Nkundabana toolkit

Nkundabana toolkit: English

Nkundabana toolkit: French

Rwanda is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking 167 out of 182 in the Human Development Index (UNDP's Human Development Report of 2009). According to Rwandan Government sources, 56.9% of all Rwandans live on less than one US dollar per day (Enquête Intégrale sur les Conditions de vie des Ménages 2005-2006, NISR). Rwanda also has one of the highest numbers of orphans worldwide. As of 2005, 21% of Rwandan children were orphans (National Institute of Statistics 2005).These children face highly complex circumstances due to the combined effects of recovery from war and genocide, extreme poverty affecting 36% of Rwandan households, and consequences of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.Communities have already proven to be supportive of orphans and vulnerable children in many ways. For example, many families foster orphans or unaccompanied children. However, the capacity of households to address the situation is decreasing, in part because an increase in fertility from 5.8 children per woman in 2000 to 6.1 in 2005 is causing rapid population growth.  The most recent Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), conducted in 2005, reported that only 60% of Rwandan children live with both their parents. That means that 40% either live with only one parent, are fostered by their extended family, or live in households headed by children or young adults.  Despite the high-level commitment of the Rwandan Government to achieve the rights of all children without any kind of discrimination, access to basic services for the majority of OVC remains an enormous challenge.

In order to address this situation, MIGEPROF (Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion), in collaboration with its main partners, developed a 5-year National Strategic Plan of Action for OVC in 2007. This Plan of Action constitutes the national framework to guide all interventions in support of OVC. A comprehensive Minimum Package of Services for OVC has been developed (See MIGEPROF's  National Guide on a Minimum Package of Services for Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children (OVC)).

These services are already implemented by most of the stakeholders working with OVC.  One of these services, psychosocial support for the most vulnerable children using a communitybased  approach, is an important strategy to address the needs of children living without the supervision of an adult, and to help themcope with their early responsibilities as heads of households.

One of the practices in this field has been the Nkundabana (literally, “I love children”) model. Initiated by Food for the Hungry International (FHI) in early 2000, this model was further developed by CARE International in the former Gitarama province and now expanded to the Northern province.This model has been identified by the Rwandan Government as a best practice, and has been integrated as one of the priority activities of the National Strategic Plan of Action for OVC, under the strategic objective of “Strengthening of the capacity of OVC, families and communities to provide psychosocial care and support for OVC, including preventative and curative measures to increase well-being, resilience and self-esteem of OVC.”

Namibia National Agenda for Children 2012-2016

Namibia's National Agenda for Children 2012-2016

The Namibia National Agenda for Children 2012-2016 is a call to action to put the constitutional mandate on the rights of children into implementable strategies. The Agenda is anchored on five pillars: health and nourishment; early childhood development and schooling; HIV prevention, treatment, care and support; adequate standard of living and legal identity; and protection against neglect and abuse.

The importance of Namibia developing its first-ever National Agenda for Children was highlighted through the publication of Children and Adolescents in Namibia 2010: A Situation Analysis, and through a review of the National Plan of Action for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (2006-2010). Two critical issues were identified through these processes: that Namibia needed to adopt a multi-sectoral approach to planning and implementation towards child-centred development, and that we needed to look more broadly at the concepts of vulnerability and inequity through the lens of a child’s life cycle.

Through a broad-based consultative process which involved government, NGOs, civil society organisations, children and development partners, the national commitments for children were identified, discussed and prioritised. While these five-year commitments have been integrated into current sector policies and plans to a large extent, the National Agenda for Children brings them together concisely, which will enable all stakeholders to plan, implement and monitor their actions for children in a coordinated manner. The Agenda also serves as a major contribution to overall national development planning processes.

While the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare has been assigned the task of facilitating the development of the national agenda for children, the primary responsibility for ensuring that is is implemented lies with the line ministries and their partners.

Comprehensive sexuality education: The challenges and opportunities of scaling-up

Comprehensive sexuality education:the challenges and opportunities of scaling-up.pdf

This report builds on a programme of work on sexuality education for young people initiated in 2008 by UNESCO. The report emphasizes the challenges for scaling-up in terms of integrating comprehensive sexuality education into the formal curricula of schools.

Despite significant investment and programmatic interventions, levels of HIV prevention knowledge among young people have changed relatively little. This is particularly the case in countries that are most affected by HIV and AIDS. Comprehensive sexuality education is a long way from being institutionalized in most low- and middle-income countries where the HIV epidemic poses a disproportionate burden. Even in countries with the highest HIV rates, there are relatively few examples of scaled-up, sustainable programmes within educational curricula. Existing generations of schoolchildren are not receiving the information they need for their healthy development. Unless things change, future cohorts of children will be similarly disadvantaged.

The report is informed by several other past and ongoing initiatives related to scaling up sexuality education, as well as drawing on case studies presented at the Bogota international consultation on sexuality education, convened by UNFPA in 2010.

It emphasizes the challenges for scaling-up in terms of integrating comprehensive sexuality education into the formal curricula of schools. It aims to:

• Provide conceptual and practical guidance on definitions and strategies of scaling-up, given the specificities of sexuality education.
• Illustrate good practice and pathways for successful scale-up in light of diverse contextual parameters.
• Provide some principles of scaling up sexuality education that are of relevance internationally.