About us

Working together for vulnerable children

RIATT-ESA is a unique, multi-sectoral partnership of organisations focusing on the care and support for children affected by AIDS in eastern and southern Africa. RIATT-ESA was formed in 2006 between regional political and economic bodies, civil society organisations, academia, donors and UN agencies in response to the Global Partners Forum recommendations to set up Regional Interagency Task Teams on Children.

RIATT-ESA works to support the UNGASS declaration of commitment to universal access for children to prevention, care, treatment and support in the context of HIV and AIDS, by harnessing the power of a multi-sectoral joint response within the eastern and southern African region.

Creating change for children

RIATT-ESA is continuously working to ensure that children affected by AIDS in the region receive the protection, care and support they so desperately need and deserve. We advocate for a number of central approaches to policy-making and programming which can improve children’s wellbeing all over the region.

Children’s vulnerability needs to be better understood: We need to identify more clearly how being affected by AIDS makes a child vulnerable, and how it links to other challenges for children and their families and communities in the region.

Support the family and the community to care for children: protection, care and support for children affected by AIDS means enabling the family and community to more easily ensure the wellbeing of their children, by increasing the flow of resources and support to this level.

HIV-sensitive social protection frameworks for children and their families helps improve lives: by providing a broad range of family-targeted social services, including cash grants, children affected by AIDS of all ages benefit from improved protection, care and support.

Children’s rights need to be ensured and they must be protected from violence, abuse, exploitation and other kinds of harm: resources targeting HIV can also engender responses from a number of sectors - such as social services, health and legislation - which can help protect children.

Children are not all the same: Children require different types of support and care depending on their age and gender. Regional information and learning around this needs to be increased and policies and programmes need to take this learning into account.