This report focuses on the social protection aspects of children’s property and inheritance rights in southern and eastern Africa. The introduction summarizes the findings of the author’s previous report for FAO on the legal aspects of children’s property and inheritance rights, and it discusses the findings of the current report.
The second section discusses the bi-directional relationship between HIV/AIDS and agriculture, food security, and rural livelihoods (including the relationship between HIV/AIDS and children’s property and inheritance rights). The report also considers the factors that render children’s property rights more vulnerable than adults’ property rights.
The third section reviews the literature on the social protection of children, emphasizing historical developments, types of child social protection, and recipients and providers of child social protection. In addition, this section presents a rights’ framework for the social protection of children. Finally, this section assesses children’s social protection and property/inheritance rights in the context of international agreements and national instruments, including National Plans of Action (NPAs), as well as succession and land laws.
The fourth section presents and analyses several case studies of programmes concerned with children’s property and inheritance rights and social protection issues in southern and eastern Africa. The fifth section presents and analyses two case studies from Rwanda in terms of children’s property and inheritance rights and social protection issues. The sixth section offers recommendations regarding priority policy and programmatic areas for children’s property rights and social protection in the context of HIV and AIDS. The seventh section offers a few concluding remarks.
