Maternal Infant Young Child Nutrition - Family Planning (MIYCN-FP) Integration Toolkit

Maternal, Infant, and Young Child Nutrition-Family Planning (MIYCN-FP) Integration Working Group was established by the Maternal and Child Integrated Program (MCHIP) and its partners. This working group brings together the Postpartum Family Planning Community of Practice, the Lactational Amenorrhea Method (LAM) Working Group and the Nutrition community."

Women have understood the connection between breastfeeding and regulating their fertility for centuries. LAM integrates postpartum family planning and nutrition because it promotes exclusive breastfeeding which reduces malnutrition and mortality in infants in their first six months and extends birth intervals which, in turn, promotes maternal and child survival. K4Health has a toolkit for LAM under family planning methods.

FP-MIYCN messages and supportive programmatic activities continue beyond six months when mothers transition to other family planning methods and their infants are introduced to other foods (fruits, veggies, cereals and animal protein) while continuing to breastfeed.

For the healthiest babies couples need to space out the next pregnancy at least 24 months. Young children 6-23 months of age should be fed foods of adequate quality and quantity to complement the nutrients in breast milk. In countries where adolescent pregnancies are high, efforts to delay marriage and pregnancies before at least 18 years of age also should be part of  the entire family planning and nutrition program.

Option B+ Toolkit: Expanding and Simplifying Treatment for Pregnant Women Living with HIV: Managing the Transition to Option B/B+

What is the toolkit?

The toolkit is a collection of assessment tools and checklists that describe the key considerations to be taken into account when transitioning to Option B/B+. The toolkit provides a roadmap to support the planning and implementation of Option B/B+, and to help countries scale up more effective interventions and programs to achieve the goals of the Global Plan Towards the Elimination of New HIV Infections among Children by 2015 and Keeping their Mothers Alive.

Programme implementers and policymakers can use the toolkit in its entirety or select from the 7 sections that address different programme components.

The toolkit is not intended to be exhaustive, but provides a critical step in presenting the various political, financial and programmatic factors to consider when implementing Option B/B+.

The toolkit is divided into seven key sections:

1. Option B/B+: Key Considerations for Country Programmes (UNICEF) is an overarching guidance document which lays out key issues for implementation.

2. Moving Toward Option B/B+: Readiness Assessment Checklist and Discussion Guide (PEPFAR/OGAC) is a comprehensive checklist for national programmes to review as they plan for implementation of Option B/B+. The checklist covers a large number of key programme areas from political commitment to early infant diagnosis, posing critical questions to be addressed as well as indicating minimum readiness standards for implementing Option B/B+.

3. Costing Tool describes the costing (FEWG) models that can be used to cost operational plans for Option B/B+ implementation including descriptions of programme inputs and outputs associated with each model.

4. Human Resources for Health (HRH Task Team) tool outlines key considerations around HR capacity and task-shifting as an essential component for successful implementation of Option B/B+.

5. Procurement and Supply Chain Management (SCMS Task Team) provides a list of key questions for the MOH to consider as they strengthen and adjust procurement and supply chain management systems to accommodate transition to Option B/B+, and includes links to resources and tools to assist with forecasting.

6. Enhanced Monitoring and Evaluation Systems (MEWG) provides an overview of concepts and questions to guide national discussion of M&E issues specific to Option B/B+ implementation, as well as quality assurance methods and a list of potential topics for operational research.

7. Community Engagement (CEWG): There are two tools on community engagement. The first consists of recommendations for Ministries of Health on involving communities in Option B/B+ planning and implementation discussions, while the second document is designed for civil society organisations to use in dialogue with the MOH to advocate for the rights of people living with HIV.

Now More than Ever! A need to reach the youngest children affected by HIV and AIDS

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Now More than Ever brochure - web version.pdf

This practical guide by the Coalition for Children Affected by AIDS helps implementers improve programming and/or program connections that support young children born into HIV-affected families. It provides information about early integrated interventions for health, nutrition, HIV, parenting, economic support, and early childhood development (ECD) for families affected by HIV. The resource offers practical examples and case studies from different contexts, including from Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Zambia.

Discussion Paper: What is the Investment Framework for HIV/AIDS and what does it mean for the Alliance

AllianceDiscussion-paper-investment-framework.pdf

This discussion paper provides a short introduction to an important new development in global HIV policy, the New Investment Framework for HIV/AIDS. The paper also reviews what the framework means for the International HIV/AIDS Alliance and its partners.

Community-Based Early Childhood Development Centers for Reaching OVC: Considerations & Challenges

Community-based early childhood development (ECD) centers can be an important focal point for delivering comprehensive services to young children while enhancing the capacity of caregivers, families, and communities to support young children's development. When done well, these programs can be sustainable because of their emphasis on fostering community ownership. This issue paper is intended to provide OVC program managers with examples of best practices in community-based ECD center programming to best meet the children they serve. Please click on the link provided to access the issue paper.

Community mobilization and the UNAIDS Investment Framework

4-Community-Mobilization-and-the-IF.pdf

Analysis of how the New Investment Framework for the global AIDS response can support community programming.

Community action to end paediatric HIV infections

The Journal of the International AIDS Society, under the leadership of guest editor Linda Richter, is proud to introduce a supplement on ‘Community action to end paediatric HIV infections’.

This supplement highlights that meeting the ambitious targets of the Global Plan (“Countdown to Zero: Global Plan Towards the Elimination of New HIV Infections Among Children by 2015 and Keeping their Mothers Alive”) cannot solely be reached through actions by the health services, but requires the engagement of affected women, their partners and families, the community and the wider society.

The articles provide an overview of the current knowledge and good practice in community action related to prevention of vertical transmission, including expanding access, improving care, reaching men and creating an enabling environment.

You are invited to contemplate the diverse aspects of this area and to engage with the editors and the authors on this important and timely issue, by using the ‘comment’ option available in the "Reading Tools" for each individual article. You are also encouraged to promote and disseminate the supplement within your organisation and networks.

Common Ground: UNICEF and World Bank Approaches to Building Social Protection Systems

750440REVISED00systems0note0revised.pdf

This note outlines common ground in the World Bank and UNICEF approaches to building social protection systems, using a focus on children to illustrate the premise and promise of a systems approach. It is part of a broader commitment by both agencies to increase collaboration across different stakeholders – governments, development partners and others – in developing and strengthening social protection systems and expanding their coverage

Children and AIDS: Fourth stocktaking report, 2009

Children and AIDS: Fourth stocktaking report, 2009.pdf

Years ago, when the devastating impact of the AIDS epidemic on children was just becoming apparent, there was no way to imagine an AIDS-free generation in the foreseeable future.

In 2005, the epidemic’s consequences prompted UNICEF, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and other partners to launch Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS, a global campaign to focus attention and resources on mitigating the worst effects of HIV and AIDS on children and young people.

Four years into this effort, many lives have been saved or improved because national governments, non-governmental organizations, local communities and international organizations have been examining the evidence and responding.the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV is a global objective.

Combination prevention – integrating behavioural, structural/ social and biomedical approaches – can help to reduce HIV prevalence among young people. AIDS-sensitive, rather than AIDS-exclusive, interventions are being embraced in many places to benefit children affected by AIDS

Children and AIDS: Fifth stocktaking report, 2010

Children and AIDS: Fifth stocktaking report, 2010.pdf

For nearly three decades, HIV and AIDS have been devastating individuals and families with the tragedy of untimely death and medical, financial and social burdens.  Although children’s concerns have always been present within the great spectrum of need associated with HIV, they have to some extent been overshadowed by the very scale of the epidemic in the adult population. Thanks to improved evidence and accelerated action, however, the story of how the AIDS epidemic is affecting children is being rewritten.

No longer a sidebar crowded out by the broader compelling narrative of HIV and AIDS, children are now central to strategies and actions to avert and address the consequences of the epidemic. It is estimated that more than 1,000 babies continue to be born with HIV every day, many of them destined to die before age two if they do not receive medication. Mothers are still dying. Adolescents are still becoming infected with HIV because they have neither the knowledge nor the access to services to protect themselves, and those infected at birth are struggling to reconcile their emerging adulthood with their HIV-positive status.
But advocacy and investment on behalf of children have had an impact, and the goal of virtual elimination of mother-tochild transmission by 2015 appears within reach. In 2005, for example, only 15 per cent of HIV-positive pregnant women in low- and middle-income countries received antiretrovirals for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV; in 2009, 53 per cent of women in need received antiretrovirals for PMTCT.

In 2005, only 75,000 children under 15 in need received antiretroviral treatment. Today, that figure is approximately 356,400, around 28 per cent of those in need.

In 2005, 5.2 million young people aged 15–24 were living with HIV; today, an estimated 5.0 million are.4 Before 2005 in many sub-Saharan African countries, children who had lost both parents to AIDS were much less likely to be in school than children whose parents were alive; today, in most places they are almost
equally likely to be in school.

Child and Youth Care Workers in South Africa: A Technical Brief

The HIV/AIDS epidemic and other risk factors have led to a growing number of highly vulnerable children, not just in South Africa but across sub-Saharan Africa. Efforts to care for this growing population have created an increasing demand for social service programs and services as well as an array of social service workers with the skills and experience needed to implement programs and meet a complex range of social service needs. Faced with these overwhelming needs, limited resources and competing priorities, some countries have made efforts to address constraints through the creation of community-based social service workers. Read more...

Adopting better care: Improving adoption services around the world

Positive care choices series

This is the third working paper in EveryChild'€™s series of papers promoting positive care choices for children living without parental care by providing an evidence base on a range of care options and decision-making processes. It examines domestic and inter-€‘country adoption and aims to explore why adoption is so rarely used globally.

The paper also explores whether or not an expansion of adoption services could offer a potential solution to the millions of children around the world in need of permanent care and currently languishing in harmful institutions. It is based on a literature review and interviews with experts from around the world.

Policy recommendations from the research include: prioritising the prevention of loss of family care in the first place; developing clear policies and guidance on domestic and inter-country adoption; ensuring children in need of permanent care have adoption or other forms of permanent or long term alternative family-based care as an option; improve decision making on the balance between expediency and being thorough on adoption decisions; and development of a child welfare workforce and legal system to support these recommendations.

For more information on this initiative, please contact: policy@everychild.org.uk . To post comments and join in the debate on the reform of child welfare systems, please visit the policy pages of our website.