The Joint Learning Initiative on Children and HIV/AIDS (JLICA)

The Joint Learning Initiative on Children and HIV/AIDS (JLICA) is an independent, interdisciplinary, time-limited network of policy-makers, practitioners, community leaders, activists, researchers and people living with HIV, working to refocus global responses to the needs of HIV-affected children, their families and communities.

On February 10, 2009 JLICA released its final report “Home Truths: Facing the Facts on Children, AIDS, and Poverty.” The report summarizes two years of research and analysis of AIDS-related policies, programmes and funding and their effectiveness in addressing the needs of children. The JLICA report contains a comprehensive set of recommendations to reorient and improve services for the millions of families and children affected by HIV.

Among the report’s key findings are:

• Much of the current AIDS response overlooks fundamental realities of the daily lives and the impact of HIV on children and their families
• Families and communities provide the vast majority of care for HIV-affected children, with little or no support
• Extreme poverty in many of the most seriously affected regions is a critical barrier to the uptake of HIV programmes and services
• Current programme design and implementation means external funding frequently fails to reach local communities
• The underlying vulnerabilities that increase the impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls are not being addressed sufficiently
• Targeting relief efforts to “AIDS orphans” is ineffective and may be counter-productive

The global Co-Chairs of JLICA are Peter Bell, President Emeritus of CARE USA and Senior Research Fellow, Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations, Harvard University and Agnes Binagwaho, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Rwanda and former Executive Secretary, National AIDS Control Commission, Rwanda. JLICA’s research activities have been conducted by four thematic research groups:

Learning Group 1: Strengthening Families, chaired by Linda Richter (Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa), Lorraine Sherr (University College London, UK), and Angela Wakhweya (Family Health International)

Learning Group 2: Community Action, chaired by Geoff Foster (Family AIDS Caring Trust, Zimbabwe) and Madhu Deshmukh (CARE USA)

Learning Group 3: Expanding Access to Services and Protecting Human Rights, chaired by Jim Yong Kim (François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University, USA) and Lydia Mungherera (Mama’s Club and The AIDS Support Organization, Uganda)

Learning Group 4: Social and Economic Policies, chaired by Alex de Waal (Social Science Research Council, USA) and Masuma Mamdani (Research on Poverty Alleviation, Tanzania).

JLICA supporters include the Association François-Xavier Bagnoud – FXB International; Bernard van Leer Foundation; Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University; Global Equity Initiative, Harvard University; Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa; Irish Aid; Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs; UK Department for International Development; UNAIDS; and UNICEF.

The FXB Center has played a central role in the JLICA’s focus on project implementation. The FXB Center serves as one half of the Initiative’s Secretariat (with the other half based at FXB International), and the base for JLICA’s Learning Group 3 (LG3), “Expanding access to services and protecting human rights.” Jim Yong Kim co-chairs LG3 with Lydia Mungherera, a physician at The AIDS Support Organisation (TASO) in Uganda and founder of Mama’s Club, a support group for HIV-positive women in Uganda. Dr. Mungherera is a tireless international activist for HIV/AIDS awareness and treatment for children and their families.

JLICA’s research papers, addressing topics such as family demographic changes in regions heavily burdened by HIV; learning from communities about strengthening mechanisms for channeling resources to child protection and support initiatives; integrating delivery models for key services that benefit children affected by HIV/AIDS; and the macroeconomic feasibility of providing social protection packages for children and families in low-income countries appear in major journals and on the JLICA website (http://www.jlica.org).