Progress on the Implementation of DFID's HIV/AIDS Strategy - International Development Committee Contents


5  SOCIAL PROTECTION PROGRAMMES

37. In its new HIVAIDS Strategy, DFID moved from providing earmarked funding for children orphaned or made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS (OVCs) to a new approach of spending £200 million over three years on social protection programmes, including cash transfers. DFID said that this funding would provide "effective and predictable support for the most vulnerable households, including those with children affected by AIDS." The programmes were intended to operate in eight African countries.[63] DFID told us that "robust evidence" had shown that social protection can strengthen families affected by HIV and AIDS:

    […] cash transfers can help secure basic subsistence, reduce poverty and protect children's access to education, health and good nutrition. Cash transfers should be seen as part of broader social protection measures that include family support services to protect children from abuse, accessible and affordable health care and education, psychosocial support and broad livelihoods support.[64]

38. In our Report last year, we asked DFID to clarify how much of the £200 million was new money, given that it already had social protection programmes in place in a number of countries. We also stated that we expected to see indicators included in the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework which would measure the extent to which social protection funding was specifically benefiting children affected by HIV/AIDS.[65] In its Response, DFID informed us that £120 million had already been committed for social protection programmes in the period 2008-2011 and therefore £80 million could be considered as "new money for new programmes". Under the M&E Framework, DFID country offices would report on the impact of this expenditure on OVCs as part of its biennial reporting.[66]

39. Witnesses in this year's inquiry continued to express concern that social protection programmes may not benefit children affected by HIV/AIDS. World Vision told us:

    There is a danger that funding for social protection will be regarded as limited to providing cash transfers which, whilst important, are only one part of the required package of policies and services needed to care for and protect vulnerable children affected by HIV and AIDS (others include: child and legal protection services, psycho-social support, and strengthened community support.) Social transfers do not necessarily benefit vulnerable children living outside family settings and in households where there is poor intra-household distribution.[67]

The International HIV/AIDS Alliance pointed out that "children who are the most vulnerable to HIV infection and also to the impact of HIV on their lives are most likely not to benefit from development interventions". This includes children with disabilities, street and working children, and children of people who use drugs and of sex workers. It highlighted that "social protection programmes in general, and in particular programmes that promote community targeting of vulnerable families, are in danger of excluding families due to stigma and discrimination by community members and institutions". People affected by HIV/AIDS are often engaged in activities which are categorised as illegal in the countries where they live, for example sex work and drug use. This contributes to the difficulties in identifying children and families in need of assistance because people often do not come forward due to "fear of police harassment, legal action and separation of children from their families" and are therefore often excluded from services.[68]

40. Sally Joss told us that "one of the biggest issues around all of the social protection is that cash transfers are not enough and that there need to be on the ground welfare support services that are supporting vulnerable households, vulnerable groups".[69] DFID witnesses confirmed that "a lot of the work we are doing at the moment is looking at cash transfers".[70] When we asked about people who were excluded from social protection schemes, Alastair Robb, Senior MDG Results Adviser, said that, although there were a huge number of very poor people who would benefit from cash transfers, "those people that are really out of reach of the whole system are not going to be the ones who will benefit from this". He told us that "over time" DFID would produce an analysis to assess how cash transfers impact on the lives of the poor people receiving them, including children, orphans and people with HIV. [71]

41. We are also concerned that there is a lack of clarity within DFID about the countries in which its social protection programmes will operate. Although the Strategy specified that programmes would be developed in eight African countries, when the Minister gave evidence last year he was not able to tell us which countries these would be, as this was still being finalised.[72] Witnesses in this year's inquiry expressed concern that, halfway through the funding period for the programmes, DFID had "still not defined which countries these are and so monitoring progress remains impossible".[73] In evidence this year, DFID witnesses told us that there was "not a fixed or static number" of countries where DFID intended to work on social protection, although programmes were currently operating in Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. More programmes might be added in the future as existing programmes came to an end.[74] The Minister acknowledged the need to make more information available on the programmes and the intended outcomes and undertook to "look at what we can do".[75]

42. We remain concerned that many of the most vulnerable people affected by HIV/AIDS, particularly children, may be excluded from social protection programmes. Cash transfers, while very effective in some situations, are not a sufficient mechanism for reaching those most in need because marginalised people, particularly those engaged in activities deemed to be illegal, are often unwilling or unable to access services. We are not convinced that DFID has the necessary mechanisms in place to enable it to measure the impact which its funding for social protection is achieving and to assess whether it is reaching the priority groups affected by HIV/AIDS. We recommend that, in response to this Report, DFID provides us with detailed information on how it plans to track its social protection funding and sets out the mechanisms it will use to measure its impact.


63   Achieving Universal Access, pp 5, 41 Back

64   Ev 37 Back

65   Twelfth Report of Session 2007-09, HIV/AIDS: DFID's New Strategy, HC 1068-I, para 55 Back

66   First Special Report of Session 2008-09, HIV/AIDS: DFID's New Strategy: Government Response to the Committee's Twelfth Report of Session 2007-08, HC 235, pp 8-9 Back

67   Ev 86-87 Back

68   Ev 54 Back

69   Q 14 [Sally Joss] Back

70   Q 37 [Alastair Robb] Back

71   Q 37 [Alastair Robb] Back

72   Achieving Universal Access, pp 5, 41; Twelfth Report of Session 2007-08, HIV/AIDS: DFID's New Strategy, HC 1068-I, para 51 Back

73   Ev 83 Back

74   Q 36 Back

75   Q 38 Back


 
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