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

the why? If it is for the purpose of planning, the
databases just mentioned should be looked at,
and likewise the census in terms of numbers of
households headed by grandparents with lots of
children. Plenty data already exists that can be
extrapolated for planning purposes. Registration,
however, is a whole different ballgame. We have
mentioned some of the difficulties, e.g. creating
expectations. The question is: what next? Unless
you know what comes next and you have the
resources to do what comes next, registration can
be a very dangerous political instrument. The
why is crucial. If it is merely for planning and
mobilising resources and political commitment,
then we should be looking at other ways and
not automatically opting for registration.
Response (Petronella Masabane):We have
to consider this issue very very carefully, and all
these very valid points are much appreciated.
We cannot take a final decision here, but we
have to make a recommendation to the policymakers.
At present different organisations and
government agencies are registering OVC, there
is no standard format, we are not clear on why
we are doing this and how as a country we will
utilise the data. It will make things extremely
difficult for the MWACW if we cannot apply our
minds to the questions of why this should be
done and whether we really need it, or whether
the existing databases and study findings would
suffice for our purposes. I would like to call on
Claudia Tjikuua of the MBESC and Stan Phiri
and Pelucy Nfambirweki as UNICEF’s advisors
on OVC for their expert opinions on this issue.
Opinion – Claudia Tjikuua: We have to move
from numbers to individuals, so we know what
their needs are and what kind of support we can
give them. Also, registration is tied to all the other
strategies, and if we do not know who the OVC
are, all the other strategies will be meaningless.
We want to know who is not in school, why,
and many other things about the individual, and
without registration we cannot know.
Opinion – Stan Phiri: I would like to turn the
question around to make it the meta-question:
what are the outcomes we desire for OVC? We
desire positive outcomes of all kinds. How will
we achieve them? Some key strategies we have
identified speak to community capacity-building
or development to enable the communities to
respond effectively in a much more strengthened
manner to the needs of the children they are most
worried about. If this is true, then we can say
who will register OVC. The important thing is to
start with building community capacity to care
for the children communities most worry about.
The communities could enumerate the children,
and they would know how to access resources
and services that will help them respond in this
much more strengthened manner. However,
experience in the region has shown that there
are ethical and practical problems involved in
that communities expected food, blankets etc.
and none of these were delivered. Registration
became ethically untenable. What the positive
outcomes for children are should be the starting
point for addressing this issue. We first have to
be clear on the outcomes.
Opinion – Pelucy Nfambirweki: Mr Phiri has
covered the main issues, but I will add to them
by sharing the Ugandan experience of registering,
in which I was involved. We also thought we
could reach the children by registering them. The
Ministry of Local Government was given the task
and mandate to ensure that all children in the
country were registered. It took about six months
to do this and then it fell apart. It was too labourintensive,
we could not agree on whether to use
a questionnaire or house-to-house survey, we
did not know who should collate and analyse
the data, and at the end of the day we had little
more than a lot of false expectations. People even
thought they could register their own biological
children since there would be rewards – food,
clothing, school fees being paid etc. Registration
simply didn’t work, so as a country we had to go
back to the drawing board to determine how to
reach the children. We now rely more on existing
enumeration strategies such as the census and
surveys of the health services and Ministry of
Planning. The Bureau of Statistics as registration
co-ordinating agent harmonises all the data
collected by the other agencies. Registration at
community level definitely did not work.
Initial motion proposed for adoption as
a conference recommendation (Petronalla
Masabane): I propose that this conference
should recommend stopping all registration
activities for the time being and requesting the
MWACW to come up with clear national guide-
<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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