In order to provide support to increasing numbers of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC), there is a pressing need to scale up effective community-based care initiatives.

In October 2001, a workshop was co-hosted by Family AIDS Caring Trust (FACT) and the International HIV/AIDS Alliance in Mutare, Zimbabwe. The workshop was attended by representatives of 17 intermediary NGOs from nine countries, mostly from East and Southern Africa. The aim of the workshop was to understand the proliferation of OVC initiatives throughout the region and the ways in which NGOs and their partners can expand the impact and coverage of OVC programmes. This report is largely the result of discussions by workshop participants. Case studies of participant groups and organisations are included throughout the report.

[Intermediary NGOs are non-governmental organisations which provide technical assistance and sometimes financial support to other NGOs and community-based organisations (CBOs).]

Participants focused on three levels at which change is required to achieve scale-up: community, facilitation and policy/resource. At each of these levels, workshop participants agreed that successful scale-up efforts should pay attention to the focus, coverage, quality and sustainability of programmes. For each level, participants analysed the respective roles of five groups concerned with scaling up: community groups and CBOs, intermediary NGOs, government, international NGOs, and donors.

The key conclusions of the workshop were that stakeholders must be aware of their respective 'niche roles', act appropriately and work together. Policy/resource organisations should make greater commitments to the development of supportive OVC policy and commit more funding through intermediaries. The provision of both technical support and appropriate funding by intermediary NGOs to community level organisations could go a long way to helping such groups reach more vulnerable children and perhaps expand their response into areas such as home care, income generation and effective HIV prevention.

Source: Expanding Community-Based Support for Orphans and Vulnerable Children
This is an extract from Expanding Community-Based Support for Orphans and Vulnerable Children , published by the International HIV/AIDS
Alliance with the Family AIDS Caring Trust, Zimbabwe, in 2002.

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Increasing action and impact

Expanding Community-Based Support for Orphans and Vulnerable Children

• Contents, acronyms, copyright details for report on orphans and vulnerable children
• Summary of report, orphans and vulnerable children
• 1. Background to report, orphans and vulnerable children
• 2. Scaling up support to orphans and vulnerable children
• 3. Community level orphans and vulnerable children responses
• 4. Supporting CBOs and NGOs involved in community responses
• 5. Creating an enabling environment for scale-up of work for orphans and vulnerable children
• 6. Conclusion to report on orphans and vulnerable children
• Appendix: Workshop participants, support for orphans and vulnerable children