 |  | Undersecretary of State for International Development, Gareth Thomas, and UNICEF Executive Director, Carol Bellamy pose for a photo at the conference.
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December 22, 2004— The British government has announced it will spend £150 million over the next three years to support orphans and vulnerable children, with more than 80% of those funds, or £123 million, allocated to children in Africa. Gareth Thomas, UK Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for International Development, announced this initiative Dec. 16th at the Second Global Partner’s Forum at World Bank headquarters in Washington, DC. Thomas also announced that the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) has agreed to provide £2.4 million towards a trial program treating children with HIV. Although the trial is still in the early stages of negotiation, it could mean that we may see more children in developing countries benefiting from antiretroviral treatments in the future. Finally, he announced that UNICEF would help deliver £44 million of the overall £150 million dedicated to help orphans and vulnerable children.  | | AIDS Orphan Self Portrait
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In announcing the UK’s plan of action and calling on the donor community to “scale up” it’s contribution to this global fight, Thomas asked: “How many times must we hear that there are 15 million children worldwide under the age of 15 who fall into our category of those who are orphans and vulnerable children as a result of AIDS? Perhaps, we still haven’t heard it enough.” “This remarkable donation is an extraordinary recognition of the vast needs of the tens of millions of children whose lives have been brutally disrupted by AIDS. Not only will this money enable UNICEF to help improve the lives of individual children affected by HIV/AIDS, but it will give a major boost to our efforts to bring global partners together to develop more effective ways to address the AIDS crisis as it impacts children,” said Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF. The global forum, convened jointly by UNICEF and the World Bank, brought together approximately 80 senior representatives of bilateral and multilateral donor agencies, UN agencies, non-governmental and faith-based organizations, academic and research institutions, as well as key government representatives, such as Carol Bellamy, Gareth Thomas, Global AIDS Coordinator, Randall Tobias and World Bank President, James Wolfensohn. The meeting was an opportunity to provide a global update on the plight of children affected by HIV and AIDS, highlight progress and constraints to implementation of policy and program responses, and review global funding gaps and opportunities. “This meeting 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,” said Jean-Louis Sarbib, the World Bank Human Development Network’s Senior Vice President. Last year at the Global Partner’s Forum, The Framework for the Protection, Care and Support of Orphans and Vulnerable Children Living in a World With HIV/AIDS was formally endorsed. To date, more than 25 governments and organizations have adopted the framework, and many more are using it as the blue print to guide country level action. This framework has also been used as the basis of many national and regional consultations on orphans and vulnerable children. While this year’s summit did not include the creation of an entire framework for implementation as it did last, it was not without an action plan for the upcoming Year of Development in 2005. Everyone agreed that there was unfinished business to attend to. The framework would continue to be endorsed and a costing analysis, which all agreed was vital, would be completed. There would be concerted effort to get the resources down to the people, a strengthening of weaker ministries, joint reviews to provide evidence for what worked, a demonstration of the efficiency of cash grants and continued work according the three-ones. However, there were three main action points. First, to accelerate the abolition of school fees and other barriers to education. The second point of action for the coming year was to track resources and PRSPs, to create better accountability on both the side of the developed and the developing countries. Third, there was a call for treatment targets for children rather than general goals. Specifically, many people expressed the desire to do more in terms of preventing transmission from mother to child during birth. As the meetings came to a close, and all the keynote speakers had said their piece, there was a sense of urgency in the room, a sense of passion amongst leaders who longed desperately to make a tangible difference and retreat from the rhetoric of a complicated, bureaucratic world. “Childhood is under threat, not for mysterious reasons that strain our imaginations, but because of deliberate choices made by governments and others in positions of power. Poverty does not persist by accident, war does not emerge from nowhere, HIV does not spread by choice of its own. These are our choices, including the individuals and governments represented here today. How we allocate resources, how we assess the impact of our decision , how often we consider children in our choices…these are the moments that matter,” said Carol Bellamy. “One of the most tragic aspects of the litany of challenges is that we have the means to change the situation of children, but currently not the will.” |  | World Bank President James Wolfensohn addressed the participants early in the day to help open the two day long conference.
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But the leaders participating in these conferences do possess the will, and President Wolfensohn reminded everyone, that especially at this time of year, we must keep this will strong. He said, “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 out faith, let us rededicate ourselves to building on our efforts to help the most vulnerable of people on this earth.” Did You Know? - In 2004 there were over 2 million children living with HIV/AIDS.
- In 2004 there were over 460,000 child deaths due to HIV infection.
- In 2004, an estimated 39.4 million people were living with HIV/AIDS.
- In 2004, 3.1 million people died of HIV/AIDS.
- In 2004, 4.1 million people were newly infected.
- Over 570,000 children are newly infected each year.
- There are currently 15 million orphans, up from 11.5 in 2001 and millions more are living with sick and dying parents. Thousands on the streets, in institutions and without family care and there are increasing numbers of children heading households.
- According to UNICEF 2003 Annual Reports, 36 countries have some form of national strategy in place for orphans and vulnerable children and an additional 32 countries are developing them.
- What are the impacts of HIV/AIDS in addition to orphaning? They include infections, stigma, discrimination, social exclusion, abandonment, institutionalization, and exploitation among other things.
- In 2004 there were over 2 million children living with HIV/AIDS.
- Eritrea Integrated Early Childhood Development Project (ECD) is 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. Supported by the Italian government. So far, this program has successfully helped 28,000 orphans in Eritrea.
- The World Bank portfolio on early childhood development covers 14 countries in Africa and 30 countries worldwide, with cumulative lending of US$1.44 billion to support ECD programs since 1990.
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