Learning Group 1: Strengthening Families Home

Welcome to the Joint Learning Initiative on Children and HIV/AIDS (JLICA) Learning Group 1: Strengthening Families

  The JLICA final report has been released (10 February 2009).
  Final report garners global media attention (27 February 2009).

For more information on the global Joint Learning Initiative on children and HIV/AIDS visit http://www.jlica.org/

The JLICA is spurred by the urgency of the crisis confronting children affected by HIV/AIDS – and by the conviction that crucial opportunities are now emerging for action to protect and promote children’s wellbeing. Its goal is to improve the survival and well-being for children affected by HIV/AIDS through expanded implementation of effective, evidence-based policies and programs by international agencies, governments, non-governmental organizations and community-based initiatives.

The aim of the Initiative is to compile and disseminate research, policy, programme and operational knowledge and advocate for its implementation. This is being done by four thematic learning groups whose focus comes from the 2004 Framework for the Protection, Care and Support of Orphans and Vulnerable Children Living in a World with HIV and AIDS. In addition to the thematic learning groups, there will be several cross-cutting topics which will allow the JLICA to add value,

The JLICA was formally launched in October 2006 at a meeting at Foxhills in London. The Initiative is expected to continue until the end of 2008. Find out more about the JLICA from the JLICA Brochure and JLICA Frequently Asked Questions documents.

The goal of Learning Group 1 is to marshal evidence on family and household changes in response to HIV/AIDS; analyse the strengths and weaknesses of existing programs for affected families; and identify the best way to combine government and non-governmental services to strengthen families. The group will give special attention to cash transfer programmes and other social welfare policies as a means of responding to the needs of children affected by HIV/AIDS.

Strengthening Families: The Co-Chairs

Each Learning Group of the JLICA is coordinated by two co-chairs who oversee the scientific and advocacy work. Strengthening Families is managed by Prof. Linda Richter and Prof. Lorraine Sherr.

Linda Richter Linda Richter is the executive director of the Child, Youth, Family and Social Development programme at the HSRC.  She is an Honorary Professor in Psychology and an elected Fellow of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, an Honorary Professor in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of the Witwatersrand, and an Honorary Research Associate in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford. Prof. Richter has conducted both basic and policy research in the fields of child and youth development as applied to health, education, welfare and social development, and has published more than 150 papers in the fields of child, adolescent and family development, infant and child assessment, protein-energy malnutrition, street and working children, and the effects of HIV/AIDS on children and families, including HIV prevention among young people.

Lorraine Sherr Lorraine Sherr is a Clinical Psychologist based at University College London. She has been involved in HIV both clinically and as a researcher since the beginning of the epidemic in the mid 1980s.  She is editor of the journal AIDS Care, as well as Psychology Health and Medicine, and Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies.  She has been involved in several European funded HIV research and policy initiatives and has published widely in peer reviewed journals. Her text books include HIV/AIDS in Mothers and Babies, AIDS and Adolescents, AIDS and the Heterosexual Community, and Grief and AIDS. Prof. Sherr has sat on the HIV Strategic and Technical Advisory group for the World Health Organisation and she sits on the steering committee of the International Coallition on Children affected by AIDS (CCABA). She was appointed a Churchill Fellow for her work on HIV and AIDS in obstetrics and paediatrics. She has held numerous research grants looking into aspects of health psychology, HIV and AIDS in the UK, Europe and Africa.  She has chaired the British Psychological Society Special Group on HIV and AIDS, and the Special Group on Teaching Psychology to Other Professions.  She has provided psychosocial evaluations for international organisations such as the World Health Organisation, UNAids, Unicef, Save the Children and Norad.  Prof Sherr was the psychology representative on the international scientific board of the International AIDS Conference in Geneva, is on the international organising committee of the AIDS Impact conference and was previously appointed to the review support panel of the Global Fund.

The four Learning Groups are:

	Learning Group 1 Chaired by Linda Richter (Human Sciences Research Council) and Lorraine Sherr (University College London), LG 1 focuses on the challenge of how to strengthen family capacity to support and provide for children, as well as protect children from HIV infection and the worst effects of poverty and social disruption. LG 1 examines questions such as:  What are the best social protection strategies for families in extremely resource-constrained environments?  How can HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support programmes help to strengthen families?  What are the likely economic and social costs if high-burden countries fail to support families?  More on LG 1 ...
	Learning Group 2 Chaired by Geoff Foster (Family AIDS Caring Trust) and Madhu Deshmukh (CARE USA), LG 2 addresses the need for documentation of, and greater technical and financial support for, community responses to HIV impact on children. LG 2 examines questions such as:  How can external financial and technical support be most effectively channelled to strengthen community responses to children and families affected by poverty and HIV/AIDS?  How can community groups best target cash transfers to strengthen household coping in the face of poverty and HIV/AIDS?  How can policy and programming on children affected by HIV/AIDS be made more accountable to children and youth?
	Learning Group 3 Expanding Access to Services and Protecting Human Rights LG 3 is co-chaired by Jim Yong Kim (François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University) and Lydia Mungherera (Mama's Club and The AIDS Support Organization). The group examines barriers to the delivery of essential health, education and social protection services for children. LG 3 examines questions such as:  What obstacles slow the effective implementation of services and how can they be overcome?  How should prevention of mother-to-child transmission services be linked with early child development interventions?  How can services be effectively integrated to address children's needs, while also strengthening the primary response role of families and communities?
	Learning Group 4 Chaired by Alex de Waal (Social Science Research Council) and Masuma Mamdani (Research on Poverty Alleviation), LG 4 documents the policy changes and new resources that governments and international institutions will need in order to implement social and economic policies that will effectively protect children affected by HIV/AIDS. LG 4 is also investigating HIV prevention among adolescents and older children, with a focus on gender issues, sexuality and the predictors of HIV exposure. LG 4 examines questions such as:  What political factors influence the adoption of good policies for children?  What are the resource implications of achieving social protection policies and programmes for children, and how can policies be designed to maximize the opportunities for success?  How can policies and programmes for young people better reflect our growing understanding of the role of gender and sexuality in HIV risk?