This document is intended to explore strategies to protect orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) who were made so by HIV from abuse, exploitation, violence, and neglect. It draws from lessons learned by OVC program managers, designers, and policy developers—particularly those associated with the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEFPAR). This document identifies gaps in current child protection strategies employed within PEPFAR OVC programs; introduces a range of emerging best practices or promising strategies for preventing and responding to child abuse, exploitation, and neglect; suggests contexts in which each strategy might be useful; outlines ways to measure the success of specific strategies; and provides a list of tools and resources available to program implementers and designers to support implementation of strategies.

Current PEPFAR OVC programming guidance describes strategies to protect OVC as those that “confront the reality of stigma and social neglect faced by OVC as well as abuse and exploitation, including trafficking, the taking of inherited property, and land tenure, and helping children obtain birth certificates to legalize their status” (PEPFAR and the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator 2006). For the purposes of this document, discussion will focus on programs that aim to prevent and respond to abuse, neglect, exploitation, and violence.