For the millions of children affected by AIDS worldwide, care and protection can come from many sources, including parents, communities, NGOs and government programmes. Social protection – broadly defined as the web of public and private services that address poverty, vulnerability, and exclusion affecting all people – is one source that can help children and families affected by AIDS.
There is a growing consensus that strong social protection systems are needed in order to provide a buffer for families and communities already near the brink of destitution. And in April 2009, the G20 backed this approach as a way to limit the impact of the global economic crisis on the most vulnerable families in the poorest nations.
The following short video illustrates the ways social protection safeguards children and their families – including those affected by AIDS – at every level from communities to entire countries and beyond.