Strictly defined, the number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS is the estimated number of children who have lost their mother, father or both parents to AIDS before age 15. In practice, the impact of the AIDS epidemic on orphans is measured through the ratio of orphans to non-orphans who are in school.
Goal 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
Target 7. Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS.
HIV/AIDS is claiming the lives of ever-growing numbers of adults just when they are forming families and bringing up children. As a result, orphan prevalence is rising steadily in many countries, while fewer relatives within the prime adult ages mean that orphaned children face an increasingly uncertain future.
Orphanhood is frequently accompanied by prejudice and increased poverty—factors that can further jeopardize children’s well-being. Children and adolescents orphaned by AIDS face decreased access to adequate nutrition, basic health care, housing and clothing. They may turn to survival strategies that increase their vulnerability to HIV. They are likely to drop out of school because of discrimination, emotional distress, inability to pay school fees or the need to care for parents or caretakers infected with HIV or for younger siblings. In Sub-Saharan only 60 percent of orphans (ages 10–14) who lost both parents attend school compared with 71 percent of those with both parents still living. The limited countries with trend data indicate a widening of this gap. It is important, therefore, to monitor the extent to which AIDS support programmes succeed in securing educational opportunities for orphaned children.
The current school attendance rate of children ages 10–14 both of whose biological parents have died is divided by the current school attendance rate of children ages 10–14 whose parents are both still alive and who live with at least one biological parent.
Data for this indicator are collected through household surveys (such as Demographic and Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys)
Monitoring the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS: Guidelines on Construction of Core Indicators, 2002, Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (www.unaids.org/UNGASS/docs/JC718-CoreIndic_en.pdf).
The State of the World’s Children, annual, United Nations Children’s Fund (www.unicef.org/publications).
Young People and HIV/AIDS: Opportunity in Crisis, 2002, United Nations Children’s Fund, Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS and World Health Organization
(www.unicef.org/aids/publications.htm).
Children on the Brink 2002: A Joint Report on Orphan Estimates and Program Strategies, 2002, United Nations Children’s Fund, Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS and United States Agency for International Development (www.unicef.org/aids/publications.htm).
HIV/AIDS Database, www.measuredhs.com.
Periodicity of measurement
Household surveys, such as Demographic and Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, are generally conducted every three to five years.
Boys and girls are both affected. However, girls might be more likely than boys to leave school to care for ill parents and younger siblings.
Data should be presented separately for boys and girls.
International data comparisons
Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS, www.unaids.org/hivaidsinfo.
The State of the World’s Children, annual, United Nations Children’s Fund (www.unicef.org/publications).
The indicator is confined to children ages 10–14 for comparability, as age at school entry varies across countries. Household surveys can miss children in unstable households, and orphaned children are disproportionately likely to be in such households.
The indicator is not a direct measure of the number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS, despite the wording. This indicator does not directly distinguish the cause of orphanhood. But it is believed that high proportions of deaths of adults with school-age children in areas of HIV epidemics are likely to be HIV/AIDS related.
Agencies
Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS.
United Nations Children’s Fund.