Job Vacancy: Technical Advisor For Orphans, Vulnerable Children And Youth (OVCY)

The  SADC Secretariat is recruiting a Technical Advisor for OVCY. The  TA will provide overall advisory and programme management support to ensure that child and youth vulnerability, development and empowerment take centre stage in a systemic manner, in the social, economic and political development agenda of SADC at regional and national levels.

The TA will monitor national, regional and global trends on OVCY to inform the development and review of better and comprehensive policies, strategies, programs and priorities for orphans and other vulnerable children and youth in SADC.  Applications close on 17 March 2017. Click here for application details

Consultancy Opportunity: An External Mid-Term Review of the Performance of the Sweden/Norad funded SRHR, HIV and Governance Project, Implemented in Seven SADC Parliaments

The goal of the mid-term review is to assess and determine the extent to which the SADC-PF Project has successfully created an institutional framework for equipping members of Parliament, Parliamentary staff and CSOs in the SADC region with knowledge, skills and information that enhance their professional performance in implementing their mandates.

The mid-term review will be undertaken from 10th March, 2017 to April 30th, 2017 (with the deadline for submitting the final report being set April 15th, 2017.)

Click here to download the Call for Proposal

CRNSA Employment Opportunity – Regional Programs and Admin Assistant

CRNSA Regional office in Pretoria is looking for a "Regional Programs and Admin Assistant" to provide programmatic and administrative support services for CRNSA regional office and general administrative support. 

Programmatic and administrative support will include: 

Programmatic assistance

• Assist with the creation and management of a CRNSA membership data base and facilitate capture and maintenance of data base of the situation of children in CRNSA member countries.
• Arrange functions and programmes for CRNSA including the development of annual work plans, meetings, and preparations of relevant reports.
• Assist with ensuring the effective and efficient use of CRNSA resources.
• Support coordination of the promotion and protection of child rights in the CRNSA member countries.
• Assist in coordinating research and monitoring of implementation of child rights instruments in the CRNSA member countries.
• Facilitate information flow and effective communication within CRNSA and to CRNSA stakeholders.
• Manage and regularly update the CRNSA website and ensure the presence of CRNSA on social media

Administrative Assistance

• Facilitate travel arrangements for CRNSA staff and members as per CRNSA Procurement policies
• Update internal contact information
• Maintain office supplies in conjunction with Finance Officer
• Taking of minutes where required, filing and record keeping

General

• Prepare any payment orders in line with maintaining the office
• Support the Finance Officer to ensure that all areas of the office are tidy, functioning and professional at all times
• Carry out any other duties either in addition to or instead of those outlined above which may reasonably be required.

Qualifications
The ideal candidate will be a recent graduate with a degree preferably in Social Science or a related subject. Experience working in an NGO environment will be an advantage.

For more information or to download the full TOR click here

Deadline for applications: 24 February, 2017

Internship in the area of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) in Southern Africa

Introduction:

The Regional Office for Southern Africa of the Dutch Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries (Hivos), aims towards an open and green society, inspired by humanist values such as freedom, dignity, responsibility and curiosity. Our objective is that every person can live in freedom and dignity on a planet that is sustainable.

Background and Rationale

Hivos Regional Office Southern Africa is offering an opportunity to work for a development organisation. The objective of the internship is to enhance the educational experience of undergraduate and graduate students from diverse academic backgrounds through practical work assignments and on-the-job experience in order to expose them to the work being done in the health and development sector. 

The Southern Africa Office position is based in Johannesburg and will work under the guidance of the Project Manager, SRHR who is responsible for managing a Regional Fund on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights which includes a knowledge management function and other related activitiessuch as providing support to the upkeep and promotion of the Regional SRHR web site (www.sexirghtsafrica.net) as well as developing and implementing projects and programs targeted to SRHR work in Southern Africa.

Eligibility

Undergraduates or postgraduates who intend to study further or to work in area of international development ideally with a focus on health/sexual and reproductive health, communications, human rights or fields connected to the objectives of the RSRHR Fund and Hivos SRHR work in Southern Africa. To read the full requirements click here.

Application Process:

To apply send a letter explaining your motivation to apply for this position and your CV to rosaf@hivos.org

Click here to read the full terms of reference before applying

Deadline for submissions is the 9th of January 2017

Making the Children of Key Populations a Priority for Equitable Development

On World AIDS day 2016, Lisa Bohmer and Noreen Huni, Coalition Chair and Co-chair, authored a blog on the Huffington Post highlighting the challenges facing children of key HIV and AIDS affected populations. 

Allow me to introduce you to a young, HIV positive mother—we’ll call her “Sarah”—in South Africa. Sarah is living in extreme poverty. To ensure her child has food and shelter, she is a sex worker, likely how she contracted the disease. Forced with the untenable choice of providing either food or childcare—she cannot afford both—she locks her baby in the house while she works. She is consumed with thoughts of how often the baby cries, and worries what will happen if her home catches fire or someone breaks in while she is gone.

Sarah is not alone. And her baby is far from the only child that is suffering.

Today, on World AIDS Day, we can’t forget that this experience is the reality for many of those whom the global health community has determined to be most vulnerable to HIV and AIDS-not only sex workers like Sarah, but also people who use drugs, transgender people, and men who have sex with men. While the global health community has worked for many years to determine the best way to fight HIV and AIDS among key affected populations, we know very little at all about their children.

Mothers and fathers from within the key population community are reluctant to formally register their children for fear of having them forcibly removed by the authorities, many of which regard key populations as unfit parents. As a result, their children remain largely hidden.To address this, over the past two years, the Coalition for Children Affected by AIDS, together with 10 other partner organisations, conducted the first global analysis of children of key populations affected by HIV and AIDS. The findings were deeply concerning.

Children of key populations face a double burden: both the affects of HIV and AIDS and entrenched exclusion by way of association with their parents. Stigma against their parents results in children going without education, health, or protection. Parents report feeling less able to take their child for medical care, fearing public shaming and abuse from health staff and other patients. Key population families regularly have to move to avoid stigma, causing major disruption to, and even abandonment of, their children’s education. Cases of neglect or violence against the children of key populations are taken less seriously by the police and often go unpunished. All of this creates long-term consequences on children’s psychological wellbeing and on their opportunities in adult life.

Because they are largely absent in the research, assessments, and monitoring that underpin development planning, government and nongovernmental organizations rarely target or resource interventions for these children. They also face entrenched structural exclusion from services and supports. For example, the criminalisation of key populations means that parents cannot apply for state social assistance for their children for fear of legal recrimination. Laws and policies promoting the automatic forced placement of children from the parents of key populations into alternative care also keeps family strengthening services out of reach.

The end result is that children of key affected populations are being overlooked and excluded. And this is entirely unacceptable. Furthermore, it is a major barrier to effective programming for key population parents, many of whom would be far more likely to participate in HIV interventions if the needs of their children were met first.

Supporting these children requires a holistic, family-centred approach involving stakeholders from across a range of development sectors working together. Organisations working on core development issues such as health, education, and social and child protection need to better target the children of key populations. And organisations within the HIV and AIDS sector need to prioritise more resources for this demographic.

Across all sectors, interventions must strengthen the capacity of parents and carers from key populations to provide and care for their own children. This includes:

1. Investing in family-centred HIV services for the children of key populations—including diagnosis, treatment, prevention, care, and support—and ensuring that broader work on key populations support the whole family.
2. Tackling the stigma facing children of key populations more effectively by engaging them directly to better understand how discrimination is experienced. In addition, we should extend and adapt the existing approaches used to combat stigma against key populations to include their children.
3. Designing and delivering better care services for the children of key populations. For example, strengthening the capacity of key population families to care for and protect their own children, and prioritising support to keep families together.
4.  Supporting the children of key populations to reach their full potential through targeted inclusion in early childhood development and education programmes. As they grow, helping children to enrol and stay in school, making it a safe and stigma-free environment in which to learn.
5. Strengthening laws, policies, and procedures, so that the children of key populations can access full citizenship, services and protection. This can be done by, for example, guaranteeing the right to a birth certificate regardless of the health status, drug use, identity, or work of the parents.

Achieving the aspirations of equitable development set out in the Sustainable Development Goals requires further research, advocacy and, above all, better support for children of key populations. Compassion and human decency requires us to ensure that this population has an improved chance at a healthy, productive life.

Further information on the CCABA can be found here.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-bohmer/making-the-children-of-ke_b_13337852.html