273452 Child-headed Households in Africa

Monday, October 29, 2012 : 8:45 AM - 9:00 AM

Joseph Telfair, DrPH, MSW, MPH , Center for Social, Community and Health Research and Evaluation, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC
The challenges of child-headed households, as part of the broader issue of child and family poverty, result from a myriad of adverse events including HIV/AIDS mortality among adults, violent conflict, mal-distribution of resources, lack of social and structural support for families and so forth. While programs and services to address these challenges exist in Southern African countries like Swaziland, they are fragmented; single-problem focused and there lacks a clear understanding of their efficacy. The presentation will provide a brief overview of a study being undertaken to address this challenge in the Kingdom of Swaziland that has a dual focus: a) Expansion of a smaller area (one district) study on the issues conducted by UNICEF/Save-The-Children, to the whole country; and b) engagement in a systematic approach of defining and comparative testing of "service package" or "service clusters" in catchment areas where currently discreet (individual and targeted) services are delivered. Partners understand that working collectively is a challenge and resources are limited, however, pooled resources across NGO and government agencies is a public health solution-building, results-focused model that will produce tangible outcomes. The intervention study is designed to produce social-cultural-technical best practice case examples with replicable outcomes that can serve as a national model (all regions). The two core questions the proposed study will answer are "What model(s) work best? and "What resources are needed to get the job done?"

Learning Areas:
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Diversity and culture
Program planning
Provision of health care to the public
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
tba

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been the principal or co-principal of multiple federally funded grants focusing on development and evaluation of health programs and services specific to issues of persons in poor and developing countries and child and family-poverty.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.