Orphans and vulnerable children

This chapter focuses on two vulnerable groups—the elderly and people with disabilities—that are important in all countries and for which many countries make specific provisions in their safety nets. We give parallel treatment to orphans and vulnerable children because this is an important group in countries suffering from conflict or severe HIV/... 

Children are considered orphans when one or both parents have died. Other children are vulnerable too. Definitions of orphans and vulnerable children usually include ill children and those with sick caregivers, and sometimes other groups such as street children, children in institutions, child soldiers, child prostitutes, and other groups most of whom are not cared for in a family setting or who are involved in the worst forms of child labor. We... 

Orphans and vulnerable children are more likely to be older children more than half are 12 to 17 years old (figure 8.2). 

Among income support programs, those most pertinent to orphans and vulnerable children are cash and in-kind transfers, whether conditional or not, and waivers for health care and education fees. Workfare programs will not affect orphans and vulnerable children directly, and the households that care for them may be relatively short on adult labor,... 

The question of whether to target categorically or by need arises for orphans and vulnerable children as it does for the elderly. In terms of accuracy, categorical targeting to orphans or foster children will suffer from high errors of inclusion and exclusion. Deaths, especially from AIDS, are not concentrated among the poor, but rather are spread across the welfare distribution thus orphans and vulnerable children will be found in families at all income levels. Of course, many of the countries greatly affected by AIDS were poor already, so they have many very poor children who are not orphans or vulnerable children. 

Office of the Vice President and Ministry of Home Affairs. 2006. Cash Transfers for Orphan and Vulnerable Children (OVC). Programme Design Cash Transfer Pilot Project. Nairobi Office of the Vice President and Ministry of Home Affairs. 

Social Protection of Africa s Orphans and Vulnerable Children Issues and Good Practice Program Options Subbarao, Mattimore Plangemann AFR WP 22909 ... 

---