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?
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