Advocacy for quality care and protection

Delegates to the Raising Africa's Children conference produced a set of advocacy messages to promote appropriate care for orphaned and vulnerable children. These will form the basis of submissions to decision-makers, funders and others, and are summarised below.

The conference noted that delegates had been mandated by their organisations/places of work to participate and therefore had a responsibility to share and promote the information and messages produced as widely as possible.

Children First was tasked with taking conference recommendations to the National Programme of Action/Office on the Rights of the Child in the Presidency, and for reporting to conference delegates on the response. It was agreed to request the Provincial Programmes of Action for Children to take action on the recommendations and resolutions of the conference.

Key messages
As the theme of the conference was support for orphaned and vulnerable children, the focus was inevitably on those who are vulnerable because they have already lost parents who were their primary caregivers. However, the closing discussions emphasised the urgent need to prevent children from becoming vulnerable wherever possible.

In the case of families affected by HIV/AIDS, this required support and advocacy for the roll-out of treatment, including antiretroviral therapy (ART), to keep caregivers alive and able to care for their children, as well as contributing to fewer infections through reducing viral loads.

The issue of lack of communication, collaboration and coordination between sectors and departments was repeatedly raised. It was noted that overcoming fragmentation among service providers would contribute to the care of children and assist the youth after the age of 18 years. This would help break the cycle of poverty.

The importance of finding ways of involving men more in the care of orphans and vulnerable children was stressed. For example, the 'adopt a child' project in the Men's Forum - where vulnerable and disadvantaged children are informally adopted - could be expanded. Likewise, measures were needed to assist and affirm boys to grow into positive parenting roles

The conference resolved to focus on capacity building for organisations involved in the care of orphans and vulnerable children. Delegates from all sectors agreed that multi-disciplinary teams including youth and child care workers and community development workers were critical to enhance the capacity of social workers. Incentives must be provided to attract social workers, community workers and childcare workers into these professions.

At the same time, it was important to mobilise more men and women in civil society to contribute to the lives of orphaned and vulnerable children in a practical way. Partnerships could also be developed with the unions with the, business sector and with child- care facilities of all descriptions to look at labour law issues and the development of staff contracts that support optimal care of children.

Is this what you mean? I was not sure! NR
Mobilising private sector funding was also seen as critical - business should be investing money in childcare throughout the country. Delegates could target business leaders to join the process. Real partnerships must be developed in the social service sector across the sectors and occupational groups to manage the escalating numbers of vulnerable children more effectively. It was suggested that organisations needed to find creative ways of using monies for children, such as setting up endowments and that they should plan for the exit of international donors by trying to mobilise local funding.

It was agreed that 'fulltime' Department of Justice back-up and involvement was needed as more and more children were referred for alternative care through the courts, and the backlog was a problem.. The need for an improved partnership with the Department of Justice was recognised.

Placement of children in alternative care should always be in the best interests of the child, including improvement of quality of life. Screening of prospective caregivers therefore needed to be more rigorous - ongoing monitoring and support systems for the child and family were considered essential. Screening was of particular concern with regard to inter-country adoptions - alternatives that kept children in touch with their own community and culture should be sought.

The movement of children from one place of care to another needed to be tracked and their well-being monitored. The monitoring of smaller residential care facilities and projects to ensure appropriateness and sustainability of quality care was recommended. Linked to this, applications for NPO status by those proposing to care for children should be fully screened. More responsible recruitment procedures for foster parents should be developed given the scale of need - e.g. seeking nominations from the community rather than soliciting applications. It was suggested there should be guidelines for funders to support those care facilities that subscribe to minimum standards. The Quality Assurance process should be expanded to include a neutral partner, such as an academic institution.

There was a call to standardise requirements by Commissioners of Child Welfare in respect of foster care placements.
There were several recommendations to improve quality of care, outreach and coordination of services, and avoid duplication. These included:

• involving, engaging and educating the corporate sector on how it could contribute to the care of orphaned and vulnerable children beyond funding (e.g. by contributing skills);
  
• service providers forming partnerships with faith-based organisations to share and harness resources;
  
• acknowledging and sustaining partnerships with community- based organisations and groups.

Delegates resolved to support and develop early intervention programmes focusing on aiding terminally ill parents to develop long-term care plans for their children.
In terms of financial support to vulnerable children, delegates argued for simplifying the processes for access to grants, to take account of lack of documentation when a primary caregiver dies. While there were problems with fraud in the foster care system that needed to be dealt with, the bigger challenge was ensuring that eligible families received entitlements that kept many from destitution.

What we can all do next

• Communicate - with decision makers, politicians, policy developers, donors and each other! Lobby and advocate for appropriate care and support based on the information exchanged.
  
• Influence policies, planning and budgets at a local level via communication with municipalities and local government offices.
  
• Advocate and monitor so that resources are not used up on events (especially national events that cost millions and do not really benefit disadvantaged children) but provide ongoing services to children.
  
• Share and replicate models that are working according to the needs and circumstances of the children.
  
• Improve understanding of policy, law, decision making, and how systems work - among own constituencies but also councillors, officials and service providers.
  
• Educate the public at large on foster care and other forms of caring for children, and increase understanding of and commitment to minimum standards of care.
  
• Publish information on child- care issues, in all relevant languages. Messages and materials on HIV/AIDS and children, particularly, needed to be understood by all.
  
• Advocate to remove barriers to children accessing documentation in order to secure grants and services.
  
• Advocate to remove barriers to children accessing treatment and health care, on their own behalf and for younger children.
  
• Use South Africa's participatory system of law-making and involve people on the ground in making submissions to parliament. Donors should help provide resources for activities such as:

  Attending and making submissions to national and provincial hearings around legislation affecting children;
  
  Visiting Welfare Portfolio Committees in the provincial parliaments - KZN for example is very open to this.
  
  Motivating politicians to receive and respond to children's concerns.
  
  Scaling up support for the Basic Income Grant (BIG) Coalition
  
  Campaigning for children's right to free education.

• Concern was expressed about the exploitation of children by the media. Children's faces were often exposed on television, in publications and even on websites of organisations supposedly assisting children - this invaded their privacy and could lead to stigmatisation and discrimination. A further concern about the role of the media was that messages from government and civil society about HIV/AIDS and lifestyle were not supported, by television programming in particular.
• Delegates raised several concerns about the lack of children's participation in processes and decisions that affect them. It was agreed that people working directly with children and those making decisions about their future need to hear the voices of children and consider their perspectives on their needs and best interests.
• Children's contributions to consultation processes needed to be integrated into forums such as the Raising Africa's Children conference. There should be liaison between children's processes - for example the children's parliament and the child participation process from the NACCW (National Association of Child and Youth Care Workers) conference, otherwise children's participation would become 'window dressing' - with children attending events but not influencing decisions.
  
• The conference organisers pointed out that a national children's participation component was included in the conference planning but that funding for this had been withdrawn due to budget constraints. This highlighted the need for civil society organisations to advocate strongly with government and funders to accept children's participation, from planning to evaluation, as a key aspect of all projects and processes targeting children.
  
  Delegates from all sectors agreed that multi-disciplinary teams including youth and child care workers and community development workers were critical to enhance the capacity of social workers.