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

then not deliver. The other consideration was
that the women and others in the communities
who care for these children already know who
they are and are already doing something for
them, and if we as external agents go out and
count them, we will raise expectations and we
will be saying that now there is going to be a
whole new way of dealing with the children they
are most worried about. On the other hand, as
governments and development partners at the
national level we need to plan and target our
resources efficiently and effectively. My personal
opinion is that there are two sides to the argument:
there is a programme-related definition
and a policy-related definition whereby government
is mobilising resources with its partners to
target the most-affected areas in geographical
terms. But when it comes to implementation,
the principal is that the communities and households
are the frontline of response, and they must
define who they are most worried about; they
must determine which children (not orphans)
they want to take care of. Invariably orphans
will be among the children they are most worried
about. The debate was never concluded so there
was no recommendation, but the issue certainly
was debated and is or has been debated in all
the African countries I have visited recenly.
Question: In Namibia we are focusing on OVC
who are or should be in primary or secondary
school. Did the regional workshop discuss the
future of OVC beyond secondary school, since
many OVC would want tertiary education? I
realise that they may no longer be regarded as
‘children’, but they are still vulnerable and in
need of additional support.
Response: I am glad this question has come
up. There was a long debate on who is a ‘child’,
part of which related to customs prevailing in
some countries where girls as young as 11 or
12 are married off to young boys of 17 or 18,
the question being whether or not they can still
be regarded as ‘children’. There was a discussion
on what happens in the case of people over 18
years of age who are no longer ‘children’ and
who want to take up tertiary studies. There was
no consensus as most people felt that this should
be dealt with on a case-by-case basis rather than
have a specific programme serving people over
18 or any hard-and-fast rule that we respond
only to people under 18. The response has to
be contextualised and flexible.
Comment (Rosa Namises, Namibian MP):
I would like to pick up on three points made in
the presentation: (1) On “free” primary health
care and “free” primary education, I think there
is a need for us to go deeper in defining what
we mean by “free”. Do we mean that a person
will get free advice but must still pay e.g. N$15
when she goes to the clinic? The expenses that
accompany “free” primary health care and “free”
primary education mean that people do not see
these services to be free, so what exactly do we
mean by this word? (2) On identifying AIDS
orphans or OVC, the regional workshop agreed
that the communities should define their role and
identify the children themselves, but I believe it
is also important to have records or information
emanating from the ground on how communities
are dealing with OVC. We are missing this
crucial information in Namibia. At grassroots
level people have started working with the OVC
issue but their work is not being recorded any–
where and we do not know what they are doing.
This information would help us to come up with
appropriate inputs. (3) On new types of strategic
partnership, a big concern is that we do not yet
have a framework for NGOs, CBOs, FBOs and
the Government to work together. What kinds
of agreements are there? How exactly do we
work together? Further, adding to what Mr Phiri
said, there should be a recognition of each partner’s
capabilities – and perhaps an agreement
should be in place to this effect – because there
are tremendous skills and capabilities within the
communities and CBOs, FBOs and NGOs which
are not revealing themselves so that higher-level
agents like the Government can recognise them.
We should also consider drawing up terms of
reference for each partner so that we can check
each other to ensure that we are all still on track
and criticise where necessary.
<strong>2nd</strong> <strong>National</strong> <strong>Conference</strong> on Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children – Windhoek, Namibia, 25-27 June 2002: Full Report
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