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Growing pains : how poverty and AIDS are challenging childhood

SWIFT, Anthony
MAHER, Stan
2008

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This report looks at projects and programmes that aim to respond to the needs of very young children in southern and eastern Africa whose lives have been affected by both poverty and HIV. What is highlighted in the interventions that are examined is the effort of human beings in caring and supporting people and sharing resources

Childcare and early childhood development programmes and policies : their relationship to eradicating child poverty

PENN, Helen
June 2004

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The paper explores paradigms, arguments and evidence on which international agencies draw in discussing early childhood development (ECD). These include assumptions about poverty and the role of ECD in reducing poverty, assumptions about ‘the robustness’ of ECD and the contexts in which ECD takes place. Two case studies, one from Swaziland and one from Kazakhstan are used to explore strengths and limitations. The paper concludes that almost all the evidence for the effectiveness of ECD in determining cognitive, social and economic outcomes is drawn either directly from the North, particularly from the USA, or relies on assumptions drawn from work carried out in the North as a basis for recommendations in the South. The paper points out that ECD may be a useful form of practical relief to mitigate childhood poverty in particular circumstances and this could include children affected by HIV/AIDS. There is a section on page 35 on early childhood development and HIV/AIDs. Other vulnerable children are noted as those with time poor mothers and those in situations of war and conflict

State of the world's children 2005 : childhood under threat

UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND (UNICEF)
2004

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The latest UNICEF report concentrates on the theme of the quality of a child’s life. There have been significant advances in the fulfillment of children’s rights to survival, health and education through the provision of essential goods and services, and a growing recognition of the need to create a protective environment to shield children from exploitation, abuse and violence since the Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1989. Worryingly, however, in several regions and countries some of these gains appear in danger of reversal from three key threats: poverty, armed conflict and HIV/AIDS. The rights of over 1 billion children are violated because they are severely underserved of at least one or more of the basic goods and services required to survive, grow and develop. Swift and decisive action is required to reduce the poverty that children experience, protect them from armed conflict and support those orphaned or made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS

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