with an estimated per capita income (Purchasing Power
Parity, PPP) of US$2,600.

Tanzania is home to 2,400,000 orphans and many children are OVCs (or MVCs as
conceptualized in the NPA on MVCs). OVCs as a result of HIV & AIDS account for 44 per
cent of the total orphan population. Data from the 2002 Population and Housing Census
for Tanzania Mainland show that 2% of the children have lost their mothers, but not their
fathers, 6%have lost their fathers but not their mothers and 1%have lost both parents. Only
about 4 to 6%of orphans and vulnerable children live in households that reported receiving
various types of external support. However, the definition used to estimate the Orphans
and Vulnerable Children is not in line with the definition of child vulnerability adopted in
Tanzania.

Tanzania’s population is estimated at 39,384,223 taking into account the effects of excess
mortality due to AIDS. This has implications for a lower life expectancy, higher infant

12
mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution
of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected. The Infant Mortality Rate is
estimated at 71.69 deaths/1,000 live births.

With a per capita income (PPP) of US$800, Tanzania’s economy depends heavily on
agriculture, which accounts for almost half of GDP, provides 85% of exports, and employs
80% of the work force. Topography and climatic conditions, however, limit cultivated crops
to only 4% of the land area. Industry traditionally featured the processing of agricultural
products and light consumer goods. The World Bank, the IMF, and bilateral donors have
provided funds to rehabilitate Tanzania’s out-of-date economic infrastructure and to alleviate
poverty (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanzania). Long-term growth through 2005 featured
a pick up in industrial production and a substantial increase in output of minerals led by
gold. Recent banking reforms have helped increase private-sector growth and investment.
Continued donor assistance and solid macroeconomic policies supported real GDP growth
of nearly 6% in 2006.

Malawi is one of Sub-Saharan Africa’s most densely populated countries. Lilongwe, Malawi’s
capital since 1971, has a population which exceeds 400,000. All government ministries and
the Parliament are located in the capital. The country has an orphan population of 950,000
of whom 57%is due to HIV & AIDS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malawi and Malawi UNCRC
Report, 2006).

Real GDP increased by an estimated 3.9% in 2004, from 4.3% in 2003 and 2.4% in 2002. The
per capita income is estimated at US$596, which indicates deep poverty. Child mortality
stands at 103/1000 and children are affected by problems of malnutrition and high morbidity/
disease incidence.

The Republic of Zimbabwe is a land-locked country in the southern part of Africa,

between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It borders South Africa to the south, Botswana to
the southwest, Zambia to the northwest, and Mozambique to the east.

The government of Zimbabwe faces a wide variety of difficult economic problems after
having abandoned earlier efforts in developing a market-oriented economy. Current
problems include a shortage of foreign exchange, soaring inflation that is on an increasing
trend beyond 3,000%, and supply shortages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwe).

HIV and AIDS, which was estimated by WHO to be the highest in the world by 2001 at
33.7% coupled with increasing poverty and the collapse of health infrastructure due to poor
governance have made life expectancy very low and the situation for children extremely
difficult. However the current HIV prevalence is 18.1%.

Of the total 1,400,000 orphans, 77%are due to HIV & AIDS. They lack basic services like
education, health care and public utilities. Efforts to provide grants by government are
negated by the dwindling purchasing power.

The Royal Swazi Kingdom has a population of just over 1,000,000. Orphans total 95,000
of whom 66%are due to HIV & AIDS. Swaziland is one of the wealthiest nations in Africa, but
also one of the poorest in the world. Most of the high-level economic activity is in the hands
of non-Africans, but ethnic Swazi are becoming more active. Small entrepreneurs are moving
into middle management positions.

13
Yet 70% of Swazi live in rural areas and are being ravaged by drought and a resulting
food crisis that threatens hundreds of thousands with hunger. The unemployment rate is
approximately 40% , and nearly 70% of the population lives on less than one American dollar
per day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swaziland).

Like Zimbabwe, Swaziland has a high HIV prevalence of close to 40%and this, coupled with
a mix of traditional cultural practices and an emerging modernization, occasions a situation
of rampant child abuse and exploitation (Swaziland UNCRC Report, 2006 and Save the
Children Swaziland Report, 2006).

The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia is a country situated in the Horn of

Africa and has been land-locked since the independence of its northern neighbour Eritrea
in 1993. Apart from Eritrea to the north, Ethiopia is bordered by Sudan to the west, Kenya
to the south, Djibouti to the northeast, and Somalia to the east. The country’s population
is estimated at 75,000,000 with an orphan population of 4,800,000. The annual economic
growth stands at per capita income (PPP) is estimated at US$823.

Agriculture accounts for almost 41%of the GDP, 80%of exports, and 80%of the labour force.
Many other economic activities depend on agriculture, including marketing, processing, and
export of agricultural products. Production is overwhelmingly of a subsistence nature, and
a large part of commodity exports are provided by the small agricultural cash-crop sector.
Exports are almost entirely agricultural commodities, and coffee is the largest foreign
exchange earner. Ethiopia’s livestock population is believed to be the largest in Africa and, as
of 1987, accounted for about 15%of the GDP. Despite recent improvements, with the equally
exploding population, Ethiopia remains one of the poorest nations in the world (http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia).

3.2 Knowledge and perception of child abuse

Cases of child abuse, e.g. child sexual exploitation, were cited by the respondents and
informants. This confirms the prevalence of such forms of abuse as mentioned in the
UNICEF study (2006),

3.2.1 Having heard of “child abuse”

Table 3 and Graph 2 below shows that majority of the respondents (238) have heard of the
term “child abuse”.

Table 1: Having heard of the term “child abuse” in selected countries

Heard
of child Kenya Malawi Tanzania Zimbabwe Swaziland Ethiopia Total
abuse
Yes 39 46 44 44 44 21 238
No 1 1 5 5 2 22 36
Total 40 47 49 49 46 43 274

Source: Survey data, 2007. 3 cases are missing responses

14
Graph 1: Have you heard of “child abuse”?
100

80

60

40

20
Percent

0
Yes No

q11a Have you ever heard of the term “Child Abuse”?

The only exception was in Ethiopia, where 22 (51.2%) had not heard of the term “child
abuse”.

Generally, cross-tabulation statistics show that there were no significant differences on

knowledge of child abuse and the socio-demographic characteristics. (See Annex 3). All
people from all socio-economic groups know what child abuse is. This information is ably
corroborated by data from the key informants, child participation forums and the FGDs.

3.2.2 Source of knowledge on child abuse

Half (118) of the respondents had heard of the term “child abuse” from the WV staff. This is
obviously because the interviews were administered within WV-supported areas. Information
from the FGDs and child participation forums indicates that those mobilized for the sessions
had indeed taken part in one or more training or sensitization meetings under WV in the
ADP. Malawi and Tanzania had the highest mention of WV as source of information with
30/47 and 29/50, respectively, while Ethiopia had the lowest at 6 out of 43.

A substantial number (62 or 26.4%) cited the government as their source of information
and a similar number (60 or 25.5%) from the mass media and 58 (24.7%) from churches/
mosques. Other NGOs were cited by 48 (20.4%) of the respondents, mainly in Swaziland
(23) and Malawi (10). Swaziland especially had a large number of cited NGOs.

Except for Ethiopia where no NGO was cited, the list of the NGOs mentioned per country
is as follows:

l Swaziland: SWAGAA, Save the Children, Women and Law, CARITAS, FLAS, NERCHA
and UNICEF
l Kenya; CCSP and Legal Resources Foundation
l Malawi: NICE
l Tanzania: MPDI
l Zimbabwe: UNICEF

15
Other sources of information included; politicians, schools, community members, health
institutions (3 in Ethiopia and 1 in Zimbabwe), Cobs (2 in Zimbabwe and 1 in Kenya) and the
police (only mentioned in Malawi).

3.2.3 Meaning of child abuse

Child abuse was defined both in terms of basic rights and basic needs as follows:

l Denying a child its rights/basic needs (31.4%)

l Exposing a child to child labour (23.8%)
l Emotionally abusing a child (22.2%)
l Denying a child education (21.8%)
l Physically abusing a child (e.g. beating, burning & biting) (20.5%)
l Sexual abuse (15.5%)
l Denying a child food (13.8%)

Other forms of abuse include early marriages, denying a child shelter and clothes, not
listening to a child, female genital mutilation/cutting cited highly in Kenya and Ethiopia,
lowering a child’s dignity (Kenya) and exposure to drugs (Kenya).

3.2.4 Forms of child abuse by countries

Table 4 below shows the frequency of cases citing specific forms of abuse, which attests to
the rampant presence of all the forms of abuse in the countries studied.

Sexual abuse (child rape and, Commercial Sex Exploitation of Children – CSEC) is lowest in
pastoralist and traditional communities as seen in Tanzania and Ethiopia. Except in Ethiopia,
where property grabbing is lowest (since much of the main property/land is state-owned)
this form of abuse (which affects OVCs substantially, particularly in terms of their future) is
prevalent in all the countries and in significant measure.

Table 2: Forms of child abuse in the selected countries

Number of respondents answering “Yes” on the type

Type of abuse
Kenya Malawi Tanzania Zimbabwe Swaziland Ethiopia Total
Denying basic 28 41 30 32 29 22 182
needs
Physical/beating 30 40 40 29 36 7 182
Child labour 32 43 24 34 26 22 181
Early/forced 11 34 42 32 14 10 143
marriage
Property 21 30 26 21 29 2 129
grabbing
Child rape 32 28 7 20 32 1 120
FGM* 20 3 43 6 7 22 101
CSEC** 17 6 6 14 9 0 52

Source: Survey data, 2007. *FGM-Female genital mutilation/cutting, **CSEC-Commercial Sex Exploitation of Children

Sexual abuse (rape, female genital mutilation/cutting and early marriages) is an abuse
especially cited as affecting girls, while the other forms of abuse affect both children (Box
1). To be sure, a study by Save the Children Swaziland (2006) indicates that while boys are
faced by neglect (46%) and physical abuse (24%), e.g. beating, girls are affected more by sexual
abuse (46%) and neglect (24%).

16
Box 1: Summary of key forms of abuse in the study countries:

Kenya: physical assault, sexual abuse (rape and sexual molestation), homosexuality which
is still illegal and considered a vice in Kenya, dispossession of orphans and widows, incest,
recruitment of children into terror gangs (mungiki, Taliban, kamjeshi, sungu sungu) and
commercial sex exploitation of children.

Tanzania: physical assault, sexual abuse (rape and sexual molestation), FGM, grabbing
of property of OVCs when their parents are taken ill, discriminated against OVC, early
and/or forced marriages and the resultant rape, school drop-out due to early pregnancies,
preference for the boy child in access to education, commercial sex exploitation of
children particularly in the town centres along the transit routes to Rwanda and Kenya.

Malawi: sexual abuse (rape and sexual molestation), grabbing of property of OVC,
child labour in tobacco farms and in homes as well as WFCL in industries, early and/or
forced marriages, school drop out due to early pregnancies/marriages and child labour,
preference for the boy child in access to education, denial of basic needs for children,
neglect of children by parents especially mothers who divorce and leave the children with
poor grandparents as they remarry, witchcraft, favouring of some children – OVC being
taken to free public schools while other children attend private schools, child trafficking.

Zimbabwe: sexual abuse (rape, sex molestation, defilement), physical abuse (beating and
assault), verbal abuse especially to orphans, child labour/WFCL (CSEC, domestic child
labour, etc.), emotional abuse, early/forced marriages, orphans’ property grabbing, and
neglect of OVCs.

Swaziland: sexual abuse, neglect, child labour, emotional abuse and uncontrollable
behaviour.

Ethiopia: physical abuse (beating – corporal punishment), sexual abuse (rape and
abduction especially of girls, FGM, early marriages), child labour (herding, domestic child
labour, etc.), verbal abuse, denial of rights such as education and food, and property
grabbing.

Source: FGDs, key informants and child participation forums, 2007

Within the specific countries, forms of abuse differ by regions since (as explained in the
discussion on causes below) child abuse is culturally-specific.

3.2.5 Causes of child abuse

The key reasons behind the rampant cases of child abuse include culture, poverty and
ignorance.

Specific practices such as FGM are practised as a culture of weaning girls from childhood
to adulthood or womanhood. Sexual abuse in the form of early marriages is simply a
perpetuation of a traditional practice. Child sexual abuse is explained in some communities,
e.g. Kenya, Malawi and Swaziland as a form of “cleansing” from HIV/AIDS. Traditionally,
children in all these communities were not seen as having rights as their world was
“tomorrow’s” which they must wait for before they enjoy.

17
Poverty and absence of caregivers also explains the inability of many families and older
siblings to provide for their children with basic needs (Graph 3). Low income predisposes
children to be sent out to look for ‘money’ or forced to engage in child labour. Some parents
can marry off girls at an early age so as to fetch some “wealth” through the payment of
bride wealth. Parents are therefore being exploitative on the innocent child. Poverty in the
studied countries (as in many parts of SSA) has also made people desperate and depressed
as manifested in the occurrence of such heinous acts as child rape and child battering.

Graph 2: Why children are abused

Why children are abused

Tradition
Deviant children
Children are considered as having no freedom/rights
Presence of child molesters in society
Society’s negative attitude towards the poor
Irresponsible/selfish/exploitative parents
Selfish/exploitative/opportunistic relatives
Poverty/lack of basic needs
Absence of caregivers/guardians to protect child

Ignorance is evident where children are abused simply because the abusers, mainly parents
and teachers, may not be aware that they are abusing the children and the implications of
such actions on children. In cases of beating, children are physically abused under the guise
of ‘disciplining’ them. Even if many people may cite that they have heard of the term “child
abuse”, they display ignorance at times regarding the dangers of their “innocent actions” on
the children in their communities.

18
Child registration is also a major weakness occasioning child abuse in all the assessed
countries. UNICEF has been assisting governments in this area but there are still major gaps
in child registration. This lack of registration is also part of the story why children become
vulnerable to abuse. Unregistered children cannot have claims to legal ownership of property.
Neither is it possible to efficiently and effectively provide social services for children, whose
numbers are not known.

3.2.6 Who are the abused children?

Although all children are viewed by a substantial number (71) of the respondents as the
abused ones mainly due to poverty, children largely seen as vulnerable to abuse are orphans.
Orphans were cited by 135 (53.1%) as the ones abused due mainly to poverty and the
absence of caregivers or adults to protect them.

Data from FGDs and the key informants indeed look at child abuse as synonymous with
orphans/OVCs. Poverty was linked to child abuse with 84 (33.1%) indicating that most
abused children are from poor families due to the negative attitudes towards the poor.

3.2.7 Who are the abusers?

Data from the semi-structured interviews, the FGDs, key informants and child participation
forums indicate that the abusers are people close to the child, including parents (sexual and
physical abuse, child labour, denial of needs, etc), other children especially in child-headed
households (mainly sexual abuse), relatives, and teachers particularly regarding physical and
sexual abuse. This finding corroborates findings of the UN study of violence against children
(2006), which pointed out that common and familiar context to the child such as homes,
schools and within communities is where rampant abuses take place.

3.3 Knowledge and perception of child protection

The following section looks at the knowledge, perception and understanding of child
abuse, common forms of abuse and views on child protection based on results from the
6 countries. This information is critical as it allows an analysis of whether or not current
child protection practices are responsive and appropriate to local situations and child
vulnerabilities.

This is important because although a general understanding of child protection exists as

required in the Protective Environment (UNICEF, 2006) there has not been systematic
analysis of the issues involved as well as development of concrete and integrated
programmes, appropriate systems and structures, and monitoring of child protection
initiatives in the 6 countries. This report can contribute by taking World Vision’s efforts in
this regard to higher levels.

3.3.1 Having heard of “child protection”

Table 2 and Graph 1 show that the term “child protection” has been heard of by a majority
(227) of the respondents. Accordingly, there is widespread positive conceptualization of
child protection but this is confined to basic needs as opposed to what could be termed as
“structural protection”, e.g. legal instruments and knowledge and action at all levels and by
all critical players on child rights and child protection.

Programming for child protection will have to entail developing integrated interventions
providing for a protective environment, supporting existing structures and systems, and
continuously monitoring these interventions and systems.

19
Table 3: Knowledge of child protection in the selected countries

Heard of
child Kenya Malawi Tanzania Zimbabwe Swaziland Ethiopia Total
protection
Yes 32 47 42 39 38 29 227
No 8 0 7 10 8 13 46
Total 40 47 49 49 46 42 273

Graph 3: Knowledge of child protection

100

80

60

40

20
Percent

0
Yes No

The situation is similar to the knowledge of child abuse discussed below, except that more
people in Ethiopia now know of child protection as opposed to child abuse. In Zimbabwe,
Swaziland and Kenya, there is a greater number not knowing child protection compared with
those who know child abuse.

There was no significant difference with regard to socio-economic characteristics.

3.3.2 Source of knowledge on child protection

Just like in the case of child abuse, WV staff had been the main source of information on
child protection as mentioned by 111(49.6%). Again, Malawi and Tanzania score highest on
this with 30/47 and 27/50, respectively. Ethiopia, with 7/43 scored the lowest on the role of
WVI in child protection knowledge.

Government was mentioned by 60 (26.8%), churches by 55 (24.6%), mass media by 47 (21%)

and 37 (16.5%) by NGO staff. Others were schools (Ethiopia had 5 the rest being Zimbabwe
and Kenya); politicians in Malawi, Ethiopia and Kenya; health institutions mainly from Ethiopia
(5), Tanzania and Zimbabwe; community members; CBOs in Zimbabwe and Swaziland; and
the police in Malawi, Zimbabwe and Swaziland.

20
NGOs were mainly cited in Swaziland with none in Ethiopia. The list of organizations
mentioned is as follows:

l Swaziland: SWAGAA, Save the Children, Women and Law, CARITAS, MPDI and
NERCHA
l Kenya; CCSP
l Malawi: NICE and PSSP
l Tanzania: MPDI
l Zimbabwe: UNICEF

3.3.3 Meaning of “child protection”

In all the countries, child protection is equated by 103 (44.6%) with providing for the needs
of the children. Other understandings of child protection are as follows:

l Taking all children to school (21.6%)

l Making sure children’s rights are not violated (19.0%)
l Feeding children properly (10.8%)
l Educating children in virtues (8.7%), especially cited in Malawi
l Catering for children’s health (8.2%) especially cited in Ethiopia
l Listening to children (4.3%), only cited in Tanzania
l Creating awareness on child rights (2.6%) cited in Kenya, Malawi and Ethiopia
l Enacting and enforcing child protection legal instruments (2.2%) cited in Malawi

Others aspects included protecting children from early marriages, child labour, physical and
mental abuse. The information on child protection is generally available and communities
appear to have an idea of what it all entails to protect children. However, as will be seen
in the next section, cases of child abuse are worryingly high implying that this general
knowledge on child protection is not matched with appropriate action. It means that the
phase of knowledge needs consolidation and translation into action for behaviour change.

3.4 Community-level child protection: government

structures and other actors
This section discusses results on child protection at community level, which is mainly the
CCC level, existing ADP child protection activities and the role of government and other
agencies in child protection within the assessed areas.

3.4.1 Current role of WV in community child protection in

the context of HIV & AIDS
Within the HIV & AIDS programmes in WVI, CCCs and CoH have been used to engage
the communities in child protection. They constitute the major and emerging structures for
creating a protective environment for the child at the lowest level.

Under the CCC, there are four broad phases in the process of mobilising and strengthening
community-led care for OVCs, namely: preparation, strategising, empowering and
implementation and, supporting phases respectively. All these are undertaken in nine
systematic steps which bring about the need for integrating child protection into the CCC
planning process (CCC Implementation Guide; 2007).

21
The preparation phase involves the fulfilment of the first three steps, namely institutional
mapping, holding of a first stakeholders meeting and forming a community care coalition
(CCC). The members of the CCC are drawn from the government, community and
WVI. Specifically, they are representatives of FBO leaders, traditional leaders, government
departments, extension workers, business people, NGO/CBO, youth groups, women groups,
CHATTS and others.

The strategising phase is captured under stage four, which entails action planning. Stages
five, six, seven and eight are grouped under the empowering and implementation phases.
These stages are concerned with training CCC members, identifying OVCs and the training
of home visitors respectively. Home visitors are persons that link the CCC to the target
beneficiaries, the OVC and their households. These home visitors are trained in various skills
to enable them to directly care and support the OVCs and their households.

Training of CCC members is conducted based on the OCB modules. Skills imparted are
geared toward building the capacity of the members in advocacy, linkages and networking.
The advocacy module, in specific, uses child rights approach techniques. All the materials
used are community-based and can be used in various contexts. Currently the CCC
training does not address child protection issues in detail and yet CCC members come
across several cases of child abuse when doing their work. This calls for the development
of a detailed module on child protection to be treated as part of the overall CCC training
manual for communities.

The last stage is support to home visitors and is embraced by the supporting phase of the
CCC module.

One challenge in implementing the CCC is community attitude, which is entrenched in the
culture and traditions of the people. The culture and traditions endorse certain abusive
practices that communities may not consider as child abuse. Such practices are influenced by
local ignorance on child rights issues and also poverty. For example, one of the practices is
early marriage for the girl child, where the girl child is “sold” in exchange for economic gains
for her family.

Also lacking is the capacity of the WV ADP staff and the home visitors to handle issues on
child protection. The attitude of the ADP staff is that they are not in the community for OVC
alone but also for other community programmes and therefore cannot adequately support
actions related to OVC and child protection. Moreover, if they were presented with a child
protection case, they would be ill equipped to handle the situation as demonstrated by
limited capacity for child protection programming.

Compounding this scenario is a lack of knowledge on existing child protection institutions,

poor referral systems at local level, and a limited infrastructure. On the latter point, WV
generally works in remote areas where the nearest health facilities, police stations and other
legal services are many kilometres away. Indeed there are many instances when communities
only know WV as an intervener. It is thus critical to empower local communities with
knowledge and information on child protection so that most cases of child abuse can be
dealt with locally.

The following gaps are generally identifiable when working with CCCs on child protection
issues and WV’s program approach should take these into account:

22
l Limited WVI staff capacity to facilitate child protection and child rights advocacy at
local levels
l Capacity of CCC members on child protection and advocacy is limited
l Linkages to services and institutions that support child protection require
strengthening
l A system that provides timely information for action both within and outside the
community is not in place in most communities
l Simplified tools and materials that will help communities understand child protection
and take action need to be developed
l The current child protection module in the CCC guide is limited and requires
reworking into a 2 day specialized training for CCC members
l Current focus on child vulnerability as specific only to OVC as opposed to the view of
child vulnerability at a general level in communities calls for a mental and programming
shift
l An integrated preventive approach to child abuse should be adopted rather than
waiting for a reactive protection approach which will take place only after children have
been harmed.

Despite the existence of the above gaps in community level child protection, the following
are some of the opportunities that can be used to facilitate and strengthen community level
child protection:

l Existence of a community structure that directly cares for children – CCC

l Existence of home visitors who are in regular contact with children and can be trained
on child protection skills
l The CCC guide has a module on child protection which should be used as starting
point for the development of more detailed child protection materials
l The OCB guide has topics on advocacy, linkages and networking which can easily be
adapted for the community child protection manual to address community level child
rights advocacy issues
l WV’s current and ongoing shift in its development approach from service delivery to
facilitation is a positive basis for modelling child protection at community level
– facilitate community-led child protection and don’t deliver it as a centre based
service
l Staff working with communities are a ready resource for taking on the child protection
facilitation role
l Existence of a National Office point person on child protection and child rights is
an important entry point for integrated child protection training and capacity building
that translates to communities
l Existence of an Africa Health & HIV/AIDS Technical Team and several other regional
advisors who lead different child focused programming sectors is an opportunity to
develop resources, trainings, provide technical support to programs and also to initiate
cross sector discussions on the regional child rights integration agenda.

23
3.4.2 Child protection activities at ADP level in general
Other than the specific focus on integration of child protection into HIV & AIDS trainings
and capacity building efforts at community level discussed above, the assessment also looked
at existing child protection activities in general in the areas that World Vision is working
which are mainly ADPs. This was done to identify capacity gaps and points of integration for
child protection and also efficient resources utilization at program level.

It should be noted that the ADP is based in the community and so the division between
ADP and community level results discussed above is done to highlight gaps in integration as
reflected in current practice. Community care coalitions tend to be viewed as separate from
other ADP structures such as local management committees and this further supports the
point for systematic integration.

In all the countries the activities of WV at ADP level have included support for OVCs
through sponsorship within CRS, special grants to OVCs through the CCCs in some
instances, sensitization of communities on child rights, working with local and national
networks on child welfare and networking with similar agencies to some limited extent.

It was found that Malawi is the strongest in terms of national level networking on advocacy
and Tanzania was the weakest. Below are briefs regarding ADP level child protection findings
from each of the countries studied;

Kenya
Child protection work at WVK is being pursued in collaboration with other NGOs under
the umbrella of KAACR. Besides supporting OVCs with basic needs such as education,
food and health care, the “rights based approach” (RBA) is being used in terms of national
advocacy, sensitizing and training on child rights based on the Children’s Act 2001.

CCCs and Hope teams have been formed and trained on child abuse and their roles.
These structures are claiming to be knowledgeable about their child protection roles but
incapacitated by resources. KURET is strengthening the community capacity to eliminate
child labour through formation of child labour committees.

Materials, mainly simplified versions of the Children’s Act, are being used. WVK at the
national level is also using other IEC aids such as T-shirts. There is ongoing cooperation with
other actors particularly for materials acquisition since WVK is not strong in this aspect.

Following life skills (Prevention Model) training from WVK, some children and CCCs have
become innovative by producing OWN messages on rights hand-written on basic paper and
through song, poetry and drama. This is an opportunity for scaling up especially in terms of
engaging children and the community members to produce child-friendly materials.

Tanzania
Besides support with basic needs, WVT is also training and sensitizing on child rights based
on the constitutional provisions regarding the child as well as the Child Development Policy
1996, the partnership document, specific guidelines and handouts for the various topics
(child rights, HIV/AIDS, OVCs, role of CCCs, FGM, etc.).

At the ADPs, the Children Committee works closely with the ADP Committee in
programmes design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. The children have also been

24
 able to express themselves through
their OWN newsletter Tumaini
through which they are able to appeal
to parents, teachers and leaders
in government institutions. Many
children in the committees, schools
and the community now know their
rights and responsibilities.

The materials being produced

and disseminated include posters,
handouts on specific issues, the
newsletter (Tumaini), BCC messages
within the ARK programme, copies
of MKUKUTA, among others. WVT
is relying on its own resources as
well as networks and other CSOs to
develop these IEC and BCC materials.
Recently, a Communications Unit
has been established, which is a
great opportunity to boost materials
production from within. Following the
training and sensitization, abused children know where to refer cases to, e.g. chairpersons of
the village, teachers and councillors.

WVT is working closely with networks, e.g. child rights, anti-FGM, MVC, Arusha Child Rights
Caucus, Ngo Policy Forum, Haki Kazi catalysts, etc. These networks have made it possible for
WVT to liaise with other players, including UNICEF, especially with regard to advocacy and
policy influence.

Advocacy committees for children have been formed and are arguably the strongest in the
region. A boy from the WVT-supported committee was at the time of the assessment voted
as the Chairperson of the Children’s Council in Tanzania. This is a great opportunity to work
with the children countrywide in a participatory manner.

CCCs and Hope Teams are still very new in Tanzania hence they are yet to carry out
substantive child protection work.

Malawi
WVM is beginning to mentor CBOs as the channels for child protection so as to ensure
sustainability. This is taking place in the context of sensitization and training on child rights
based on the Malawi Constitution clauses regarding the child as well as the UNCRC,
Children and Young Persons Act, Wills and Inheritance Act, Employment Act, and ILO
Conventions 138 and 182.

WVM is also in the process of adopting an integrated approach to child protection with
a child protection committee in place at the NO. Child protection issues are also being
integrated into sponsorship activities, with all field functions being integrated, e.g. CRS and
HIV/Children facilitation falling under one category, i.e. Development Facilitator and being
supervised by the National CRS Manager. This process is also being implemented in the
ADPs. Box 2 provides an example of integration in Kafulu ADP.

25
Box 2: Example of Integration in Malawi

In Kafulu, the CCC works through a network, KANET (Kafulu AIDS Network), an
umbrella body coordinates the operations of CBOs, CACs, OVCs-TASO (Tagwirizana
AIDS Support Organisation) CBO, youth body (KAYO-Kafulu Youth Organisation)
including children in and out of school with the youth forming the Hope Teams, orphan
care, BCC,Village AIDS Committee and several IGAs under TASO. The ADP Committee is
supreme to KANET. All the activities of these organs are child focused and are reportedly
moving towards sustainability.

KANET has a development centre (Kafulu Development Centre) which was built as
a result of a request from children and was funded by WV Australia. There is focus on
taking care of OVCs within their homes as opposed to institutionalization.

Source: Key informants & FGDs, 2007

The materials being produced and disseminated include booklets from the National AIDS
Commission on HIV/AIDS, handouts on specific issues, BCC messages by youth in form
of drama, songs, prayer, sports, video shows and puppetry (Mask Dances). The latter have
already been trained on HIV/AIDS. WVM is mainly relying on the community, networks and
other CSOs for these IEC and BCC materials.

The Children’s parliament is strong in Malawi and WVM has been an active player in the
Sixth Session of the Children’s parliament taking place in Blantyre(26th Feb – 1st Mar. 2007).
With support mainly from UNICEF, the agenda in this session included HIV and child abuse,
with the rallying call being “national registration of children”.

Zimbabwe
WVZ is in the process of integrating CRS with OVC work, hence the emerging role of
Development Facilitators (DFs). At the moment staff are handling child protection at both
HIV/AIDS (programmatically) & Sponsorship (administratively) levels but there is no specific
advocacy focal point at NO and ADP.

In two ADPs there is work with the police (District Community Relations and Liaison
Office) to involve secondary school in policing – Junior Call Club (Junior Police). Links with
the police have led to rapid response to specific abuses – the child in Photo 1 is a 4-year old
child who was severely battered by the step father and WVZ Hurungwe ADP rescued him.
The father is in remand now.

CCCs were formed and are working through Ward AIDS Action Councils (WAAC). In
one ADP, a Child Protection Committee was used to deal with cases of child abuse from
the community. The lessons learnt from CCCs initial mobilization, e.g. need for broader
stakeholder inclusion, have been incorporated. CoH training has taken place in some areas
and is ongoing in others.

WVZ is benefiting from UNICEF’s Programme of Support on OVCs & child protection in
which the role of local structures is being emphasized, in addition to capacity building for
CSOs.

Child participation consultations during planning are reportedly undertaken in ADPs.

26
There are also gifts in kind (GIK) assistance being used, e.g. for children’s home and hospitals
to assist in needy situations. WVZ is also providing direct services, e.g. Deve Clinic in
Hurungwe was built and equipped to be handed over soon to the local authority.

Sponsorship planning is ongoing with child protection training planned on Wills &
Inheritance, child rights and life skills for parents/guardians, children and churches.

Swaziland
At WVS, child protection takes place more at the ADP level and very little nationally, e.g.
referrals by Project Workers (DFs) to other NGOs, “HBC work” of Home visitors, role of
CCCs and having play grounds for children within community offices.

CRS is its work in 17 ADPs obviously addresses social service aspects (fees, uniforms, health,
books, etc.) of the child (esp. RCs), while the HIV/AIDS program gives counselling and other
support to the registered OVCs in 14 ADPs

IEC/BCC materials are produced by WVS and also solicited from other NGOs – the main
child protection materials are Adventures Unlimited, CCC guidelines and handbook. These
materials have been used to train CCCs and home visitors, who are mainly referring child
abuse cases to traditional authority, community police and other NGOs such as SWAGAA
and Save the Children.

At the national level, there is a silent Child Protection Policy meant to provide guidance for
child protection programming but this policy is yet to be implemented at the community
level.

Ethiopia
WVE has handled child protection in the context of the programmes it runs, e.g. on
sponsorship (168,000+ CIPs), HIV & AIDS, and child labour (KURET) – supporting children
with school materials, medical fees, food, water, agricultural and income generation
opportunities/services.

Recently, a Division for Child Ministry Development has been formed to deal with issues of
sponsorship and child protection. The new Division is coming up with a strategy and plan on
child protection work to be rolled into ADPs.

In the ADPs, CCCs, home visitors, children and teachers have been trained on child
rights using guides and toolkits (CCC and ADP), UNCRC summaries and the relevant
constitutional clauses on child rights, Adventure Unlimited and Sport for Life, etc. The
training has entailed sensitivity that impacts on child protection at local contexts. The ADP
at Kemissie is working with the Woreda (district authority) in coming up with local level by-
laws on child protection.

School children have child protection forums (e.g. anti-AIDS drama) and their curriculum
addresses child rights.

It is critical to note that the community is aware of the need for engaging all stakeholders in
the child protection activities in the ADP. Data from key informants and FGDs revealed that
some countries like Tanzania are spending more funds (60%+) on direct service provision
as opposed to strengthening communities for effective participation in child focused
programming.

27
What emerged from the assessment in relation to child protection activities in ADPs is that
there is no systematic programming of child rights in most ADPs, integration of child rights
issues across sectors requires strengthening, guidelines to support programs in doing child
protection work should be developed and staff capacity on child protection is scanty at ADP
level.

The next summary on community level child protection key issues is based on community
level (CCC) issues and the ADP general points just presented in this section. It is essential to
have such a synthesized view of issues because some recommendations of this assessment
largely focus on the integration point that is supported by these observations from the
community and ADP child protection practices.

3.4.2.1 Summary of key community level child protection

issues
Results from the community level assessment including child protection work in ADPs
in general indicate that child protection is less integrated into existing CCC and even
sponsorship trainings and materials at community level. Simple child protection materials for
community volunteers, development facilitators and communities in general are not in place.

While there is an increase in cases of child abuse and exploitation in communities, the
capacity to deal with this in the form of local knowledge, referral systems and networks can
still be strengthened.

Community assessment, reporting and monitoring of child abuse is quite limited in all the
six countries assessed. Coupled with this is the lack of tools that communities can use for
reporting and monitoring.

Programs require guidelines and technical support on how to integrate child protection and
child rights issues in general into existing child focused community interventions.

Generally community level findings in this assessment confirm key issues available in the
literature on HIV & AIDS and child vulnerability raised in the background section of this
report. Notable issues are that: HIV & AIDS causes increased vulnerability of children in
communities, current responses are not adequate in dealing with the challenge of child abuse
and exploitation, community-led child protection needs to be scaled up as children can be
best protected in the context of their environments, and legal protection for vulnerable
children in the context of HIV & AIDS is still limited and requires scaling up. Training of
community workers on legal protection as well as linking communities to other legal aid
providers and legal protection institutions requires strengthening.

Since WV is not the only organization doing child protection work in the assessed countries,
it was also critical to collect some information on other players in child protection from the
ADP or district areas where WV currently works.

3.4.3 Role of government and other actors in child

protection
Other than just look at what World Vision is currently doing on child protection in general
at ADP level, the assessment also looked at the role of government departments and

28
other actors in child protection. This is because the assessment aimed to come up with
some specific recommendations on networking and collaboration opportunities for child
protection. This appears to be an area that World Vision generally needs to do more work
on than is currently the practice. Facilitation also means working with other agencies already
doing good work on child protection and not necessarily coming up with new initiatives that
take time to implement and have not yet been tested elsewhere.

Graph 4 shows that NGOs and CBOs were overwhelmingly mentioned by 211 (93.8%) of
the respondents as working on child protection in the study countries compared with 66
(29.3%) for government.

Graph 4: Other organizations doing child protection work

Graph 4: Organisations working on child protection by country

0.4
0.4 United States Agency
Row Total 4 for International
93.8
29.3 Development (USAID)

Ethiopia United Nations

7.1
16.7

Swaziland Faith based organisations

19.4
13.6

Zimbabwe 22.2 Non-governmental

18 organisations / community
9.1
based organisations
Tanzania 22.2 Government
20.4
15.2
100
Malawi 22.2
21.3
19.7

Kenya 100
13.7 33.3
25.8

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Faith-based organizations (FBOs) were cited by only 9 (3.2%) respondents, while 2 (0.7%)
cited the UN and USAID. This is interestingly low for FBOs given that the survey was in WV
ADPs. The situation was more or less similar in all the countries but it is clear that the role
of other FBOs appears limited in Swaziland and Ethiopia. Government was mentioned more
in Kenya and Malawi, followed by Ethiopia and Tanzania.

The activities of the respective institutions include the following:

Governments have been:

l creating awareness on child rights in all the countries but more so in Ethiopia, Tanzania
and Malawi;
l offering free primary education in Kenya and Tanzania;
l scholarships and bursaries in Zimbabwe and Kenya;
l establishing schools for children with special needs in Kenya and Tanzania;
l offering legal protection and legal aid, e.g. arresting child molesters in Kenya, Malawi,
Swaziland and Ethiopia;
l offering relief services in Kenya;
l advocacy against child labour in Kenya and Malawi;
l advocacy against child abuse in Zimbabwe; and
l facilitating medical support for abused children in Ethiopia.

29
NGOs/CBOs undertake the following:

l awareness creation on child rights, especially in Malawi and Kenya;

l relief services mainly in Zimbabwe;
l offering scholarships mainly in Zimbabwe and Kenya;
l advocacy against/on child abuse (Swaziland, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Kenya), child
education (Malawi and Tanzania), child rape (Kenya and Tanzania), child labour
(Kenya) and FGM (Kenya);
l facilitating legal protection/aid (Swaziland, Kenya and Zimbabwe;
l support with income generation (Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and Kenya);
l Medical support in Swaziland, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania;

l FBOs are creating awareness on child rights in Malawi and Zimbabwe and offering relief
services in Kenya and Zimbabwe as well as undertaking advocacy in Tanzania.

l UN/USAID role has been advocacy on child rights in Kenya (UN) and Malawi (USAID).

3.4.4 Success of the cited organizations in child protection work

Table 5 indicates a positive perception about the organizations dealing with child protection
at the community level as exemplified by the fact that 189 respondents (68.2%) mentioned
that organizations doing child protection work in their communities were successful in their
work. It should be noted that this perception of success should be read to mean ‘good’ work
in child protection and does not mean impact of such work as this assessment did not seek
to measure impact. Ethiopia has the highest number of respondents who said they did not
know whether or not the organizations are successful.

30
Table 5: Perceived success of the organizations working on child protection

Successful or Number of respondents

not Kenya Malawi Tanzania Zimbabwe Swaziland Ethiopia Total
Yes 23 45 37 36 33 15 189
No 7 1 7 2 3 7 27
Don’t know 10 1 6 11 12 21 61
Total 40 47 50 49 48 43 277

Source: Survey data, 2007.

The reasons cited for the success or ‘good’ work in child protection (Table 6) by the 68.2%
of respondents included: declining cases of abuse, a range of social services accessed by
children and the influence of these organizations legal protection work and legislation as
follows:

l Reduction of child abuse cases in all the six study countries, especially Malawi;
l Increased awareness of child rights in Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Swaziland;
l Access to education in particular Zimbabwe and Kenya;
l Vocational skills training in Kenya;
l Influence of favourable legislation in Malawi, Tanzania and Ethiopia;
l Income generation of families in Kenya and Zimbabwe;
l Community members caring for OVCs in Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Kenya; and
l Children accessing food and clothing except in Ethiopia.

Table 6: Reasons cited for success or ‘good’ interventions

Reasons why % Calculated basing on study population

organisations are
successful Kenya Malawi Tanzania Zimbabwe Swaziland Ethiopia
Reduction of child abuse 4.0 12.6 5.7 2.9 3.4 2.9
cases
Increased awareness of child
rights 0.0 7.5 12.6 5.7 5.2 1.1
Access to education 6.3 4.0 2.9 8.0 1.7 0.6
Vocational skills training 5.7 0.0 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.0
Influence of favourable
legislation 0.0 1.1 0.6 0.0 0.0 0.6
Income generation of
families 1.1 0.0 0.0 1.1 0.0 0.0
Community members caring
for OVCs 0.6 0.0 0.0 1.1 2.9 0.0
Children accessing food and 1.7 0.6 1.1 1.7 3.4 0.0
clothing
Children getting medial 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.1 1.1 1.1
attention
Children are being listened 0.0 0.6 0.6 0.0 0.6 0.6
to/speaking up

These reasons are general in nature and do not tell us which particular organization can
be said to have contributed to the success of child protection and by what means. What
is important about these results though is that they confirm the fact that networking and
collaboration for child protection work should be strengthening for wider reach that can

31
likely raise the profile and impact of current WV child protection work. The results also give
an idea of what WV can consider focusing on when doing child protection work nationally
and at ADP or community level.

On the other hand, reasons cited for the lack of successful or ‘good’ interventions among
organizations included the following as shown under Table 7. These reasons given by 27
(9.7%) of the respondents included resources, poor targeting and poor follow-up as follows:

l Persistence of child abuse in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Swaziland;

l Limited resources and capacity in Swaziland, Kenya, Malawi and Tanzania;
l Dealing with undeserving children in Ethiopia and Kenya;
l Weak follow up of field staff in Zimbabwe and Kenya;
l Corruption in Kenya and Zimbabwe;
l Uncooperative communities in Swaziland and Tanzania; and
l Community is not aware of child abuse in Tanzania and Kenya.

Table 7: Reasons for lack of success or ‘good’ protection interventions

Reasons why % Calculated basing on study population

organisations are
successful Kenya Malawi Tanzania Zimbabwe Swaziland Ethiopia
Community is not aware of
child abuse 4.0 0.0 4.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Organisation has corrupt
officials 8.0 0.0 0.0 4.0 0.0 0.0
Dealing with undeserving
children 8.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 8.0
Limited resources and 4.0 4.0 4.0 0.0 8.0 0.0
capacity
Weak follow-up of field
personnel 4.0 0.0 0.0 8.0 0.0 0.0
Uncooperative communities 0.0 0.0 4.0 0.0 4.0 0.0
Persistence of child abuse 0.0 0.0 8.0 0.0 4.0 24.0

These reasons for why some existing organizations are not successful in doing ‘good’ child
protection work point to what WV needs to consider if it aims to improve its current
interventions. The above reasons should be seen as gaps in child protection that need to be
filled in order to make current child protection work effective.

The next section will deal with country level legal protection findings in some detail as
a second major objective under this assessment. Firstly, country specific findings will be
presented before a synthesized summary of the findings is done.

3.5 Legal protection: policies, laws and processes

Legal protection is the extent to which the children’s protective environment is provided
for by the legal instruments and statutes of a country. This presupposes that government
is the primary agency for child protection and has to take an effective and leading role in
ensuring that child protection programming takes place from the national to the community
levels. Government has permanent structures in a country set up and so the best way to
ensure sustainability of social protection programs is to engage with government fully in such
processes.

32
3.5.1 Country specific briefs
Below are brief reports on each country’s legal protection work status.

Kenya:
Kenya has ratified the UNCRC 1989 and come up with appreciable legislation and
mechanisms, e.g. Children’s Act 2001, Sexual Offences Act (2006), OVC Act 2006, Adoption
guidelines, Draft National Child Labour Policy, guidelines for the Children’s’ institutions,
establishment of the National Council of Children’s Services (NCCS) and Area Advisory
Councils (AACs) in all districts and in some lower levels and produced two UNCRC reports
(latest in 2006). The National Children’s Policy is being prepared and is expected to be ready
in August 2007.

The Children’s Act has been substantively disseminated at the district and divisional levels,
but some areas still do not know of the Act. Dissemination and implementation of most of
the legislation is a major issue.

Some of the organizations involved in legal protection work in ADPs in Kenya include:
KALOSCOP CBO, Catholic Church, ACK Church, Maendeleo ya Wanawake, KURET, Watoto
wa Baraka, Kimoro Ngika, HBC, Isakaka, Kakama, CCSP, PEEA Church, KCAE, UN and
KENWA.

Other strategic partners at national level identified during the assessment are: KAACR and
its partners, ANPPCAN Kenya and ANNPCAN Regional, ILO-IPEC and its partners, UNICEF,
Plan Kenya and International Christian Justice (ICJ).

An example of an organization doing ‘good’ legal protection work in Kenya appears below:

Kenya legal protection case study:

The CRADLE’s core activity is offering legal aid to children - child protection through
legal advice and presentation, e.g. in cases of sexual violence (and many children are now
HIV positive). The legal support offered includes recovery of property that has been taken
by relatives, getting orders for support by relatives, undertaking impact litigation and
sometimes acting as guardians.

In addition to the legal aid, The CRADLE is compelled in some instances to offer support
such as education. The child rights awareness programme at the organisation is often
made specific to regions to improve target situations. Paralegals are trained under this
child rights awareness programme. The monitoring and documentation unit is especially
important in exposing trends; the advocacy programme takes up on gaps in the legal
instruments.

WVK can consider partnering with The CRADLE in the provision of legal protection
support to OVC in the context of HIV & AIDS. A lot can be gained from CRADLE as an
organization which has a ‘good’ experience on legal child protection.

Tanzania:
Tanzania has done the following in legal protection work and instruments: ratified the
UNCRC of 1989 and come up with appreciable legislation and mechanisms, e.g. Child
Development Policy 1996 – a revision of this to reflect changing MVC/OVC needs is being
planned, MVC action plans by CSOs drawing from the National HIV/AIDS Policy 2001,

33
Drafted MVC Policy 2002, has a Ministry of Community Development Children and Gender,
developed guidelines for HIV/AIDS and life skills education in schools and a UNCRC report
2006. Just like in Kenya, implementation and dissemination of these instruments is a major
issue.

At ADP level, organizations involved in legal protection work were cited as: World Vision
MPDI, Church, Compassion, and Hatimal Ambiyaa.

Some of the organizations doing legal protection work at national level include: Arusha Child
Rights Caucus, NGO Policy Forum, Haki Kazi catalysts, LHRC, TAMWA, TAWLA, University
of Dar es Salaam Faculty of Law, UNICEF, KULEANA, Save the Children, Haki Elimu, Plan
Tanzania and TANGO.

Case study from Tanzania:

The Legal and Human Rights Centre has over 12 years of experience in human rights and
legal protection research as well as legal assistance, legal education and advocacy. LHRC gave
birth to a network on human rights, NORA, which coordinates the work of legal and human
rights across the country.

Malawi:
Malawi has ratified the UNCRC 1989 and come up with appreciable legislation and
mechanisms, e.g. OVC Policy, National Plan of Action for OVCs, an OVC Technical Support
Team with WVM as a member, National HIV/AIDS Policy, ECD Policy, HIV/AIDS Research
Agenda, Life Skills for You and Me std. 6, 7 & 8, handbook on campaign against child abuse,
UNCRC for Malawi 2006, Children and Young Persons Act, Wills and Inheritance Act,
Adoption Act, guidelines for institutions of OVC care, guidelines for education support to
OVCs, etc.

Copies of some of the legal instruments, e.g. OVC Policy & ECD Policy are available in
Chichewa.

A Ministry of Women and Child Development has been set up with an OVC Programme in
place (An OVC Coordinator, an OVC Expert, 243 Community Child Protection Workers
trained – ministry has a target of 800 CCPW) supported by UNICEF & Global Fund.

Each of the 28 districts is planned to have an OVC Desk with a networking allowance of
US$500 per month (one actors’ meeting) and facilitation for monitoring visits. Both the
CCPW and the OVC Desk Officer are project-funded but there are plans to mainstream
these positions in the Malawi Treasury’s budget.

The OVC programme is planning dissemination of guidelines (education, institutions for

OVCs and setting up of CBOs) to the districts using the Social Welfare department.

The Police have a Community Policing department with a Victims Support Unit, which is
widely known in the country.

Training on child labour has been undertaken by the Ministry of Labour and Social
Development in collaboration with the Social Welfare Office, with support from WVM in
Kafulu. It is the Ministry who approaches WVM.

34
Life skills training have been incorporated for primary and secondary school curricula from
std. 1 through std. 8 and, as part of social studies in Form 1 to 4. The topics include key
aspects of HIV/AIDS and child protection.
The Children and Young Persons Act is under review to come up with a Child Care,
Protection and Justice Bill, which is already presented in Parliament and is awaiting debate
and adoption.

Malawi is now in the process of instituting a process of national registration of persons to

ensure a smooth process of property ownership and succession issues.
Organizations involved in legal protection work at ADL level are: NICE, Primary School
Support Programme (PSSP) which is supported by USAID, Concern, Kayaso/Kayo (Kafulu
Youth AIDS Support Organisation/Kafulu Youth Organisation), Police, Church, USAID,
Mother Group and Care.

At a national level some of the strategic partners engaged in legal protection work were
identified as: UNICEF, Plan Malawi, Save the Children (US), CRECCOM, CILIC, NOVOC,
MAGGA (Malawi Girl Guides Association), EveryChild, Eye of the Child, TASO, Action Aid
Malawi and Victims Protection Unit (Malawi Police).

Case study from Malawi:

NOVOC offers psycho-social support to children who have been traumatised by child abuse.
WVM can gain from this as well as collaboration with CRECCOM, who provide support for
specific cases of child abuse including temporary shelter and advocacy.

Zimbabwe:
Zimbabwe’s government has ratified the UNCRC in 1992/1995/1996 and has been trying
to come up with a report. A NPA for OVC is in place. There is a Children Protection &
Adoption Act (1996), National HIV/AIDS Policy, a National Orphan Care Policy, Criminal
Codification Act & Domestic Violence Act, law on
deceased estates.

GoZ recognises the role of

traditional authorities, teachers,
police and others in child
protection, e.g. DCRLO,Victim
Friendly Unit, Musasa project.
The Zunde raMambo/Insimu
yeNkosi - a collective
field that is cultivated by
the community under
the leadership of the
chief and the village
head for the benefit of
the indigent persons
specifically orphans
is a critically
important
concept in
this regard.

35
Related to this is Dura raMambo/Isiphala seNkosi - the granary where proceeds from the
Zunde raMambo/Insimu yeNkosi are stored. Funds and resources are mobilised and banked
by the chief and village Child Welfare Forum for purposes of caring for orphans.

GoZ has also introduced education and other grants such as the Basic Education Assistance
Module (BEAM) and the National HIV/AIDS fund under the National AIDS Council.

A curriculum for life skills is just being rolled out with WVZ participation at the level of
District Training Teams (DTTs) and Peer Educators (PEs). At ADP level, the following are
some of the organizations involved in legal protection work: ZRP, Child Line, Goal, BEAM,
Police, CADEC (Roman Catholic), Health Workers, Social Welfare, Christian Care, and
Catholic Health Care.

Some of the key partners doing legal protection work at national level include: Zimbabwe
Republic Police, traditional authority structures, WVZ (Wills & Inheritance), Justice for
Children Trust, ZWLA, UNICEF (OVC Programme of Support), GOAL (IEC) and NASCO
(for disabled).

Zimbabwe case study:

Zimbabwe Police has been sensitizing school-based boys and girls on identifying and
reporting cases of child abuse. Given the political sensitivity in the country, working with the
police is inevitable and the Junior Police is a good example to emulate and scale up. WVZ’s
project on Wills & Inheritance has been sensitizing widows and other vulnerable groups to
write wills so as to safeguard the property of orphans once the parents are deceased.

Swaziland:
The government ratified UNCRC in 1995 and has taken up issues of OVCs and prepared
the UNCRC Report 2006, a National HIV/AIDS Policy, a HIV/AIDS Multisectoral plan, and
the NPA for OVCs (2006-2010). Implementation is still to take place.

The Swaziland constitution (2005) contains a Bill of Rights (including child rights) and has a
Siswati translation and is available in all the constituencies. Specific policies and legislation
on children are in draft form and these include: OVC Bill, Sexual and Offences Bill and the
Children Bill. A Children’s Unit in MoH and SW is also being formed. Government has also
promised in the UNCRC Report 2006 to form a Children Parliament.

The National Emergency Response for the Control of HIV/AIDS (NERCHA) is taking up
support for community child protectors (Lihlombe Lekukhalela – “shoulders to cry on”),
who form themselves in a committee of 7-10. Children are also forming similar structures
for child-to-child support.

Child protectors in 108 communities have been trained on child rights and protection
by Save the Children Swaziland. Similar training has been given to teachers, Swazi police,
magistrates, churches, community police and the WVS staff.

UNICEF is also assisting the government with “EFA community grants” and school feeding
with WFP and FAO input. Food is a critical issue that impacts on child protection especially
in the context of drought and poverty.

UNICEF is also hosting quarterly meetings of the Child Protection Network (CPN) of
stakeholders in government and CSOs.

36
Traditional community police as well as DVCPSO Unit of Royal Swaziland Police are also
key in handling cases of child abuse. This authority is also assisting dispossessed children
in getting back their property. Kagogo centres (central points for traditional authority to
mobilize help for children) are also supposed to help in child protection.
Based on a bilateral support from UNICEF, over 400 Neighbourhood Care Points (NCPs)
have been started and are taking care of over 33,000 children by volunteer caregivers, CSOs
and government. The Care Points provide meals, informal learning and medical care to OVC.

Some of the community level organizations doing legal protection work are: NERCHA,
UNICEF, MOHSW, Red Cross, SWAGAA, Save the Children, CCC, Fortress, Police Child
Protection Unit, FLAS, Women and Law, and CARITAS.

At national level, organizations involved in some form of legal protection work include:
SWAGAA, Save the Children, the AG’s office, Traditional authority, CARITAS, Save the
Children & UNICEF.

Swaziland case study:

Save the Children has been sensitizing communities on the rights of the child, handling cases
of abused children through referrals to the relevant actors for redress as well as utilizing
the cases for advocacy. SWAGAA has also been instrumental in handling cases of abused
children particularly in terms of psychosocial support and advocacy.

Ethiopia:
Ethiopia ratified the UNCRC in 1991 and prepared two UNCRC reports (latest in
2005/6). The Ministry of Women’s Affairs, which handles children issues has worked with
stakeholders to develop an NPA for children (2003-2010 and beyond), NAP on sexual abuse
and exploitation of children (2006-2010). These policies are under implementation at both
federal and regional levels. Under the chair of this ministry, an OVC Task Force (MoWA)
meets regularly in Addis. The Task Force has been introduced at the Zonal level and will
soon extend to the woreda (district) and kebele (ward) levels.

The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, which previously handled children issues
commissioned a child labour report in 2001. The report was produced in March 2006 and
revealed that nearly 50% of children are in child labour. The Ministry is working with WVE
and other stakeholders with support from ILO-IPEC under KURET programme.

Government reviewed the Civil Code, Family Code and others in the Penal Code as well
as education policies towards improving the welfare of children. Stiffer penalties are for
instance being meted on sexual offenders of children. MoH and MoE are also assisting
vulnerable children in accessing health and education.

Government is in the process of developing a consolidated law on children and intends to

engage civil society in the process as has been done during the NPAs preparation.

The police, Judiciary and local (kebele) leaders are also active on child protection. This is in
the form of Special Bench and Prosecutors, child and women desks in police stations, work
of police with street children and resolution work by Kebele administration. The police have
been trained on child rights and are therefore able to handle reported cases.

Apart from governments, other organizations reported in the ADPs covered were reported
as being involved in legal protection includes WV and the Ministry of Health (health facility).

37
Some of the strategic organizations in the area of legal protection (legal aid, advocacy and
child registration include: UNICEF, Save the Children (Sweden), Plan Ethiopia, ANPPCAN
Ethiopia, Ethiopia Women Lawyers (EWLA), Action Professionals Association for People
(APAP), Forum for Street Children and Organisation for Social Justice (OSJ), Counsel for
People’s Causes Association (CPCA), African Child Policy Forum, IFSO (Integrated Funds
Support Organisation) and the USAID-funded partnership hosted by WVE (Positive Change,
Children Communities and Care - PC3).

Ethiopia case study:

The USAID-funded partnership hosted by WVE (Positive Change, children Communities
and Care - PC3) is a critically important player. PC3 is the largest OVC program in Ethiopia
consisting of a broad partnership of International NGO’s that include CARE, Save the
Children US (lead agency), FHI, World Vision and World Learning. Partnerships have been
created down to the community level through the program and the actual implementers are
the small community structures such as Iddir groups (funeral societies) and others. PC3 is
expected to take the lead in OVC care and support advocacy at the national level and is part
of the National OVC task force and related technical groups.

From all the 6 findings above and selected case studies from the countries, it is clear that
World Vision is less involved in legal protection work and should consider networking with
some of the identified organizations doing good legal protection work at community and
national levels.

Below is a summary of key legal protection issues that come from a synthesis of the findings
on legal protection from the assessed countries.

3.5.3 Emerging key issues on legal protection

From this assessment key points on legal protection that are common to the six countries
have been identified and presented below. These points are not in any order of importance
but they emerge as major findings on legal protection.

l All the 6 countries have ratified the UNCRC (1990) and the African Charter, which
forms the basic international standard on the rights of the child, hence child protection.
However, only Kenya, Malawi and Zimbabwe have developed consolidated laws on
children. The Act in Malawi is very comprehensive on child protection, while Kenya
is reviewing the Children Act with input from civil society to make it sounder. The Act
in Zimbabwe is old (1996). Tanzania and Swaziland are having drafts of the Act, while
Ethiopia is just beginning the process.
l Local (district) level structures for child protection generally are in place. Malawi is,
for example, posting 18 district-based OVC focal points that will soon be supported
from the national budget. Kenya has had district-based structures for children’s services
(District Children Advisory Councils, now AACs and sub-committees) but these
structures have largely been project-dependent.
l There has recently been a setting up of numerous frameworks and the enactment of
OVC policies in all the countries mainly due to the support of UNICEF and the Global
Fund but also because the governments are increasingly rising to the challenge of HIV
& AIDS and children.
l The constitutions of the six countries (the youngest being Swaziland’s one of 2005)
have provisions on child protection touching on matters of sexual abuse, care and
protection, and access to basic rights and needs. The police, teachers and other

38
 authorities have some awareness of these issues as a result of training on the same
either in basic training colleges or through refresher courses.
l All the countries, except Zimbabwe, have undertaken recent UNCRC reporting. This
is critically important as the reporting assists in bringing together stakeholders from
state and non-state actors to discuss and take stock of the situation of children in a
country. The reports have identified critically important issues for child protection,
especially in the legislative changes and implementation of the law.
l There are efforts to translate and disseminate the main legislation to the lower sub-
national levels, but the usual claims of limited resources inhibit these efforts.
l Efforts to introduce and enhance teaching of child rights issues in schools are being
tried in all the countries. None, however, has astounding results on this issue.
l Traditional authorities in the six countries such as chiefs, have immense powers to
intervene in cases of abused children and property inheritance cases.
l UNICEF has supported the production of National Plans of Action (NPAs) in all the
countries and these are forming the basis of planning for OVC activities by both
government and NGOs. Generally NGOs, take a leading role in child protection work
compared with governments. Government functionaries tend to report the lack of
resources as a major handicap.
l A critically important aspect of OVC work is the presence of OVC networks and task
forces at the national level, but these have not filtered to the sub-national levels
significantly in all the six countries.
l There is legal assistance or aid for abused children, which is provided by the
governments mainly though the Attorney General and Police departments. This is
especially strong in Kenya, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Swaziland. A key observation is that
most assisted cases are those that have been made visible by the communities and
media.Yet child abuse, as well as the abused children, is mostly invisible.

39
4. IDENTIFIABLE CHALLENGES AND
GAPS IN COMMUNITY-LED CHILD
PROTECTION & LEGAL PROTECTION
PROGRAMS
A number of gaps in community-led child protection and legal protection were identified
from this assessment. These gaps which were observed during the assessment were validated
by participants from the six countries who attended the regional study dissemination meeting
where the first draft of the assessment was discussed. The gaps which are presented as
challenges are the basis upon which recommendations of the assessment emerge.

Table 12 provides a matrix of the specific challenges of each of the study countries:

Table 12: Matrix of challenges

Country Challenges
Kenya l Limited synergies and integration of programmes towards
child protection
l Poor investment in staff knowledge and skills in child
protection and child participation
l Limited reach of out-of-school children, adolescents and
parents
l Nascent support to community structures for child
protection – Makuyu is struggling with strengthening local
sustainability structures at point of phase-out. This should
have started earlier so as to implement a coherent exit
strategy
l Low investment in BCC materials, i.e. innovative, effective
and child-friendly
l Limited support to community child protection structures,
e.g. KATSO was stopped prematurely probably for good
reason but this could have been dealing with the symptoms
rather than the root causes
l Weak advocacy on child rights issues
l Limited networking on legal
protection.

Tanzania l Lack of a Children Act and a

MVC/OVC Policy, which could serve
as comprehensive legislations for
Tanzania
l The National HIV/AIDS Policy 2001 was enacted but it lacks
legal force since it is just a framework of action
l Laws on succession and property inheritance are perceptively
viewed by some people as tending to conflict with culture
and customs with the latter taking prominence. However,
the state law/constitution is always supreme and it is crucial
for stakeholders to be constantly reminded of this

40
 l Laws on succession and property inheritance are
perceptively viewed by some people as tending to conflict
with culture and customs with the latter taking prominence.
However, the state law/constitution is always supreme and it
is crucial for stakeholders to be constantly reminded of this
l Limited synergies and integration of WVT programmes
towards child protection. Each programme operates
on its own and with parallel community committees missing
opportunities for enriching each other
l Prioritization of advocacy is weak probably due to the high
emphasis on HEA and TD interventions
l It is assumed that the investment in staff knowledge and
skills through the Toolkit for partnership gives them enough
orientation in child protection issues. Evidence from the
field, however, casts doubt about the clarity of this process
particularly whether staff constantly read and apply the
toolkit correctly
l Shortage of police stations within the villages which would
take up the cases of child abuse. In the absence of these, it
should be possible to use the services of paralegals where
they exist. CCCs were only formed a year ago and are yet
to pick up this role. At the moment, cases that are referred
to the traditional leaders and the Ward Executive Officers
may not be taken seriously since some of these leaders are
“culturally-compliant”
l Limited knowledge (less than 50%) of the community on
child protection and their roles. Where there is knowledge,
community attitudes towards the child are in many cases
also not conducive to protection. Most of the trained
TOTs have not been effective and hence the need for follow-
up mechanisms or a re-examination of how to motivate
them
l Weak coordination of child development initiatives at all
levels in government. Government appears to have left all
and sundry to the CSOs. Hopefully the MVC action plan will
enable the government to take up coordination more
effectively
l Support to community structures for child protection
– CCCs and Hope Teams are at a very young age as they
were only started in 2006 and a lot of work is needed to
nurture them.

Malawi
l Limited reference to the legal and legislative instruments of
child protection at the local levels. The trainings undertaken
only look at very superficial aspects of legal instruments,
probably due to time limitations
l Copies of the Children and Young Persons Act and the OVC
Policy, which are very crucial in the sensitization work at the
local level, are not available at lower levels

41
 l The National HIV/AIDS Policy was enacted but it lacks legal
force since it is just a framework of action. There is need for
a HIV Bill/Act
l Project-based interventions at the government (e.g. CCPW,
OVC Desk,Victim Support Unit), which tend to stall once
funding is over, e.g. the Community Service punishment
stalled after donor funding. The District AIDS Coordinator’s
functions are also in danger of collapsing following the end of
National AIDS Commission funding. Will the same happen
for the OVC programme?
l Traditions and customs tend to prevail even amidst the Wills
and Inheritance Act. Ignorance of the law is still strong in
most parts of Malawi
l Failure by civil society agencies including WVM to work
more effectively with some sections of government, e.g.
Judiciary and Police. Where some networking exists, it is
either not planned in advance hence it is episodic or it is not
reported since this may not be a requirement for reporting
l Limited investment in IEC and BCC by WVM. Promotion of
locally produced BCC such as theatre, sports, song and
drama can be a viable alternative
l Weak coordination of child protection initiatives at
the district level, e.g. so many actors and activities without
coordination and networking, which exists on paper. This
challenge is indeed recognised in the OVC Policy and the
NPA
l Support to community structures for child protection, e.g.
CCCs and Hope Teams is still a drop in the ocean with only
areas like Kafulu being ahead due mainly to an early start.
More effort is needed in the other ADPs. Kafulu can,
however, be used as a model with the KANET being a
resource too for the nearby ADPs.
l Project-based or programme-based M&E, which can occasion
disjointed measures of progress. WVM has just prepared
M&E guidelines under the LEAP initiative. Hopefully, this
should integrate M&E to measure progress and impact of the
national strategy as opposed to supporting project/
programme-specific M&E
l Limited ownership of M&E in HIV & AIDS. CHARMS, which
is specific to the HIV/AIDS programme internationally is
a good example of M&E done to satisfy international/
external objectives as exemplified by the fact that the data
processing is hardly done at the national level for local &
national learning.

Zimbabwe
l Uncoordinated efforts, which leads to duplication and
scattered impacts
l Scattered legislation on children – but the law is not the
priority at the moment
l Low registration of children – affects services

42
 l Failure of legislation to reach the lower
levels – child rights are yet to be
publicly known
l A contracted democratic space in
which to handle rights issues – this is
not a priority
l High inflation rates – affect people’s
livelihoods and services for children
(BEAM, etc.), donor support and
partner willingness to invest in
Zimbabwe
l Weak child participation approaches
and methodologies
l High ignorance of child rights by
children, parents and even some
leaders – difficult to tell impact of
training but child protection is still a
new area
l Child rights and ways of addressing
abuses is still scarcely known down at
the ward and village
l Institutionalised support of child abuse,
e.g. cults – sets a bad image to the
children and community
l Low investment in IEC/BCC by WVZ
compared to other CSOs
l Weak advocacy by WVZ at NO and
ADP
l Dealing with persistent cultural norms
– no clear strategy to interrogate it
l Dealing with cultic practices, which
even discourage children being treated
– no clear strategy for dealing with this
l Weak networking by WVZ and
stakeholders
l Weak monitoring & evaluation of child
protection, especially training and
capacity building impacts – many
people are trained but it’s hard to pin
down the difference they are making
on child abuse.

Swaziland
l Delays in government passing bills/
laws for operationalizing the UNCRC,
e.g. Children’s Act
l Uncoordinated efforts – government is
yet to take the lead and do substantial
work with children

43
 l Legislation, e.g. constitution has not reached the lower levels
and hence is not known - people don’t know what to do on
child abuse cases
l Scarcity of data for child protection monitoring and OVCs
– most work is done using estimates
l Low levels of child registration inhibit service delivery to
children as well as inheritance issues
l Skills for enhancing child protection, e.g. working with
children and young persons, are still limited since this is a
new area
l Children’s involvement in decision making – teachers and
parents dominate heavily
l Little or no tangible advocacy and child protection work by
WVS – this area is not clear
l WVS is not investing markedly in child-friendly IEC/BCC
materials – loss of the opportunity to use the advantage
of having the wide local network of the project/development
workers
l Lack of clear indicators for child protection – CHARMS does
not have these and so is the NO M&E system
l Cultural resistance due to fear of the unknown – WVS does
not appear to have a clear strategy to interrogate this culture
l Low prioritisation of child protection at WVS and ADPs
l Poor facilities in the NCPs
l Low investment in the caregivers capacity mainly by UNICEF
– this isn’t purely a WVS issue, but it can be taken up
through advocacy
l Limited and in some cases no ownership of interventions at
the local level – this threatens sustainability of efforts and
impacts
l Govt. forming structures without consulting communities,
e.g. Kagogo centres (the children didn’t know what this is
– it’s a kagogo centre).

Ethiopia
l The government has not been proactive in coordinating
work on children. No wonder there is no specific ministry or
department dealing with children
l There is no specific law on children. It is, however, clear that
the government is working on this but may need to be
lobbied
l Vital registration is still low in most areas
l Child rights are not a key priority as concern is more on the
physical needs of children
l Implementation of existing laws is weak
l Networking and partnership are still new concepts in
Ethiopia – both government and CSOs can do better if they
networked

44
 l Awareness of child rights and the need for child protection is
very low. This is mainly due to the rural, traditional and
agrarian nature of the bulk of the 75+ million population.
With increasing literacy, this will hopefully change
l Children fear inaction when they report abuses
l Cultural barriers to child protection, e.g family values
l Both government and CSOs have not developed a clear
strategy (beyond sensitisation) for addressing the
traditional cultural barriers to child protection
l WVE is strong in service delivery and is still getting into
community approaches to child protection – staffing is in
progress and will hopefully jumpstart child protection
work
l Materials in use are limited to UNCRC summaries and
booklets provided by WVE and others from partners
mainly churches & GoE – there is a challenge of child-friendly
materials on child protection, e.g. what to do in case of child
abuse; materials that are creative and appealing to children;
materials produced by children themselves and youth; locally
relevant
l Child participation methodologies when consulting children
are a key issue if children will maximise learning and positive
action on child protection especially by children.

Source: [FGDs, key informants, child participation, secondary sources and participants at the regional dissemination meeting from the six
countries: 2007].

From the country-specific challenges presented above, the following can be identified as key
cross-cutting gaps in child protection which WV can take up for program follow-up:

(a) Weak coordination of legal protection especially at the local levels

(b) Limited government proactive support to child protection
(c) Inadequate knowledge of legal instruments at local levels
(d) Inadequate existence of child-friendly materials
(e) Summaries of laws and child protection training materials are few and are adult focused
(f) Child protection materials in local languages are few
(g) Low integration of WV cross sector efforts in most of the countries
(h) Lack of a strategy to interrogate the persistent cultures and traditions which support
child abuses
(i) Limited knowledge and application of child protection and child participation
methodologies
(j) Low participation of WV in advocacy and lobbying. Some countries don’t even have
advocacy focal points
(k) Lack of adequate data for monitoring child protection
(l) Lack of programming guidelines on integration of child protection across sectors
(m) Absence of integrated regional strategy on child rights and protection
(n) Absence of capacity building strategy and limited staff training on child protection.

45
5. LESSONS LEARNT
The following are some of the key lessons on child protection learnt from the six countries
studied:

l The need for partnerships horizontally and vertically, which means that WV should be a
member to relevant child-focused networks and coalitions in countries and regionally.
l The need for WVI to diversify from the traditional partners into more strategic
alliances, e.g. with churches and the private sector. The latter have not even
been mentioned in the semi-structured interviews as important partners in community
development work.
l WVI should be taking a more decisive role in local, national and international advocacy,
where advocacy means seeking to influence decisions and action on child protection at
all levels, i.e. ADP and the NO.
l Investing resources in child participation for children to be empowered for their own
protection particularly in terms of engaging with adults is required.
l There is an inescapable role of child-friendly materials in child protection work for
sensitizing children and youth.
l Capacity building, e.g. sensitization for parents and guardians for a more responsive
attitude to child care and child protection is critical.
l Importance of internal integration within the country programmes as isolated
operations are costly and duplicative. The study notes that WVI is engaging
with the difficult issue of integration and points out that this needs to essentially
emanate from coherent country programmes with few duplication and confusion
especially at the community level.
l Since WVI is child-focused, child protection needs to be at the heart of the organization
right from needs assessments through to programmes design, implementation,
monitoring and evaluation.

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6. CONCLUSIONS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
This assessment sought to document child protection practices at both legal protection
and community levels and to recommend viable ways of accelerating child protection in the
study countries in the context of HIV & AIDS.

Based on the findings, it can be concluded that the countries are beginning to struggle with
the issue of child protection especially with the increase of orphans and other vulnerable
children given the HIV prevalence on the continent of Africa.

Based on the findings and identifiable gaps presented above, the following are overall
recommendations applicable to all the 6 countries. (Table 13 below). However, it is
important to note that the recommendations are based on an assessment that was done in
only one ADP per participating country and so caution to over generalize the results and
recommendations should be taken. However, a review of secondary sources done as part of
the methodology for this assessment revealed that most of the findings are to some extent
widely valid as they confirm what generally appears in relevant literature as regards the
general lack of adequate protection interventions for children in Africa.

Table 13: Matrix of overall recommendations for the 6 countries:

Challenges
(a) Weak coordination of legal
protection especially at the
local levels
(b) Limited government proactive
support to child protection
(c) Inadequate knowledge of legal
instruments at local levels
(d) Inadequate existence of child-
friendly materials – summaries
of laws and training materials
are few and are more for
adults. Materials in local
languages are few.
(e) Low integration of WVI efforts
in most of the countries
(f) Lack of a strategy to
interrogate the persistent
cultures and traditions which
support child abuses
(g) Limited knowledge and
application of child
protection and child
participation methodologies
Recommendations
(j) Support to local (ADP) level networking
through convening regular review meetings
(k) Advocacy and lobbying government for new
legislation where needed and implementation
(l) Support dissemination of legal instruments on
child rights at local levels in local languages
(m) Development and procurement of child-
friendly materials on legal protection, e.g. on
where to go in case of an abuse. Local
languages and pictorial illustrations can be
used
(n) Moving the integration agenda at WVI more
aggressively at the country programme level
(o) Develop a strategy for cultural change based
on attitude/behaviour change principles and
processes
(p) Training staff and stakeholders on child
protection and effective child participation
methodologies
(q) Investing resources in advocacy and lobbying,
including creating the requisite positions
where they don’t exist and empowering what
is there

47
 (i) Lack of adequate data for
monitoring child protection
(r) Investing in basic research and monitoring
and evaluation for child protection, e.g.
CHARMS can add the following indicators: No.
of viable community initiatives for child
protection, No. of cases handled successfully
by CCCs, extent of CCC involvement in local
advocacy, and extent of local networking.

While the above recommendations are for programming throughout WVI Africa, the
country-specific recommendations are presented in Table 14 below:

Table 14: Country-specific recommendations

Country Recommendations
Kenya
l Revisiting the manuals on child rights and child protection as well
as the CRS one to incorporate proper child protection issues
l Training and mentoring all management and staff at all levels on
child rights and child protection.
l Supporting production of locally relevant and child-friendly BCC
(and NOT IEC) materials by children and communities
l Networking (vertically and horizontally) internally and externally
with like-minded departments and organizations for information
and materials support but also for resource leveraging in both
policy and practical action
l Supporting NCCS and the Children’s Department in producing
popular versions of vital legislation and forming and sensitizing
AACs at different levels. This is already well underway and needs
to be jump-started from a Child Protection lens
l Investing in sustainable community structures for child
protection. These structures need to be encouraged to go
beyond sensitization (kufundisha) to concrete action, e.g. taking
direct action to support OVCs in their areas of jurisdiction
l Investing in child protection programmes for out-of-school
children and adolescents. This may require re-examining and
boosting the role of CCCs and Hope teams
l Rethinking the exit strategy so as to ensure child protection is
mainstreamed very early in an ADP/CDP and has taken root by
the time of exit.

Tanzania
l Lobbying for:
(a) Relevant legislative reforms for legal protection, e.g.
finalization of the Children Act, the MVC/OVC policy and
amendment of specific clauses in some of the succession
laws which tend to be sympathetic to customary practices
(b) Production of simplified and popular versions of laws,
their dissemination to the lowest levels possible and
subsequent implementation/enforcement

48
 (c) Inclusion of child protection in the training curricula for
police, CDOs and social work, and refresher and other
courses for the Ward Executive Officers
(d) Inclusion of child protection in the training curricula for
police, CDOs and Ward Executive Officers
l Investing more funds to advocacy and child protection at
WVT level and sensitizing the same to the ADPs and ADP
Advocacy Committees
l Venturing into evidence-based programming with children by
collaborating with those doing research with children on
children, e.g. REPOA (Research for Poverty Alleviation –
Research with children programme) in Dar es Salaam and LHRC
l Continue supporting production of locally relevant and child-
friendly BCC materials particularly with the participation of
children and the communities WVT should have a budget on
materials production and also maintain strategic links and
networks
l Networking (vertically and horizontally) internally and externally
with like-minded programmes and organizations for information
and materials support but also for resource leveraging in both
policy and practical action. WVT and all the programmes could
consider having specific budgets for networking. Programmes
also need to be encouraged proactively to work together and
where possible to use official government structures, e.g. MVCCs
as their point of contact so as to avoid creation of parallel
structures
l Investing in sustainable community structures for child
protection as opposed to the current trend of service delivery.
These structures need to be encouraged to go beyond
sensitization (kuhamasisha) to concrete action, e.g. taking direct
action to support MVCs/OVCs in their areas of jurisdictions.
Service provision should take a lower share of direct costs
compared with community structures empowerment
l Investing in child protection programmes for out-of-school
children, adolescents, parents and traditional leaders, especially
behaviour change processes towards child protection –
elimination of child labour, FGM, early marriages, etc
l Economic empowerment programmes for parents. Tanzania is
now requiring the formation of SACCOs in all villages and this
can be a great opportunity to network with SEDA and see how
SEDA can be a lending agency for SACCOs for onward lending
to members. Obviously this will require re-examining the interest
rates and other policies of SEDA.

Malawi l Sustained lobbying for:

(a) State inclusion of OVC networking in budget and for
increase in budget for the Social Welfare department, which
caters for children’s services. Government has to be lobbied
to take a lead in OVC issues especially in terms of budget
allocation

49
 (b) Finalization of the Child Care, Protection and Justice Bill
(c) Enactment of a HIV & AIDS Bill/Act and a Sexual Offences
Act
(d) Production of simplified and popular versions of laws,
e.g. Children and Young Persons Act. This was successfully
done for “Women and the law” pamphlet
(e) Dissemination of legislation (using media and other
channels) to the lowest levels possible
(f) Implementation/enforcement of laws and policies
(g) Child protection emphasis in the training of police, teachers,
and refresher and other courses for the Group Village
Heads, TA Heads and other leaders
(h) CCPW and OVC Desk Officers to work with existing
structures as opposed to forming new and parallel ones
l Investing more funds into the integration of child protection
since it is the mainstay of WVI vision/mission and values. WVM
is already doing this and appreciably invests over 60% to
community capacity building for child protection but this is a
process and requires sustained investments and attention
l Venturing into evidence-based programming with children by
collaborating with those doing research on HIV/AIDS and OVCs,
e.g. National Research Council of Malawi, National AIDS
Commission, University of Malawi, etc. These institutions
need lobbying to take up OVC research (based on effective
child participation in the research process) more than the
footnote attention given at the moment. WVM may consider
influencing university students to; for instance, undertake specific
studies as part of their projects but to input to specific
information needs at WVM
l Investing funds in supporting production of locally relevant and
child-friendly BCC materials on HIV/AIDS, OVCs and child
protection particularly with the participation of children, youth
and the communities. The need to emphasize the centrality of
drama, poetry, song, dances (including the Mask Dance), sport-
plus, etc as BCC. A BCC exists at KANET and needs support,
e.g. with play/sports for youth and children (playgrounds and
games facilities) as well as VCT facilities
l Networking (vertically and horizontally) internally and externally
with like-minded programmes and organizations for (a)
information and materials support, and (b) resource leveraging
in both policy and practical action. Regular meetings for sharing
experiences or undertaking reviews are one way of networking.
WVM needs to be proactive in terms of planning (including
budgeting for) and reporting on networking. Using the National
OVC Technical Support team at the Ministry of Women and
Child Development, WVM can also sensitise decision-makers to
lobby them to support local level networking more proactively
l Kafulu can be used as a model with the KANET being a resource
for the nearby ADPs. This is already being done and needs to be
sustained

50
 l Investing in promoting appropriate technologies, e.g. health
(African Potatoe), etc. Already WVM/s Food Security programme
is collaborating with the University of Malawi and the National
Herbarium in researching on the appropriate variety of the
African Potatoe. Support could be in the form of sensitizing to
increase its use, propagation to safeguard against depletion, etc
l Investing in child participation methodologies to ensure effective
succession. The current strategy of mixing children with Youth
in Kafulu needs re-examination since children (different ages and
sex) require different strategies unlike the youths
l Lobbying for streamlining of CHARMS to incorporate NO
consolidation of data prior to sending it to the Partnership
Office
l Put in place a clearer and integrated M&E system at the NO
incorporating all country initiatives as per the WVM Strategy. The
efforts that have just been put in place in terms of coming up
with an M&E manual in line with LEAP needs to be sustained
and moved towards ensuring that the M&E process is integrated
in support of the country strategy.

Zimbabwe
l Rethink the position and office of Advocacy & Child Protection
at the NO especially with the contracted political space and the
need to strategically lobby at both national and local/ADP levels
l Undertake training in child-friendly approaches, child rights and
child protection at all staff levels
l Support conscientization on child rights and child protection
at ADPs for parents/guardians, ALL children (incl. disabled),
teachers, business persons, pastors and leaders – the police
and SW office are critical allies in this process as they will
provide “political cover” and legitimacy. Meanwhile, rethink the
strategy of sensitization
l Support local level networking especially for the District Child
Protection Committees – could start with a few ADPs
l Support and monitor local level networking with CSOs at the
lowest point of child abuse
l Invest more resources in child-friendly IEC/BCC materials with
the participation of children, communities and line ministries.
l Support simplification and dissemination of relevant legislation
and policies, e.g. NPA for OVCs and specific laws (e.g.
Administration of Deceased Person’s Estate, Criminal
Codification Act, Domestic Violence Act, etc.) in Shona and
Ndebele
l Re-define the “Junior Police” concept, among other children
forums, and then increase support and mentoring – based on
lessons after 1-2 years, consider replication in ADPs
l Incorporate child protection indicators in CHARMS and the NO
M&E practices – need for specific qualitative indicators, e.g
handling specific cases – could borrow from UNICEF
l Emphasise child protection indicators in performance appraisal
and reporting for Field Officers and ADPs

51
 l Support and monitor local advocacy and lobbying for specific
issues, e.g. children being ransomed, hence abused, by their needs
– OVCs can’t report abuse for fear of denial of food and other
needs
l Support rapid responses to specific child abuses and share these
experiences across ADPs for lessons learning and possible
replication
l Through CCCs and CHATTs, encourage churches to condemn
and confront cultic support to child abuses.

Swaziland l WVS urgently needs an Advocacy & Child Protection Officer and,
with time, a unit at NO
l The officer should begin work by developing a national child
protection strategy for WVS incorporating issues from this
report and also experiences of CRS and HIV/AIDS, etc
l This strategy needs to address: (a) child protection programming/
mainstreaming in all programmes beyond the “CPP signing”, (b)
processes for advocacy, and (c) constant support to the DFs in
their work at the local levels in response to child abuse and
neglect
l Lobbying and advocacy on and through:
(i) Government taking lead on child protection
(ii) Finalisation of Children, OVC and Sexual Offences Bills
(iii) Enactment of other bills, e.g. HIV/AIDS Bill
(iv) Simplification, translation (into Siswati) & dissemination of
laws/bills to communities
(v) Enforcement of child-related legislation
(vi) Child registration to be accelerated
(vii) Finalisation of the formation of the Children Parliament with
a national representation
l Development of child-friendly materials, e.g. puppetry, cartoon-
illustrations, drama and music, posters, booklets, etc.
l Specific materials are needed on how to deal with child abuse
and strategically used in churches, NCPs, community offices,
schools, etc
l New and continuous training of staff, parents, children (in and
out of school including the disabled), teachers, leaders and police
on child protection especially the role and importance of
different local structures – rapid TNAs needed
l Supporting the incorporation of child protection issues in police
and teacher training – need to work with the CPN
l Using school committees and PTAs to entrench child
participation in schools and to boost OVC care beyond the
capacity and resources of WVS
l Developing/incorporating child protection indicators in CHARMS
and in the NO M&E system and processes
l Supporting NCPs, e.g. (a) curriculum development - a non-formal
version of the pre-school curriculum, (b) improving facilities and
having play facilities, and (c) training and motivation for the
caregivers – e.g. IGAs, lobby for government support

52
 l Taking advantage of (a) the strong cultural set-up and (b)
WVS’s wide network, for sensitization and mobilisation around
child protection issues – culture as a resource!
l Working out sustainability mechanisms for such projects as the
play centres and IGAs, e.g. ensuring early local ownership
l Enhancing internal and external networking for information
sharing but also for resource mobilisation in support of child
protection work.

Ethiopia l Lobbying and advocacy – an Advocacy and Communication

Division has been formed and it needs to pick up issues such as:
(a) Enactment of a Children Act with speed;
(b) Enforcement of the existing laws to deal with the specific
child abuses;
(c) GoE taking a more proactive role in coordinating and
networking child-focused partners;
(d) GoE making child protection key priority, e.g. through more
reasonable budget allocation; and
(e) Accelerated sensitization of the population strategically.
l Support to evidence/research based programming
l Support to local level (Wodera, ADP and Programme Office)
networking with government, CSOs and private sector. This can
be done through joint activities and regular meetings
l Need to support the new Child Ministry Development Division
with capacity and resources up to ADP level
l Strengthen CCCs as the key local structures with skills in
management, proposal writing, negotiation, networking and
problem solving
l Investing in innovative child participation methodologies
l Training all staff and key partners in the use of innovative child
participation methodologies
l Materials production – child-friendly materials need to be
procured and/or developed with participation of children, youth
and parents
l Accelerating innovative sensitization of ALL on specific child
abuse issues, e.g. dangers of early marriages, property grabbing,
sexual abuse and abduction of girls in the context of HIV,
importance of girl child education, dangers of corporal
punishment and alternatives, etc
l Specific attention to parents/guardians on positive parenting is
needed – role of WVE, MoWA and MoLSA
l Strategic dissemination of child rights and child protection
materials – instead of giving them to public officials some of
whom may keep them in their offices, targeted institutions and
other forums could be supplied with these materials directly
l Strategic networking – some concerns have been raised on WVE
not working with churches as much as it does with some
government. It is crucial to constantly review networking
practices and benefits and change accordingly
l There is a need to go beyond traditional partners, e.g. include
police

53
l Assisting GoE in monitoring and evaluating child protection
initiatives, e.g. NPA monitoring through joint reviews, etc
l Strengthening monitoring and evaluation on child protection,
e.g. emphasising impact indicators in CHARMS, linking the
relevant Divisions (Child Ministry, Health & HIV, Christian
Ministry and Advocacy & Communication) in reporting child
protection impacts as these should be CORE to WVE
l Encourage local level fundraising (e.g. from the business people)
for child protection work so as to get support (e.g. stakeholder’s
travel) for financing sensitization campaigns
l Supporting abused children as CIPs.

54
7. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR AN
INTEGRATED CHILD PROTECTION
STRATEGY IN AFRICA
Part of the TOR required recommendations that would go into specific issues for a child
protection strategy in Africa.

The table below outlines common issues that emerged as needing consideration for the
development of an integrated child protection strategy. It was felt that such a strategy should
touch on issues of strengthening child participation, program design processes, networking
and partnering for child protection at all levels, cross sector integration and capacity building
for child protection.

The basis for these suggested recommendations is that current child protection efforts are
fragmented, capacity for child protection programming is minimal, program design tools and
re-design processes must ensure that child protection concerns are addressed.

These recommendations which appear below are not all that came from this assessment
process. These are given as key ones that have some implications on what WV can do to take
the integration agenda forward. Other recommendations have been presented in the previ-
ous section as country specific ones that countries can take up to improve their work.

Others sector specific recommendations with some bearing on the strategy were discussed
during the dissemination meeting and they are presented in this report in the appendix sec-
tion. Readers with interest in specific sector recommendations (child sponsorship and HIV &
AIDS) can refer to these recommendations in the appendix section separately.

RECOMMENDATIONS WHO IS RESPONSIBLE

1. Child Participation
a. Develop a policy on children’s committees Children in Ministry, partnership
linked to ADP structures level
b. Develop materials and train children in Partnership level role
Leadership and management skills Regional sponsorship advisor,
Advocacy advisor and Child
development and protection
advisor
Child rights and child protection
officer at NO level
c. Children committees to be equipped with Sponsorship and child protection
mobilisation and engagement/advocacy skills officers at national level
d. Orientation of SMT to provide leadership on Statement on commitment
child participation policy to come from Ministry of
children office at partnership
Orientation by child rights and
child protection staff under the
commitment of ND

55
 e. SMT to provide leadership on child SMT at National level
participation
f. Avoid creating parallel structures/ Director children in Ministry at
processes partnership level
ND at national level

2. Re/designing
a. Redesigning of ADPs to reflect
this Child Protection thinking
– DME involvement is critical
b. Technical experts in Child
Protection to develop tools in
assessment, design and M&E to
assist the (re)designing process of
ADPs
c. There is need for a link between
the DME and other sectors
Regional Advisers, ND;
Operations and Ministry quality
Directors.
Regional Advisers, Child rights
and child protection officer at
NO level
Operations and Ministry quality
Directors

d. DME to be trained in Child Child rights and child protection

Protection % operationalising officer at NO level
WV’s child focus, Christian identity
and community based approach in
addition to partnering

3. Networking & Partnering

a. Networking and partnering. At ND
regional, national and ADP level
these needs to be developed as
part of building on our facilitation
role. Ensure that within the NO,
the networks are developed at all
levels and someone has to be
charged with this responsibility.

b. ND to provide leadership on ND
networking on CP at national level

4. Integration
a. Develop an integrated regional All regional child focused Advisors
child protection strategy and – cross sector
technical support guidelines on
child protection programming
b. Develop coherent programs Operations and Ministry quality
that mainstream child protection Directors
as a crosscutting theme
c. Integrate all assessment tools to Operations and Ministry quality
include child protection Directors

56
 d. Planning to include other stake Operations and Ministry quality
holders such as government Directors

e. Child protection to be included Operations, Ministry quality

into design documents in ADPs Directors and child protection
since the child is the target of WV officer
work

57
APPENDIX:
Annex 1: Sector Specific Recommendations from dissemination meeting
(a):Child sponsorship

CHILD SPONSORSHIP
RECOMMENDATIONS WHO IS RESPONSIBLE
1. Build capacity of staff through training on child l Regional HIV/AIDS team
protection principles and concepts -NO
l NO Sponsorship (children in
ministry) and HIV/AIDS
departments - NO and ADP
staff
l ADP staff: community
workers

2. Include child protection in JD and performance l HR (regional and national

agreement and plan for child protection activities office)
in the AOP l MQ (DME) department
other sectoral departments
l ADP managers

3. As World Vision we need to come up with a l Regional child protection

clear definition of “child protection” with advisor
training materials
4. Creating awareness on child rights and l ADP staff
child abuse to community leaders – opinion l Community level partners
leaders, religious leaders, parents and children
and strengthening other community structures
in place
5. Design tools on child protection be incorporated l MQ (DME) department
by DM&E in the design of child sponsorship in l Sponsorship (operations)
the ADPs department
6. Collaboration with other partners on child l Regional HIV/AIDS team
protection especially on issues of legal protection l NO leadership
l NO Sponsorship (children
in ministry) and HIV/AIDS
departments
l ADP staff
7. Capacity building on legal protection of children l NO Sponsorship (children
to staff, law enforcers, community leaders and in ministry) and HIV/AIDS
other stakeholders working with children to departments
enhance child protection l ADP staff
l National level legal partners

8. Integration of sponsorship and child protection l Ministry quality department

in programming l Sponsorship and operations
department

58
(b) CCC Programs
EXPERIENCE FROM CCC PROCESS
RECOMMENDATIONS WHO IS RESPONSIBLE
1. Training of Trainers/Facilitators on child rights ARO (Child P.A, Advocacy
Advisor, Sponsorship Advisor),
NO (Child Rights Advisor) & ADP
(Manager)
2. WV to change role (from service delivery to ARO – Senior Managers
facilitation skills)
3. Bring on board other stakeholders (e.g. Child Rights Coordinator/ADP
government departments) Manager
4. Capacity training for CCC’s – skills, resources, HIV&AIDS Coordinator/Child
roles and responsibilities Rights Coordinator/ ADP
Manager
5. Improvement on monitoring and evaluation ARO - MQ Director / DME
systems Advisors
NO - DME Manager
6. Increased budget for networking ARO - Child Protection Advisors/
Advocacy Adviser
NO - Child Rights Officer/HIV &
AIDS Manager/Advocacy Officer
7. Establishment and support of systematic linkages NO-Child Rights Officer/HIV &
with institutions that offer Child Protection AIDS Manager/Advocacy Officer
support services ADP- ADP Manager
8. Mapping and strengthening local referral systems ADP- Advocacy/ ADP Manager/
HIV&AIDS Officer
9. Develop strategies for education and awareness NO - Advocacy Manager/Child
raising to the communities Rights Coordinator/
10. Ensure and support assessment of monitoring NO - M&E Advisor/Manager
and evaluation systems
11. Development of simple and user friendly ARO - Child Rights/Advocacy
materials Advisers
NO- Child Rights/Advocacy
Advisers
12. Material to be developed to include Child ARO - Child Rights/Advocacy
Protection issues for community trainings Advisers
NO - Child Rights/Advocacy
Advisers

13. A holistic approach to child vulnerabilities ARO - Child Protection Advisers/

Advocacy
NO - Child Rights/Advocacy/HIV
& AIDS Manager
14. Child Protection strategy should have a strong ARO - Child Protection Advisers/
prevention and mitigation approach Advocacy
NO - Child Rights/Advocacy/HIV
& AIDS Manager

59
ANNEX 2: Key references

Africa in Harmony: A HIV/AIDS Strategy for FY’07 – FY’09

FAO (2006) Proposal on Children’s Property Rights and Livelihoods in the context of HIV
and AIDS, April 2006

Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (2006): Child Labour Report, March 2006

Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia: NAP on sexual abuse and exploitation of children
(2006-2010)

Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia: NPA for children (2003-2010 and beyond)

Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia: UNCRC report (April 2005)

Government of Malawi: Handbook on campaign against child abuse

Government of Malawi: HIV/AIDS Research Agenda (2005)

Government of Malawi: Life Skills for You and Me std 6, 7 & 8 (2006)

Government of Malawi: National Plan of Action for OVCs, (2007)

Government of Malawi: National HIV/AIDS Policy (2006)

Government of Malawi: OVC Policy

Government of Malawi (2006) UNCRC for Malawi 2006

Kenya, Republic of, (2006) Second Periodic Kenya Country Report on Implementation of the
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), 1998-2004.

Kingdom of Swaziland: National HIV/AIDS Policy & Multisectoral plan

Kingdom of Swaziland: NPA for OVCs 2006-2010

Kingdom of Swaziland: UNCRC report 2006

Ministry of Labour, Malawi: Child Labour training report

Ngoma, F. J. (2007) Child Protection: Experiences from CCCs. Presentation to the child
protection planning meeting of World Vision Africa. 22 – 24th May 2007. Nairobi, Kenya.

Rhoda (2007) What do Development Facilitators Need to Know About Child Protection
- Experiences from Sponsorship Programmes: Gaps and Opportunities. Presentation to the
child protection planning meeting of World Vision Africa. 22 – 24th May 2007. Nairobi, Kenya

Save the Children (Swaziland) Annual Report 2006

Tanzania, United Republic of, (1996) Child Development Policy

60
Tanzania, United Republic of, (guidelines for life skills in schools)

Tanzania, United Republic of, Most Vulnerable Children (MVC) costed plan

Tanzania, United Republic of, National HIV/AIDS Policy

UN (2006) Report on Violence against children. Submitted to the UN Secretary General.

UNICEF (2006) Child Protection and Children Affected by AIDS: A Companion Paper to The
Framework for the Protection, Care and Support of Orphans and Vulnerable Children Living
in a World with HIV and AIDS)

UNICEF Country strategy (Swaziland) 2006-2010

UNICEF (2006) NCP review booklet

UNICEF (2007) Africa’s Orphaned and Vulnerable Generations: Children Affected By AIDS

UNICEF (2007) The State of World’s Children 2007.

World Vision Africa HOPE Initiative Minimum OVC

Programming Package

WVI Adventure Unlimited (2003)

WVI CCC Guidelines (2006)

WVM Child Protection Policy (2006)

WVM (Country) Strategy (2006)

WVT Child Protection Policy (2007)

WVZ: HIV/AIDS monitoring reports on

CCCs & CHARMS (2007)

WVZ Annual Report (2006)

Zimbabwe, Government of, (1996)

Children Protection & Adoption Act
1996

Zimbabwe, Government of, (2005) NPA

for OVCs 2005-2010

61
ANNEX 3: Socio-demographic characteristics of the survey respondents

As mentioned under the section on methodology, a total of 277 individual respondents

were covered using the semi-structured interviews. Data was also gathered using other
techniques, which augments information from the questionnaires. As will be demonstrated in
this section, there was concurrence between data gathered from the different techniques.

Age distribution
Although the age distribution of those interviewed was coincidentally even, the majority
(60.3%) were aged 25 to 44 years and are therefore in the prime of their life, in addition
to having a keen interest in children’s issues. In all the countries, there was a similarity with
regard to this interest on discussing children’s issues. This could, of course be explained by
the undisputed role of WVI on the well being of children but also the emerging policy and
public discourses and media engagement on child abuse and other issues.

Sex distribution
Of those interviewed 141 (50.9%) were males, while the rest were females. This gender
balance was deliberately achieved so as to give the assessment the benefit of the
perspectives of both sexes. Participants in the FGDs, key informants and child participation
forums were also effectively distributed to represent the two sexes. However, there was a
higher male representation (38 compared with 12) due to the traditional male dominance in
the ADP covered in Tanzania, i.e. the Maasai-populated Kisongo-Makuyuni area.

Marital status
For the same cultural reason, Tanzania also exhibited substantially high cases of polygamy
(30 out of 50), while the situation in the other countries was generally more cases of
monogamy as exemplified by a total of 133 (48%) in this category compared with 52 (18.8%)
in the single category, 48 (17.3%) who were polygamous, 28 (10.1%) widowed and 11 (3,9%)
divorced/separated.

Main occupation
Majority of the interviewed (152 or 59.6%) were engaged in (peasantry) crop farming
followed by casual employment (35 or 13.7%) and business (33 or 12.9%). This finding is
obviously due to the rural nature of WVI-supported ADPs where agriculture is the mainstay
of the local economies. This was especially the case for Malawi and Zimbabwe with 47
(100%) and 42 (85.7%), respectively, engaged in agriculture. Tanzania had 24 (48%) of the
sample in semi-pastoralism. The business category was accounted for mainly by Kenya (16)
and Ethiopia (13) due mainly to the quasi-urban nature of the areas covered, Makuyu and
Kemissie, respectively.

From the occupations and as shown later under incomes with the same trend appertaining
to the source of income where majority (147 ) cited crop farming as their main income
source, the populations covered are mainly poor and peasants with low financial capacity
even to take proper care of their children or to support OVCs in their areas.

Formal education
The majority of the respondents (114 or 41.2%) had primary level education compared with
80 (28.9%) with secondary education and 57 (20.6%) with no formal education. The rest had
college/university or adult education. Ethiopia and Tanzania made substantial contributions
to those with no formal education at 26 and 15, respectively, while Zimbabwe, Swaziland
and Kenya accounted heavily (with 27, 21 and 18, respectively) for those with secondary

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education. The situation of formal education has implications on the awareness levels of child
abuse and child protection. As will be noticed later, many people in the ADPs rely heavily on
WVI, government and other institutional authorities for information.

Monthly income
As implied in the findings on main occupation and income source, 169 (61.0%) reported
earnings of US$0-100 per month, which falls squarely within the conventional income
poverty of less than a dollar a day. A total of 66 (23.8%) drawn mainly from Swaziland (21)
and Ethiopia (16) did not know their incomes. Some 21 (7.6%) mainly from Malawi (11)
and Swaziland (5) earn US$101-500 per month. Only 2 (0.7%) from Kenya and Malawi earn
US$ 501-1,000 per month. In the FGDs and among the key informants, reports that most
community members are poor were enormous, which corroborates this finding. Secondary
data further supports this finding by showing that all the countries have over 60% income
poverty levels. This includes Swaziland where per capita income (US$1,350) positions the
country in the lower middle income countries yet poverty is quite high at 69%.

Religion
Majority of those interviewed were Christians as exemplified by a finding of 197 (71.1%).
Muslims were in total 42 and, indeed, Ethiopia contributed virtually all with 41 of them - the
extra 1 being from Tanzania. The latter accounted for the highest number (24 of the 34)
traditionalists who made up 12.3%. Other reported traditionalists were from Zimbabwe (6),
Malawi (2) and Swaziland (2).

Household size
A total of 191(68.9%) reported having household sizes of five and above members, with
most of these (105) reporting over 7 members. Those (24) with household sizes of 1-2
members were mainly from Zimbabwe (10), while the 49 with 3-4 members were drawn
mainly from Malawi (15) and Ethiopia (10). Given the low incomes, the families must
evidently be struggling to provide for this large household size.

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