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Sjackson@worldbank.org WASHINGTON, December 15, 2004 — On the eve of a global summit on orphans and vulnerable children, a new World Bank report warns that caring for rising numbers of AIDS orphans in Africa imposes a heavy financial burden on children, households, and communities, and that, by 2010, the disease is likely to rob as many as 20 million children of their parents. In addition, because of the long incubation period of the disease (8–10 years), the high cost of HIV/AIDS on children, households, and communities will linger for decades after the epidemic begins to wane According to the new report - Reaching Out to Africa's Orphans - as AIDS ravages African countries, more children are dropping out of school, and growing numbers of orphans raise the cost of household fostering of children. Bank studies show that these costs slow down long-term GDP growth by as much as 1.0 to 1.5 percent a year in the most-affected countries such as South Africa and Kenya. The disease weakens the ability of today's generation to pass onto the next its accumulated life experiences, its human and job skills, and its knowledge and insights built up over a period of years. Moreover, in Uganda, Bank studies show that every child that a household fosters cuts already meager household savings by 25 percent. In Uganda, where two million orphans are being fostered by one-third of all households in the country, the economic and social impact has been dramatic across the country. In countries such as Swaziland, Botswana, and Zambia, orphans now make close to 20 percent of all children under 18 years of age. With too little education and knowledge gathered from their parents, as well as being deprived of parental love and guidance throughout their childhood, the children of AIDS victims later become adults who themselves are less able to raise their own children and to invest in their education. The process is insidious, since the effects are felt only over the long-run, as the poor education of children today translates into low adult productivity a generation later, and so on. For World Bank President, James D. Wolfensohn, who will open the Second Global Partners Forum on Orphans and Vulnerable Children this week in Washington, the worldwide issues of AIDS orphans, and other children in harm's way, are especially significant at this time as many families in OECD countries prepare to celebrate the upcoming festive season. "It is difficult to tell their story in terms of numbers, but it is very sobering to pause for a minute and recognize that, according to UNICEF, there are roughly a billion children in our world today without access to even the most basic services," says Wolfensohn. " Whether they are AIDS orphans, child laborers, child soldiers, or disabled youngsters, they all face daily battles for survival that children in rich countries only read about. Without a parent to give them guidance, they are more likely to do poorly at school, or drop out. Without a family to care for them, they suffer from malnutrition, disease, and a lack of attention. And without protection, they suffer mistreatment, violence, and exploitation." The global forum, convened jointly by UNICEF and the World Bank, will bring together more than 80 government ministers from developing and developed countries, heads of UN agencies, senior representatives of bilateral and multilateral donor agencies, non-governmental and faith-based organizations, academic and research institutions. The meeting will provide a global update on the plight of children affected by HIV and AIDS, identify gaps in funding for expanding help to these children, and discuss how best to ensure that money and programs reach affected communities. Extended families are being overwhelmed With the rapid spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, extended families are increasingly being stretched in caring for one or more orphans, as well as the family's own children. Uncles and aunts, the traditional first choice to care for orphans, are less available - either because they are themselves victims of AIDS or because they are now more reluctant to foster orphans. As a result, the new report says that grandparents and older orphans are now being forced to take on this new role. In northern Uganda in 1997, 22 percent of orphans were taken care of by their grandparents, while in rural Tanzania, the proportion was 43 percent. Although grandparents may provide a secure and loving environment that takes care of the children, they may find it difficult to respond to children's psychological, legal, economic, and basic needs. Grandparents may be old, and they may be themselves sick and tired. They are usually poor and receive little or no support from the community to help them shoulder their new responsibilities. It is therefore important in these situations that alternative support be arranged before the grandparents' death so that the orphans do not have to be sent from one home to another. Much more needs to be done While helping orphans and vulnerable children has long been a priority for the international development community and poor countries alike, the sheer numbers of such children now means that existing projects and programs have to be greatly expanded to help all those in need. "While the development community is doing much more than ten years ago, we cannot allow today's orphans and vulnerable children to feel abandoned and forgotten as a generation," says Jean-Louis Sarbib, World Bank Senior Vice President for Human Development. "The meeting this week is aptly called a global partners forum because without partnership, we will not solve the problem and rise to the challenge that unites us – helping orphans and vulnerable children lead healthy, productive lives and enable them to contribute to their country's development." For its part, the World Bank is working closely with UNICEF, UNAIDS, and other agencies to expand or 'scale up' programs which give children access to the basics - education, healthcare, and community support. One of the worst effects of vulnerability is that it prevents children from having access to what may be their only opportunity for education. In a world of AIDS this can be fatal – in Uganda for example, children who drop out of school are more than twice as likely to become HIV positive. The Global Campaign for Education has estimated that more than 7 million new infections could be avoided by ensuring that all children have a chance to attend school. In Uganda and Kenya, through collaboration with UN agencies and other donors, the Bank has supported the abolition of school fees, which is a valuable start to getting vulnerable children into school. Once there, they can be kept school if their foster families are given grants and bursaries to pay for their school-related expenses such as books and uniforms. Another promising approach which could be 'scaled up' and used in as an example in other countries is the Eritrea Integrated Early Childhood Development Project (ECD), the largest World Bank project to specifically help orphans. It reaches out to families with vulnerable children by giving them economic assets such as cows or donkeys which have generated extra money to pay for orphans to go to school. So far, this program, which is supported by the Italian government, has successfully helped 28,000 orphans in Eritrea. The World Bank portfolio on early child development covers 14 countries in Africa, and 30 countries worldwide, with cumulative lending of $1.44 billion to support ECD programs since 1990. In terms of resources, the Bank is helping orphans and vulnerable children through the Multi-Country AIDS Program for Africa, which so far, has committed $1.1 billion in 28 countries, with most of the projects supporting activities for orphans and vulnerable children. "Meeting here in Washington, just a week away from Christmas and the holiday season, let us all remind ourselves that helping all children, and all of our fellow human beings, is something which unites all faiths in common purpose. We all know that a child's life in Darfur or in Lesotho is worth the same as a life in Washington or Paris or London, so as we approach the holiday season and celebrate our blessings, no matter what our faith, let us rededicate ourselves to building on our efforts to help the most vulnerable of people on this earth," says World Bank President Jim Wolfensohn.
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