Working to support orphans and vulnerable
children in southern Africa
A reflection on values, principles and organisational issues
Donald Skinner, Alicia Davids, Tsela Matlhaku,
Reba Phakedi, Phomolo Mohapeloa, Sonja Romao,
Tshepo Mdwaba, Nene Kazi & Jephias Mundondo
CHILD PROTECTION
NETWORK
NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS COALITION
ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
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Published by HSRC Press
Private Bag X9182, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa
www.hsrcpress.ac.za
© 2006 Human Sciences Research Council, Family AIDS Caring Trust, Nelson Mandela
Children’s Fund, Masiela Trust Fund, Foundation for Community Development, Child
Protection Network,
Non-Governmental Organisations Coalition on the Rights of the Child
First published 2006
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in
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We would like to thank the WK Kellogg Foundation for providing the funding for
the project.
We would like to acknowledge the contributions of:
• The Masiela Trust Fund (MTF), Botswana
• The Non-Governmental Organisations Coalition on the Rights of the Child (NGOC),
Lesotho
• The Foundation for Community Development (FDC), Mozambique
• The Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund (NMCF), South Africa
• The Child Protection Network, Swaziland
• The Family AIDS Caring Trust (FACT), Zimbabwe
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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v
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In 2002 the HSRC received funding from the Kellogg Foundation to develop and
implement a 5-year intervention project on the care of orphans and vulnerable children
(OVC) as well as households and communities coping with the care of affected children
in Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The project comprises two components, firstly
funding and technical assistance directed at interventions to assist OVC, and secondly
research to develop a better understanding of the situation of OVC and towards the
development of best practice approaches for interventions.
The establishment of clear base values and principles of working with the target
community is fundamental to the establishment of congruent intervention strategies. These
are often hidden assumptions in the work that we do, but appear as the intervention
develops. By adopting a shared set of values and principles the project should be able to
offer a more congruent set of services and interventions.
The organisations participating in the study are:
• Masiela Trust Fund (MTF) in Botswana;

• Interventions should be holistic and at multiple levels.
• Accountability, transparency and integrity are key.
• Best use must be made of resources and there must be professionalism in delivery.
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vi
For the second portion of the document specific processes need to be considered when
making decisions about which interventions they would support either with financial or
technical assistance. A similar structure would be used for the evaluation of interventions
developed internally and those developed externally, with some obvious variations for
those proposals developed internally. A structured approach is required.
Some crucial capacity indicators included:
• Project management capacity;
• Financial management capacity;
• Technical knowledge in the intervention areas;
• Community participation.
Supporting OVC in southern Africa: values, principles & organisational issues
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CHAPTER 1
Introduction
The current situation of children in sub-Saharan Africa requires the development of
powerful and effective solutions. The HIV/AIDS epidemic and the number of orphans
and vulnerable children is increasing the problems faced by children. The prevalence of
HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa is estimated at 25.4 million infected persons at the end of
2004 (UNAIDS, 2005). According to a national population-based survey for South Africa
in 2002, 3% of 2–14 year olds had lost a mother, and 8.4% had lost a father (Shisana and
Simbayi, 2002). This would not be exclusively due to HIV/AIDS, but the disease is the
major contributor to the high percentage of parental loss. Internationally the figures are
also extremely high: it is projected that by the year 2010, 25 million children under the
age of 15 years are likely to be orphaned world wide (UNICEF, 2005).

people live by a set of such beliefs, for a project such as this OVC one, there are benefits
in coming to a common agreement on these principles and elucidating them further.
Inevitably there is considerable overlap as these values and principles are listed and they
do tend to feed into one another.
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Supporting OVC in southern Africa: values, principles & organisational issues
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To develop a better understanding of the process of decision making when allocating
resources and assistance for the implementation of projects and interventions, this
paper compares these practices of all the grant-maker organisations from the countries
participating in the WK Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) OVC project. The two criteria
looked at were the values and principles of the six grant makers in the project, and their
decision-making processes and criteria used when deciding on a project to support.
There is very little material on the guidance of values and principles in the published
scientific literature. This is a separate discussion to that of ethics, which has received
more coverage. Many of principles will overlap, such as attention to patient autonomy,
informed consent and beneficence (O’Hare, 2003). Core to both sets of principles
is respect for the patient or the recipients of services (O’Hare, 2003; Cimino, 2003).
Another basic principle that has emerged is the importance of the cost effectiveness
of standardised interventions, which has in turn raised concerns about the interaction
between cost and quality of care (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2001). Another
response to the standardised interventions is a growing recognition of the need for
adaptive interventions that allow for treatment or intervention components to be adapted
to the patient/recipient or context (Collins, Murphy and Bierman, 2004)
Background to the project
In 2002 the HSRC received funding from the Kellogg Foundation to develop and
implement a 5-year intervention project on the care of OVC, as well as households
and communities coping with the care of affected children in Botswana, South Africa
and Zimbabwe. The project comprises two components, firstly funding and technical

Table 1: List of grant makers involved in the WK Kellogg Foundation Project for Orphaned and
Vulnerable Children
Botswana
Masiela Trust Fund (MTF)
Lesotho
Non-Governmental Organisations Coalition on the rights of the Child (NGOC)
Mozambique
Foundation for Community Development (FDC)
South Africa
Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund (NMCF)
Swaziland
Committee on OVC in the Ministry of Education
Zimbabwe
Family AIDS Caring Trust (FACT)
Methodology
The information used in this report was drawn from two particular sources. The first
was discussions held at a workshop directed towards the development of best practice
approaches held in Mutare, Zimbabwe in August 2004. There was no formal process at
the workshop for drawing out the common values, but during the discussions on best
practice approaches for caring for OVC these values and principles emerged from the
discussion. After the workshop they were captured into a single document that formed
part of the basis for this report.
The second component of the methodology was an analysis of the values and principles,
and selection processes and selection criteria for deciding on which intervention projects
to support, of all of the grant-maker structures in the project. The principal author
requested this information from all the grant makers, and details were forwarded. The
team working in Swaziland did not feel able to advance a specific set of documents
outlining their values and principles and selection critieria at the time of writing this
report, as the intervention partners were still being drawn together. However, those
working on the project agreed with the principles outlined. The values and principles

of the child must be the fundamental consideration in all interventions, even if the initial
target is not the child itself, but its carers or a community structure.
There needs to be preparedness for and a history of taking up issues and advocating
children’s rights, especially around stigma and discrimination. Education needs to be
done in the community around current legislation that protects children, and advocacy
needs to be done in the community to ensure that these rights are upheld. Targeting key
stakeholders such as educators, health workers, traditional leaders and religious leaders
should be part of this direct intervention.
The Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund illustrates this perspective:
…facilitate change through the work of societal norms and practices that force
children to focus only on their basic needs. The absence of hunger, abuse,
exploitation and homelessness are basic conditions that all children should
enjoy. The programmes of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund’s partners
should enhance the rights of children to reach their full potential; and promote
best practice, encourage professionalism and be oriented towards achieving
measurable results. (See page 16 of this report.)
Need to look beyond orphans to look at all contexts that put children at risk
The focus should not only be on orphans, but on all vulnerable children. This requires
advance recognition of who and where these children are and planning to reach them.
The report on the definition of vulnerability refined in the introduction to this report
provides a starting point for identifying children.
Poverty has a significant impact on children, particularly in concert with HIV\AIDS, and
is highly prevalent. Eradication of poverty was a core issue for some organisations. For
example the FDC stated as their mission to ‘Strengthen the capacity of underprivileged
communities to eradicate poverty and promote social justice in Mozambique.’ Key within
this is the strengthening of the role and position of women and youth. Further community
CHAPTER 2
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Supporting OVC in southern Africa: values, principles & organisational issues
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Core values of respect, empowerment and consultation
Core to all work and interventions has to be a respect for the community. This is
fundamental to many of the other principles below and so will be represented in different
forms under subsequent headings. The community representatives and target group
drawn into the intervention must be seen as whole people who need to be accorded
full respect as thinking persons with emotions. Respect as a person includes requesting
permission to enter their community and work with them, consulting with the community
representatives as to what they want within the constraints of the study, and involving
them in the implementation of the work. Respect also has to be shown to what is found
in their community context, culture and language. The community representatives, OVC
and their carers are not simply disadvantaged people who need us to be able to survive,
and do not have to just accept with gratitude anything we want to implement in their
communities.
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Regarding interventions, this principle means that consultation about any activities that
take place and the use of interventions to empower community members are fundamental
considerations that must be maintained at all stages of the work. This does not mean that
the fundamentals of the project should be changed on request, but that these constraints
should be made known early and fully, and that open negotiation is held within these
structures. Control over interventions has to go eventually to the community members,
who need to participate in making core decisions about what services get delivered, how
often and how to provide them.
Work should be done in solidarity and should aim at the reducing of dependency. The
knowledge required for the intervention, the resources used and the capacity generated
should be shared with the communities, with the aim of strengthening communities,
families and individuals. Where possible, all resources that come into the community
through the project should remain there.
The power and capacity of the local NGOs and CBOs should be increased via the
interventions. By extension, the power and capacity of the entire community should

8
Use and prioritisation of indigenous knowledge
Since the programmes target vulnerable communities, it is important to highlight the use
and understandings of indigenous methods and their application in African families and
communities. A wealth of knowledge exists in Africa about care of children, families and
communities, and the survival of disasters. Indigenous knowledge should be applied by
communities and accepted as part of good practice and be included in the comprehensive
or holistic approach. These may interact with programmes guided by the knowledge from
other parts of the world as part of developing a comprehensive system.
Role of volunteers and/or community workers
A particular discussion was held at the Mutare workshop, but did not achieve full
resolution, on the use of volunteers and/or community workers. The major differences
of opinion centered on whether these workers should be paid. Those in favour of
payment felt that it was abusive not to pay people for work and that this was an effective
method of moving resources into communities. The need for payment was emphasised
in situations where the volunteer work actually cost the volunteer, for example, paying
for transport or for food for a person they are assisting. A counter perspective was that
this would break the volunteer spirit, and that people would take on the roles for money
rather than out of a commitment to the issue and this would create employment issues.
Organisations using volunteers also have to be careful not to exploit their volunteers and
expect them to work beyond the hours that they can reasonably afford, given their other
responsibilities and work.
Respect of context
The community members live their lives in the context of their communities. The realities
of their lives need to be acknowledged and respected. Aspects of context include
lifestyle, culture and cultural tradition, language, social systems, values, religion, and the
physical structure of the community and surroundings. This does not mean that situations
that induce risk or vulnerability cannot be challenged.
Cultural processes of care are important, particularly in the context of OVC. There is
general recognition of the power of the extended family in Africa and the capacity of this

possible being involved. A holistic response is required to create an environment
conducive to the development of children. This can create a synergy that will allow for
greater changes to happen than just the resources put in.
Accountability, transparency and integrity
Lines of accountability within the intervention and the organisation implementing the
intervention need to be clear, both to the community and to the project leadership. This
will contribute to a project reaching its goal and ensuring that resources are not wasted or
abused. The grant makers are the custodians of people’s resources so have an obligation
to ensure that it is the wishes of the community that are delivered. Community members
should have open access to the functioning and decisions of the grant makers so that
decisions and actions can be effectively examined and if necessary queried. Integrity is
also fundamental and implies that grant makers are trusted by the communities that they
serve, and that this relationship of trust is crucial to the operations of the organisation.
Best use must be made of resources and there must be professionalism in delivery
Decisions on programmes and how to implement them should be based on evidence of
effectiveness rather than personality or ideology. Established best practice approaches
should be used where these are available and are applicable to the context. There must
also be an openness to new and creative ideas, especially those that can open and
unleash individual and community potential.
The interventions should make efficient use of resources and be as cost effective as
possible. Focus of services should be on those in greatest need and those who can best
use the services.
Where interventions work there needs to be the capacity and the will to contribute these
to policy frameworks at a broader level. Thus community development and assistance to
impoverished communities can happen beyond the site of immediate intervention.
Religious focus
FACT draws on a religious framework, which is core to its operations. In addition some
of the intervention structures within communities operate from a religious base. Religious
belief can be a solid basis for intervention, as long as it does not lead to exclusion.
Included in FACT’s approach is a specific focus on ‘sexual abstinence outside marriage

3) Evaluation and selection of good proposals by a committee (besides FDC staff
members, we include external people: AIDS council, Ministry of Education, etc.).
Good proposals are evaluated based on criteria established in an evaluation form
(for each criterion marks are defined), and essentially they look for coherence of
definition of the problem and the strategy to address that problem. Other important
criteria are the experience and reputation of the organisation.
4) Pre-award survey (programming, finance and governance) of the pre-selected
partners. This process helps to identify the situation of the organisation for decisions
during selection as well for capacity-building purposes.
5) Checking references in the places where they implement projects.
6) Final selection of the partners.
The criteria used in the evaluation of the proposals for interventions by grant makers
were essentially the values and principles described above. The additional factor that
was raised by many was the capacity of the organisation to take on the prescribed
intervention. This involved the management ability of the structure, including the capacity
to manage the funding provided, the technical skills to complete the tasks, the staff
capacity to do and maintain the work, and the fixed assets required to do the work.
Some history of doing the work that is being proposed was considered important. This
would support the claim to having capacity to run the intervention.
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The Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund sets out some crucial capacity indicators that they
use in their assessments:
Project Management Capacity
The organisation running the intervention needs to have adequate capacity for project
management. The set of criteria given are that they need to have:
• done work or be doing work that focuses on the development of children and
youth, families and communities;
• an established presence in the site mentioned above, able to identify with the
community, have credibility in the eyes of the community;

Core, particularly within the framework of this project, is that the principal beneficiaries
should be OVC. This may not apply to all work of the grant-maker structures as
many have target groupings beyond OVC. In the same vein there should be a good
understanding of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and its impact on communities and particularly
children. Experience both in working with children and with HIV/AIDS is an important
consideration.
Chapter 2
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Some of the grant makers demand that the intervening organisation, even if small and a
CBO, must be registered on a state registrar of societies and have a constitution.
If some of these criteria do not exist in the initial phase it will be part of the grant
maker’s role to facilitate their development over the initial phase of the intervention
support. The emphasis shared amongst all appears to be on the development of
interventions and the structures to run these interventions.
Conclusion
The context of many children in South Africa, particularly given the HIV epidemic,
creates the situation for the generation of vulnerability. It is therefore important to find
best practice approaches for assisting these children. In the development of these best
practice approaches it is crucial as background to have the key principal areas that
underlie interventions of any type. These include the values and principles underlying
an intervention and the essential organisational criteria that need to be in place to run
and manage an intervention. As would be expected there was considerable overlap
between the organisations and agreement with the international human rights documents
mentioned in the reports. The key values and principles centered around respect for
children’s rights, working with communities and families to ensure that holistic and
adequate interventions happen, maintaining respect for people, communities and their
cultural bases, and making efficient use of resources. The criteria raised as part of the
decision-making process when selecting interventions for support centered on the

Transparency
Principle: MTF is a custodian of people’s resources who has an obligation to ensure that
their wishes are delivered.
Action: We will be accountable to stakeholders for all our actions.
Professionalism
Principle: MTF has been mandated to execute its mission and deliver value for all
concerned.
Action: We will embrace all principles that are required for effective delivery of mission.
Expected outcomes:
• Improved quality of life for OVC;
• Consolidation of community resources for OVC;
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Supporting OVC in southern Africa: values, principles & organisational issues
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• Integration of OVC in the society;
• Creation of non-threatening environment for OVC.
Non-governmental Organisations Coalition on the Rights
of the Child
Our vision:
All children, in spite of their differences and diverse conditions, will live in an inclusive
and non-abusive environment that enables them to fully develop holistically, in keeping
with their human rights.
Our mission:
• We are a non-governmental organisations coalition on the rights of the child in
Lesotho. Our business is to work with and for children in the promotion and
fulfilment of their rights.
• We collaborate with all relevant and strategic stakeholders including children,
government, civil society, faith-based organisations, private sector, development
partners, regional and international networks, to create an enabling environment for
holistic growth and development of children.

Foundation for Community Development
FDC Vision
Mozambican communities capable of leading their own development processes,
promoting dialogues and partnerships and strengthening the role of women and youth
towards the goal of poverty eradication.
Mission
Strengthen the capacity of underprivileged communities to eradicate poverty and promote
social justice in Mozambique.
Values
Respect for others: We honour each person’s rights and contributions, traits derived from
one’s culture, upbringing, beliefs and religion. Emotions, life prospects and vision of
the future should never be compromised in the course of FDC’s work. They should be
honoured as contributions to development efforts of the Mozambican society.
Solidarity
FDC is guided, in all its endeavours, by a spirit of solidarity aimed at reducing
dependency and sharing visions, resources, capacities and knowledge that strengthen the
efforts of Mozambican communities, families and individuals to eradicate poverty and
promote social justice.
Social justice
FDC confronts discrimination of any kind. We consider social justice as a value that is
intrinsic in every individual and organisation. This value should be shared with others and
translated into balanced social relations between persons of different genders, cultures,
ethnic origins, religions, economic power and social status who are united by their
human nature as social beings.
Transparency
FDC is guided by the principle of accountability to communities and partners. We fulfil
our mission in an open and transparent manner that respects ethical and moral principles.
Initiative
FDC excels in devising and implementing creative, sustainable solutions that unleash
individual and community potential to undertake result-oriented initiatives.

values and principles guide the establishment of our partnerships:
• Position the ultimate goal as poverty eradication and not just the amelioration of the
difficult circumstances in which the targeted beneficiaries find themselves.
• Possess holistic and integrated approaches to the challenges confronting children.
These strategies should recognise that children are an integral part of families
and communities. The well-being of children cannot be isolated from that of their
environment.
• Facilitate the participation of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund’s target group
in the planning and implementation of projects and programmes. This means
finding cost effective methods of involving children, youth and their communities
in decision making. Empowering such communities to take responsibility for their
decisions should be a primary requisite.
• Facilitate change through the work of societal norms and practices that force
children to focus only on their basic needs. The absence of hunger, abuse,
exploitation and homelessness are basic conditions that all children should enjoy.
The programmes of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund’s partners should enhance
the rights of children to reach their full potential; and promote best practice,
encourage professionalism and be oriented towards achieving measurable results.
NMCF
The following elements are the value-base criteria that influence the ways in which NMCF
intervenes in each of the afore-mentioned programme areas.
Institutional transformation and development
The general transformation in South Africa demands that development institutions
implement programmes in a manner that addresses the root causes of poverty and
inequality, while placing emphasis on understanding new challenges and priorities. As
South Africa is demographically a young nation, children and youth constitute a large
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part of the new challenges and priorities. It is therefore essential that the programmes
implemented by development institutions be child-centred.

HIV prevention programmes, training and care for the whole person.
• FACT promotes sexual abstinence outside marriage and faithfulness within marriage.
• FACT provides unconditional care and support to people affected by HIV/AIDS.
• Worldwide FACT supports and cooperates with others who are responding to HIV/
AIDS in their communities.
Goals and objectives of FACT
• To have a sustainable organisation with strategic, dynamic effective leadership and
management systems;
Appendix 1
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• To have sustainable strategic partnerships with NGOs and other organisations
internationally, through HIV/AIDS consultancy services and research collaborations
based on community-oriented best practices approaches;
• To have FACT advocating for and with communities responding to HIV/AIDS at local
and international level;
• To have empowered people living with HIV/AIDS (PWAs) and autonomous support
groups involved in decision-making, advocacy and service provision at all levels of
HIV/AIDS interventions;
• To have autonomous, dynamic, sustainable CBOs and NGOs working with
communities to provide integrated, quality HIV/AIDS services;
• To have a reduction in new HIV infections through community-supported prevention
models that promote sustainable attitude and behaviour change;
• To reduce the impact of AIDS on affected families through the provision of
sustainable, holistic, integrated community care programmes targeted to the
terminally ill and children affected by HIV/AIDS, with a focus on self-reliance;
• To have FACT advocating for and with communities responding to HIV/AIDS at local
and international level.
Values and principles of FACT

project to support by grant makers
Masiela Trust Fund
Core activities
Orphanhood in Botswana is now a national phenomenon. The escalating number of
orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) precipitated by the HIV scourge threatens the
survival, upbringing, care, education, general protection and well-being of these children.
To complement government’s efforts and strengthen community initiatives in the care of
OVC, Masiela Trust Fund was established and subsequently launched in 2002. Masiela
Trust Fund and its implementing agencies provide interventions geared towards meeting
the needs of orphans and vulnerable children which translates into:
• Material support in the form of food and clothing;
• Social support. (counselling and psychosocial support);
• Technical expertise and financial resources to strengthen family, community and
national capacities in the care of orphans and vulnerable children, with emphasis on
prevention and mitigation of HIV/AIDS.
Following are the criteria used for funding projects:
• The organisation to be assisted must have a high level of community involvement in
terms of management committees, local authorities such as chief, councillor, MP etc.;
• The organisation, though a CBO, must be registered with the government registrar of
societies with a constitution;
• The principal beneficiaries must be OVC;
• The project must demonstrate a high level of sustainability;
• The organisation must have the institutional capacity to implement the project.
Key results areas for MTF and its implementing partners:
• Sufficient resources for OVC at all times;
• All orphans supported;
• Strengthening partnerships for sustaining the support.
Decision-making process:
• Masiela Trust Fund is managed by a Board of Trustees, with members drawn from
government ministries, developmental partners and outstanding members of the