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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