Mwambo Child Protection Case Management Project

PURPOSE

Malawi's high HIV burden means that one in six children are highly vulnerable and one in ten adults are living with HIV. In this context, designing a national child protection system presents particular challenges. In summary, a child protection system ia a coordinated and systematic effort to improve the protection of children vulnerable to violence, abuse  exploiation and neglect. This project looks at the key issues confronting children affected by AIDS, and the degree to which these issues can be met by a well designed, HIV sensitive child protectio system. It documents the emerging child protection system and the situation of children affected by AIDS in Malawi. The project then examines coverage and gaps for children affetced by AIDS against the national child protection system currently being developed. The project demonstrates that with an HIV sensitive approach, it is possible to establish a system that protects children from violence, abuse, exploiation and neglect while mitigating the impact of HIV. HIV- specific health services and livelihood support are the biggest gaps in terms of meeting the holistic needs of children affected by AIDS through the child protection system. This project reinforces the need for strong coordination between the child protection system and health, education and social protection sectors to ensure comprehensive impact mitigation for children affected by AIDS.

WHERE TO INVEST TO STRENGTHEN MALAWI 'S NATIONAL CHILD PROTCTION SYSTEM

 Investment was required to support Malawi's emerging child protection system to prepare for and contribute to the implementation of the national social support programme and policy. The capacity of the social support programme to deliver holistic gains for children partly depend on the strenth of the child protection system in place and the quality of the linkages between the child protection system and elements of the social support system. To maximise the capavcity of the child protection system to support social protection objectives, the following specific investments in the following componets of Malawi ' s child protection system were recommendede and achiveied because of the finacial support being raised through Global giving.

PROTECTIVE CONTINUUM ODF CARE INCLUDING PROMOTIVE ,PREVENTIVE AND RESPONSIVE SERVICES AND INTERVENTIONS

Malawi' sprotection services, including justice services and behaviour change interventions, are extensive. They are the core elements of the continuum of care componet of the national child protection system. The key challenges are that the quality of these interventions is unkown, they have limited scope and coverage. And , while many cultural practices have been mapped, little is known about social norms that inform protective and harmful child rearing practices.

KEY AREAS FOR INVESTMENTS THAT HAS BEEN ACHIEVED

• Supporting communities to adopt protective child protection practices, and investing in research into social norms and in large scale behaviour change campaigns.
• Providing technical support for the design of a cost effective' model of child protection' to be tested in Zomba district 10 TAs by 2014.
• Accelerating the roll out of community based childcare centers ( early childhood development centers for children aged under 5 years ) and linking them closely to the social cash transfer programme.
• Contributing to the design of a blue print for the child protection sector. This would define the minimum level of services needed to cover prevention, mitigation, and response.
• Supporting Community baesd organizations to improve the quality of the existing portfolio of protection services and interventions and to expand their scope and coverage to reach the most vulnerable children.
• EARLY IDENTIFICATION, CASE MANAGEMENT AND REFERRAL SYSTEMS
• The cornerstone of a child protection system is the process of care. this is one area where little progress had been made until after receiving funds through Global giving we have achieved.The key challenge is that vulnerable children will remain out of reach of most protection services and interventions as long as the processes of care mechanisms remain virtually non - existnt, . Such children include those affected by emergency, children who are HIV positive,children living in childhouseholds in receipt of social cash transfers, those with a disabitiy and those at risk of harm from violence, abuse, neglect and exploiation.
• KEY AREAS FOR INVESTMENTS AND ACHIEVED
• Formalising referral and case management pathways between social protection programmes and the child protection system. this include developing mechanisms to identify and respond to protection risks.
• Supporting the taking to scale of core elements of the process ( early identification, case management and referral frameworks)
• designing tools and standards for the early identification of vulnerable children.
• Developing interagency guidelines to clarify the roles and responsbilities of key agencies and set agreed standards and timeframes for responding to individual cases.

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