Advancing Children’s Well-Being

Since our founding, the Global AIDS Alliance has pursued a range of initiatives to address the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS on children in the world's poorest countries. We co-created the Global Action for Children coalition and helped secure passage of legislation to scale up comprehensive care and support for orphans and vulnerable children. We launched a Treat the Children advocacy campaign to accelerate diagnosis and treatment of children living with HIV/AIDS. And, most recently, we have joined with UNICEF and other partners in supporting a new AIDS Free Generation initiative to advance a comprehensive approach to children's well-being.

OVC Care and Support

In November 2005, Congress passed P.L. 109-95, The Assistance for Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children in Developing Countries Act of 2005, requiring the U.S. Government to develop a comprehensive strategy for coordinated action to meet the needs of orphans and vulnerable children in the developing world. It also established a monitoring system to measure the effectiveness of related assistance activities, directed the appointment of a Special Advisor for Assistance to OVC to coordinate all U.S. programs that involve orphans and vulnerable children, and required an annual report on project implementation. After the enactment of the law, civil society experts in the field of orphans and other vulnerable children came together to put forward their recommendations for the implementation of the law.

Unfortunately, the administrative support needed to effectively coordinate U.S. government funding and programs for orphans and vulnerable children and properly evaluate coverage and impact of those programs is still lacking a full three years later. While USAID did put out a report on its compliance with the law in the fall of 2007, the absence of progress reflected in the report makes it clear that long after the bill’s enactment into law, the staff, the funding, and the authority necessary to coordinate and implement an effective interagency strategy on issues face by orphans and vulnerable children living in poor countries is not in place.

AIDS Free Generation

In March 2007, GAA, Global Action for Children, and UNICEF co-convened 40 advocates and activists for a three-day meeting in Brussels, Belgium, to define a framework for joint advocacy to address the impact of HIV/AIDS on children. Prior to the Brussels meeting, GAA released a new advocacy agenda for advancing a holistic approach to child well-being and ensuring that all children can develop to their full physical, cognitive, and social-emotional potential:

Children’s Well-Being: A New Advocacy Agenda for Galvanizing Political Will

The Brussels meeting produced a consensus around a new AIDS Free Generation advocacy agenda to advance five key priorities:

  • Achieving universal basic education
  • Accelerating youth HIV prevention.
  • Eliminating pediatric HIV/AIDS.
  • Ensuring comprehensive social protection for AIDS-affected and other vulnerable children.
  • Mobilizing full financing to address children's needs.

Click here to download the 2007-2008 AIDS Free Generation joint advocacy strategy.
Click here to sign up for the AIDS Free Generation listserv.

Treat the Children

In July 2005, GAA published an advocacy brief that provided the framework for an ongoing Treat the Children campaign to persuade key stakeholders such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, UNICEF, the World Health Organization, and the US government to accelerate efforts to provide antiretroviral (ARV) treatment for children with HIV/AIDS. Specifically, since children account for both 15% of all people who need treatment and 15% of new HIV infections, the Treat the Children campaign seeks to ensure that at least 15% of all people on ARV treatment are children. Following is a summary of GAA's Treat the Children campaign publications:

Strategic Advocacy Priorities to Eliminate Pediatric HIV/AIDS, 2007-2008 (March 2007)
Children Left Out: Global Community Failing to Scale Up the Prevention and Treatment of Pediatric HIV/AIDS (August 2006)
Pediatric Treatment and Prevention Toolkit: Global Fund Round 6 (May 2006) 
Children Left Behind: Global Stakeholders Failing to Adequately Prevent or Treat Pediatric HIV/AIDS (February 2006)
Remember the Children: Global Fund Round 6 in 2006 (October 2005)
Treat the Children: Accelerating Action for Universal Antiretroviral Treatment for Children in Resource-Limited Countries by 2010 (July 2005)