COMBATING CHILD LABOUR AND HIV/AIDS IN SUB-
SAHARAN AFRICA: A REVIEW OF POLICIES,
PROGRAMMES,
AND PROJECTS IN SOUTH AFRICA, THE UNITED REPUBLIC
OF TANZANIA AND ZAMBIA TO IDENTIFY GOOD PRACTICES

Author(s): Rau, B.

Produced by: International Labour Organization (ILO) (2002)

This review of national HIV/AIDS and child labour policies
and programmes, NGO projects, and community-based
initiatives illuminates the harsh realities of the link
between child labour and HIV/AIDS. The report identifies
the broad range of responses, large and small, to these
intersecting issues.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic compounds the challenge of reducing
child labour in several ways:
* it adds to the number of vulnerable children, especially
orphans
* it increases pressure on households, and on the children
themselves, to have children seek income instead of
attending school
* it increases demands on public and private services,
notably the delivery of effective health care for children
and adolescents and, in the case of South Africa, grants
for children and caretakers
* it increases the burden on community groups and
institutions assisting care givers and vulnerable children
* it increases the risk that vulnerable children will
engage in survival sex, thereby increasing their risk of HIV
infection

Any effective campaign to reduce the vulnerability of
children to both HIV/AIDS and exploitative labour
situations involves a number of dimensions:
* where possible, governments must allocate more of their
resources to children and the social and economic
environment in which they live
* the civil service should be energized, encouraged to
deliver on its defined responsibilities
* all concerned should learn from and, where appropriate,
replicate community-based models already tested against
local realities. This means moving beyond the rhetoric of
community participation to respect for the skills,
abilities, and limitations of communities
* the demand side of sexual exploitation deserves far more
attention than it has been given in the three countries
under discussion. Girls, in particular, whether they are in
school, working as domestic servants, trying to earn cash
by hawking, or working in overt prostitution, are subject to
sexual coercion, manipulation, and harassment by men
* all three countries acknowledge the role of poverty in
forcing children to leave school and take up work, at the
same time increasing their vulnerability to HIV. The
expansion of the school system and improvements in the
quality of education are the most evident of these efforts
* finally, strengthening and fully enforcing anti-
discrimination laws and procedures will help reduce the
stigma faced by children affected by HIV/AIDS

Available online at:
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/ipec/publ/policy/aids_afri
ca.pdf