In Africa, Plan is present in, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Albania is organisationally grouped with this region.
The situation
In recent years, conflict, HIV/Aids, hunger crises and poverty in the African continent have been grabbing global attention.
Last year, most attention was given to the HIV/Aids pandemic and the conflict zones of Darfur, Chad, Congo, North-Uganda and Ivory Coast. In spite of some positive developments, such as the stabilisation of the situation in Liberia, the peace talks in North-Uganda and improved access to affordable medication in some African countries, the overall picture of the continent’s situation deteriorated last year. Noteworthy is the Zimbabwean economy and the bleak forecast of not meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), especially the eradication of hunger as 1/3 of the children up to five years old show signs of stunted growth. Progress on others MDGs, notably education and child survival are insufficient, with vast areas of the continent with under-five mortality rate exceeding 200 or even 250 per 1,000 live births.
The growing number of orphaned and other vulnerable children is alarming – 60% of all HIV/Aids victims and 90% of all infected children live in Sub-Sahara Africa. Africa houses 80% of all HIV/Aids orphans, with 12 million children in Sub Sahara Africa.
In addition to conflict, HIV, difficult economic and political conditions and the failure to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, migration to urban areas in search of work often leaves rural communities without the support of their extended families. Young Africans tend to concentrate on their own nuclear family, weakening their ties with and responsibilities for their relatives in rural areas. Economic migration is also affecting the care given to children, increasing their vulnerability to be abused or trafficked.
Watch a short video of Plan’s work to empower communities improve their water and sanitation facilities
Plan’s activities in the region
Plan’s focus last year was on interventions for the most vulnerable groups in society. Fortunately, most African governments have now recognised the HIV/Aids problem and increasingly shown their belief that something can and should be done about the situation, creating opportunities for addressing the pandemic in communities that used to be impossible to reach. Plan’s programmes last year aimed to address: child rights and child protection, direct poverty alleviation and strengthening civil society and the sustainable use of locally sourced and maintained services and resources.
During the year, Plan:
Collaborated with the ‘Hope for African Children Initiative’ to build awareness, reduce stigma around HIV/Aids and assist families affected by the disease to ensure the future of their children, extend the parent-child life relationship, and encourage positive living;
Worked to eliminate child trafficking – as more families struggle to feed and care for their children – many fall victims to traffickers who lure parents into handing over their children to work in cities or abroad. Plan has been working to build a vibrant civil society in which children’s rights to protection and participation are valued and respected. In Benin, for example, Plan has promoted and facilitated community-managed pre-school education – supporting child reintegration into their family and community – and facilitating non-formal education and vocational skills training;
Provided access to safe drinking water all year around for children and their families, increasing the percentage of families with basic sanitary facilities and the number of villages organised to improve their environment;
Improved schools enrolment through better educational materials, appropriate infrastructures and teachers’ training. In Burkina Faso, for example, factors hindering children’s access to school include the lack of school infrastructure – only half of the villages have a school and less than half of all schools have electricity. Plan has been working with the Ministry of Education and local organisations to provide suitable living/working conditions for teachers, electricity and educational infrastructures;
Ensured more children received free basic immunisation to protect them against child killers, and providing pre and post-natal care. In Burkina Faso the infant mortality rate is 107 per 1,000 lives. Children often die from preventable diseases. Maternal mortality is also very high as a result of low pre-natal and post-natal care, complications during home birth delivery without medical care, and the persistence of harmful traditional practices (female genital cutting, early marriage and too-frequent pregnancies). And although the number of public healthcare facilities is increasing in the country, the quality of services is poor and there is a lack of essential equipment, medicines and qualified staff. Plan has been collaborating with the Ministry of Health and community-based organisations to improve awareness of child rights and the importance of immunisation, and to strengthen the capacity of communities to respond to the health needs of children and their mothers;
Promoted and advocated for birth registration – as birth registration is critical in order to secure the recognition of every person’s rights before the law, to safeguard their protection and to ensure that violation of these rights does not go un-noticed. When a child is not registered they become invisible to the state. This may have serious consequences, such as denial of school and healthcare access, property and citizen rights;
Helped communities managed childhood diseases and causes of death. Malaria, malnutrition, diarrhoea, acute respiratory tract infection, HIV/Aids and vaccine preventable diseases remain the leading causes of illness and death in children below the age of five. Immuno-preventable diseases, such as measles are still a problem in some African countries. In Cameroon for example, Plan enhanced the capacity of health personnel, health facilities, knowledge of caretakers, community health workers and reinforced partnerships with local organisations to promote child health and outreach services;
Created child helplines to assist and provide support to children in crisis. Inspired by similar projects and successes in the Asian continent, Plan has worked with Child Helpline International (CHI), a global network of telephone and outreach services for children and young people, to set up child helplines in Africa. The helplines provide services like referral system, counselling and advice to children and young people; and facilitate the establishment of a network of child welfare organisations advocating issues concerning children;
Increased food production and productivity amongst families. In Malawi, for example, 60% of the population is suffering from chronic food insecurity. Little crop diversification and production are linked to low soil fertility and insufficient and irregular rainfalls. Severe droughts in one area are combined with heavy showers and devastating floods elsewhere. In addition, the effect of HIV/Aids is restricting household productivity, due to the caring or absence of family members. Inadequacy in the quantity and quality of food is one of the major causes of malnutrition in Malawi. Plan assisted communities with the provision of ox-drawn ploughs that facilitate farming operations, promoted winter cropping of various produce (i.e. maize and beans) to reduce dependency on rain-fed farming, provided training in small-scale irrigation by canalisation and the provision of water pumps, and activities aimed at increasing soil fertility, like composting, and promoted fruit tree planting;
Lobbied and worked with communities to eradicate harmful practices, like female genital cutting (FGC) In Mali, for example, Plan worked with communities to openly talk about the issue. The practice was outlawed in a number of villages in the country, whilst others are still resistant to its abolition;
Enhanced the participation of community members in the running of schools. In Niger, for example, children have little access to education, and perform poorly at school with many communities excluded from formal education. Enrolment rates are statistically among the lowest in the world, especially for girls. And even when children do succeed in enrolling, most of them fail to complete the six-year primary curriculum. This is reflected in the high dropout rates and poor performance among higher-grade pupils. Most schools are generally poorly managed and have little contact with the community. Plan Niger launched a community school project involving the entire community in making quality education available for children to increase: enrolment rate, improve school completion rates, and building new classrooms using environmentally friendly, locally-sourced non-wood materials (in the Sahelian environment trees are a genuine asset to village life);
Promoted early childhood development centres to improve the health, nutrition, cognitive, social and emotional development and protection of children to prepare them to lead a healthy and productive life. Research has shown that children acquire 60% of their capacity to learn before they are four years of age, highlighting the need for strategies that promote stimulation and development of children during their first years of life, long before they reach primary school. In Senegal, for example, Plan supported integrated early childhood care and development services, by establishing community-based centres for children of 3-6 years of age, which became a priority for the government of Senegal;
Improved child participation and stimulated changes in parents and communities in relation to children’s rights through the effective use of radio and other media by children themselves. In Sierra Leone, for example, Plan is working with children and young people to produce radio programmes, allowing them to express their opinions and views, contributing to a democratic way of decision-making;
Assisted young people with vocational training, aiming to reduce youth unemployment. In Mwanza, Tanzania, for example, unemployment figures for youths are high, and productivity rates are low, leading to minimal possibilities to break the cycle of poverty. The limited pool of skilled labour in Mwanza prompts mining and fishing companies to look for expertise elsewhere. As a result, the local population has not benefited from economic activities and investments by the companies. Plan has been establishing vocational training centres to create employment opportunities for youth, upgrading skills within communities to ensure the availability of skilled labour appropriate to local market requests and thus linking entrepreneurs to community development.
In the future, Plan will:
Continue its efforts in promoting universal birth registration – recent achievements include Kenya, where Plan is one of the key organisations involved in reviewing the current Birth and Death Registration Act, while in Malawi, Plan is part of the review team for the draft of the National Registration Bill. In Mali a national action plan has been drawn up, jointly designed by the Ministry of Interior, Child Welfare, Education and Health, Plan and UNICEF, aiming to reach 100% registration within 10 years; in Ethiopia, for example, where there is currently no official birth registration system, Plan will focus on influencing legislation and policy;
Strengthen the community and country management of childhood illnesses to improve child health from birth to five years of age. The integrated management of childhood illnesses targets the five principal killer diseases of the 0 to 5 age group, promoting gender equality and encouraging the roles of mothers in child health. In Cameroon, Plan has worked with the government, WHO and UNICEF to introduce a successful primary health care strategy in 12 health districts within 3 provinces, aiming to scale up these integrated management of childhood illnesses approach in the future;
Collaborate with communities to provide expertise, resources and knowledge for their children’s nutrition and food security. Rather than solely focusing on delivering food supplies, an increasing number of Plan programmes across the continent are incorporating links to education and learning, in order to engage more effectively the communities affected, not just in the short-term address, but the long-term solution;
Promote communities’ ownership of sanitation practices and participation in service delivery and management;
Continue to promote improved access to basic services such as quality education, water and sanitation and community based health interventions;
Develop programmes on HIV/Aids and Food Security in Southern Africa, aiming to increase the coping capacity of communities, as well as raising awareness of the rights of vulnerable groups and communities.
