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

and pressurise partners (Government,
NOGs etc.)
Community OVC focal partners to be
represented on OVC forums
3. Strengthening children to identify and
meet their needs
Strategies:
Children placed in responsible caregiver’s
care to participate in all development
activities
Acquire sufficient information on child
rights and services for OVC to apply
necessary pressure
Skills training
Education important to lay foundation
for children to improve their ability to
sustainably provide for their own needs
Recommendations:
Adults to be organised in acting during
mediatory negotiations and arrangements
for meeting children’s needs
OVC to be consulted and involved at all
levels of planning and implementation
of OVC-related activities
4. Creating an enabling environment
Strategies:
Establish a system to register, counsel and
refer OVC and monitor their conditions
over a period of time
Work in co-operation with other partners
to develop an integrated strategy to
reduce the impacts on OVC
Mobilise resources to provide alternative
care for OVC who cannot be absorbed
by communities
Institutionalisation to be reduced to
community-based home care
Recommendations:
Establish functional OVC forums in each
political region
Proper supervision and coninuous
evaluation and monitoring of grants for
OVC enclosed in legislation (to avoid
exploitation of OVC etc.)
Address quality of care and support as
well as service delivery (e.g. make efforts
to balance distribution of all services
relevant to OVC)
Questions and comments on Group 2 report-back
Comment: The recommendations are too
long-winded, too broad, and very confusing for
people who are not experts.
Response (Petronella Masabane): These
recommendations will be unpacked into different
activities in the work plans. They are meant
to provide a framework for the OVCNSC’s work
and the new OVCNSC will translate them into
concrete actions.
Comment (Pelucy Nfambirweki, UNICEF
Regional Advisor): On institutionalisation as
a last resort, I think it is necessary to put in place
minimum standards and guidelines to regulate
institutions to further protect the children they
are caring for.
Comment (Ottilie Abrahams, NAWA): The
Minister of Women Affairs and Child Welfare said
yesterday that whatever plans we adopt must
be characterised by feasibility. Group 2’s strategy
and recommendations focus on the family and
community, which is well and good, but have
we gauged the state of the nuclear and extended
family in Namibia? How long would it take and
how much would it cost to strengthen them? In
Namibia the nuclear and extended family have
been disintegrating for 100 years, and with AIDS
we see parents and household heads dying every
day and children taking over. Are these the families
we are targeting? The same applies with the
community. We see umbrella NGOs disintegrating,
e.g. in Zambia and South Africa, and in
Namibia this has happened with NANGOF. How
long will it take and how much will it cost to
strengthen our CBOs? What happens to OVC
while we are busy sharpening these instruments?
Response: We did not dwell on the research
aspect because we felt that research on the state
of the family and community should be one of
the terms of reference or an activity of either the
national, regional or local structures working with
the OVC issue. The structure/s could then lobby
for the necessary resources.
Response: We know that if we ask families and
communities to care for OVC, they will do so
64 <strong>2nd</strong> <strong>National</strong> <strong>Conference</strong> on Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children – Windhoek, Namibia, 25-27 June 2002: Full Report