European Parliamentarians with Africa

The Dutch Children Affected By AIDS (CABA) Working Group held an expert meeting on 3 April 2008 at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague. The meeting aimed at furthering the discussion on the best means to assist Children Affected by AIDS in Sub-Sahara Africa, now as well as in the future.  While addressing questions related to distribution and social exclusion the participants explored a next round of issues on outside assistance and internal organisation in the area of delivery of services at a local (family and community) level, where up until now only ‘fragments of care' are to be seen.

The expert meeting was held along with UN Agencies and Governments, which have spoken out on HIV and AIDS policies and the way in which children are affected and require care. Reference was be made to the framework on OVC, accompanying papers, and strategies already developed. The meeting also benefited from and built upon the work done by the Joint Learning Initiative on Children & AIDS.  For more information please refer to the JLICA website.

An introduction was provided by Auma Okwany, ISS and Loes Keyser, iCCYS on views, experiences and assumptions with regard to the care environment for CABA. This was followed by key-note speeches of Penelope Campbell, UNICEF ESARO and Josef Decosas, Plan International, who made reference to the issue in relation to the international agenda and Linda Richter, CYFSD, South Africa, who set the agenda for the workshops.

The workshops in the afternoon focused on 3 main areas, namely:

•·         Access to basic services
•·         Community level interaction
•·         Daily care

Participants included development practitioners, policymakers, donor organisations, and researchers.

On 4 April a limited number of participants and speakers were invited for the second day, where there was time and space available to fine-tune follow-up actions and advocacy messages following the results from the first day's discussion.

Please refer to the following documents for more information:

•  CABA Expert Meeting Issues paper

•  CABA Expert Meeting Programme