2nd National Conference on Orphans and Other ... - FHI 360

Overview of Draft
<strong>National</strong> OVC Policy issues
Mr Andrew Muwonge,
Senior Consultant, Southern Consultants
My work is to look at the issues that are central to policy-making on OVC, and to relay to you
that a policy is already being developed, and that a very preliminary draft will be circulated
to you for comment.
INTRODUCTION (SLIDES 1-2):
The major goals of government planning
in respect of OVC are:
to improve protection of “children in
especially difficult circumstances”;
to decrease incidences of child abuse
and neglect, child labour, and juveniles
conflicting with the law;
to empower society to handle children
better; and
to create an environment that is conducive
to the ‘proper’ development of
children.
These goals are highlighted in the national
programme of action for OVC, and measures
have been taken on several fronts to protect
OVC.
A key approach to decreasing the various
abuses is prevention. Prevention takes
many forms, but it is aimed especially at
strengthening or empowering society.
Commentary: We are speaking of a society
that has been weakened, so much so that it has
become a ‘pedestrian’ society – impoverished,
depressed by inflation and commercialisation
... . You are worried that your telephone will be
cut off when your child comes to ask for some
money, so you slap the child. The child has to
rely on this kind of society for its protection; it
must rely on a ‘lame duck’ for its life.
Our problem is how to influence the outcome;
how to empower our society to carry its
responsibily to care for its children, especially
the vulnerable; and how to empower children
to become viable or to look after themselves,
now and in the future.
This “society” includes the households, the
communities and the NGOs, which I emphasise
because if we give NGOs responsibilities, we
have to empower them; if we rely on them, we
cannot have them unravelling and dying. So
one of the Government’s responsibilities will be
to empower NGOs to ensure that they continue
to stand on their feet and deliver the goods
expected.
The basket of empowerment inputs is big; it
includes inputs into education and training (e.g.
in psychosocial care), legislation, poverty
elimination, empowering communities morally,
liberating people from drug/alcohol abuse and
all other abuses that precipitate or compound
the problems that OVC face, child immunisation
and generally reducing health risks for children,
nutrition and sanitation programmes, AIDS
awareness campaigns ... the list of necessary
inputs is endless.
The empowerment of communities to look
after themselves cannot be over-emphasised.
Now let us look at the policy.
(SLIDES 3-4)
It goes without saying that tackling the
problems of OVC effectively requires a
policy.
The effects of the policy will be:
a framework for and an index of references
to best practice;
16 <strong>2nd</strong> <strong>National</strong> <strong>Conference</strong> on Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children – Windhoek, Namibia, 25-27 June 2002: Full Report