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Groups of Special Interest
Q: How do you ensure that ethical research practices are followed when working with children?
Some key steps are:
• Sensitize all staff and partners to children’s rights and to protection issues and to good practices in working with children
• Inform parents and other adult “gatekeepers” of the purpose of discussions with children
• Explain the purpose of the research to children and get their agreement to participate in the discussion. For younger children, parent’s consent may be required.
• Put in place mechanisms for reporting and following up any protection concerns that arise in discussions with children
• Take measures to ensure that in data collection, storage and reporting, children are not placed at risk because of their participation or of what they have said
See “So You Want to Consult With Children” (SC Alliance, 2003) for further guidance on this issue.
Q: Given the negative impacts of HIV/AIDS on livelihoods, can we assume that all HIV/AIDS-affected families are food insecure and in need of support?
No, HIV/AIDS affects households across the entire wealth spectrum, and at any given point in time many affected households will be able to meet their basic needs without outside support. However, it is important to recognize that AIDS can set affected households on a downwards spiral towards food insecurity and therefore while AIDS-affected households should not automatically be targeted for emergency support, they may be an appropriate target group for longer-term support to prevent them from becoming chronically poor over time.
Q: Does a finding that children are vulnerable in wide range of ways to livelihoods shocks imply that we need to target children with livelihoods responses?
The implication is that the impacts of interventions need to reach children, but that does not mean that they need to be directly targeted at children. In most cases the best way of reaching children is through the family. What is important, however, is to consider those children who may not be reached in that way, e.g. child-headed households, or in some cases orphans who are discriminated against within host families. These children may need to be targeted more directly or with additional interventions.
