AIDS 2012 - Turning the Tide Together

Child Safeguarding and HIV

Corinne Davey, Keeping Children Safe UKMarcy Levy, John Snow, Inc. (JSI)/AIDSTAR-One

Maury Mendenhall, USAID

INTERNATIONAL AIDS SOCIETY CONFERENCE 2012

Opening Session

Introductions and Agenda• Opening session• Risk assessment• Review of current organizational practice• Development and strengthening of

organizational safeguarding measures• Next steps

Opening Session

What is violence against children?

Child abuse• Deliberate act of ill treatment that can harm a child’s safety,

well-being, dignity, and development; includes all forms of physical, sexual, psychological, or emotional ill treatment

Child exploitation• Use of children for someone else’s economic or sexual

advantage, gratification, or profit, often resulting in unjust, cruel, and harmful treatment of the child

Opening Session

What is violence against children?

Child neglect • Deliberate or careless failure to provide for or ensure a child’s

physical safety and development

Gender-based violence• Violence that is directed at an individual based on his or her

biological sex, gender identity, or his or her perceived adherence to socially defined norms of masculinity and femininity

Opening Session

What is the relationship to HIV?• Violence against children, especially sexual

abuse, violent or forced sex, increases the risk of exposure to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections

• HIV status can increase the likelihood of violence

Opening Session

Why support child safeguarding?

Child safeguarding risks:• Abuse by staff, contractors, grantees, and volunteers• Poorly designed and implemented projects

Persons with a tendency to abuse children will often seek:• Positions of power to gain access to vulnerable individuals • Employment within countries with weak social welfare,

protection, and judicial systems

Opening Session

Why support child safeguarding?• Lack of child safeguarding measures

represents a huge reputational risk and legal liability for PEPFAR and its partners

• Safeguards can reduce the risk of child abuse

Opening Session

What are safeguarding measures?• All activities to ensure risks of harm to

children's welfare are minimized and concerns are addressed appropriately

• They are distinct from child protection programming, which is intended to build child protection systems

Opening Session

How is PEPFAR supporting safeguarding?• PEPFAR contracted AIDSTAR-One and Keeping

Children Safe (KCS) to provide training to partners in five countries in 2011, and another five in 2012

• Several USAID RFAs and RFPs have requested applicants to describe policies and included policies as evaluation criteria

Risk Assessments

• Risk-assessment programs, activities, and operations ensure safeguards

• Assessments consider:– Risks and vulnerabilities (as well as strengths and

capacities) for children affected by HIV– Implications of working with children affected by

HIV and keeping them safe

Review of Current Practice

• What is your organization already doing to safeguard children? Where are the gaps?

• Self-audit tool–six standards– What’s in place, what’s partially done, what’s not

in place?• What are the implications of your audit?

Safeguarding Standards

Abridged KCS standards• Creating a child-safe culture• Developing policies and procedures that keep children

safe• Organizational operations and practices preventing harm

to children• Staff and representatives implement child safeguarding

measures and receive appropriate training• Communicating on keeping children safe• Accountability for safeguarding children

Next Steps

Action planning• What can your organization do to implement

the standards fully?• What support and resources do you need?• What issues or challenges remain?