The data available to assess children orphaned and or made vulnerable by AIDS and other illnesses, conflict and war and poverty is woefully indequate. Currently, there is no nationally representative survey or method of assessing the situation of these children. In some countries, orphan-related questions have been added to the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) and the AIDS Impact Survey (AIS), yet progress in collecting data has been slow and there are still important limitations. Still, current household surveys could be better used by further disaggregating the data. Existing national datasets can be instrumental in providing information to assist families affected by AIDS, and for social welfare assistance planning, and poverty reduction policies and programmes. National household survey data (from Demographic Household Surveys (DHS) and MICS) should be further disaggregated to show:
- Household composition in homes where there are orphaned and vulnerable children and people living with AIDS (this can easily be done if data has HIV prevalence data;)
- Dependency ratios in these homes
- Number of working adults in affected homes
- The number of older person headed households by age and gender, and
- The socioeconomic status of these households
Existing data sources, such as the DHS and MICS, could also become much more useful tools if the following were data were collected in future rounds of data collection:
- Additional indicators of child welfare through life course (ages 0-17), including measures of physical, mental and reproductive health
- Questions on caregiving, to get at the quality and quantity of care provided
- Patterns of child mobility
- Access to, use of and satisfaction with public services
- Sources of external support (type, frequency, quantity)
- Income and expenditure data (this will help determine what families are living on and the resources families need to avoid health or other problems. It will also help identify vulnerable communities. Income and expenditure data will be essential to have when implementing and evaluating social welfare assistance strategies.)
Besides the DHS, MICS, AIS, there are surveys such as the World Health Survey, the Living Standards Measurement Study and the Core Welfare Indicators Questionnaire. These surveys actually collect some of this data, however, they do not collect orphan or HIV prevalence data so cannot be used to assess the situation of AIDS-affected households.
|
