Gendered Moral Dimensions of Childhood Vulnerability

Community; state; and international definitions of childhood and vulnerability play a central role in determining which people and families receive the limited resources available to support vulnerable children's survival and thriving. International definitions of childhood and vulnerability are often assumed by international development organizations (IDOs) to embody universal human rights and equality norms; and thus to serve as an appropriate basis for creating universal categorization frameworks to identify vulnerable children across communities and states. Community definitions; on the other hand; may be viewed as particular and potentially biased; embedded as they are in local power dynamics and social relations. Nonetheless; IDOs increasingly rely on communities to identify and distribute support to vulnerable children. This paper utilizes vertical ethnographic approaches to map and compare the gendered moral assumptions that shaped community; state; and international conceptions of childhood and vulnerability and responses to vulnerable children in border communities in Malawi and Mozambique. It argues that a gendered lens on childhood and vulnerability reveals both the gender inequitable assumptions underlying international and community childhood and vulnerability frameworks; and the urgent need for gendered analyses of childhood and vulnerability that engage honestly with people's lived realities; opportunities; and social relations. These analyses would explicitly link efforts to improve children's lives to gendered analyses of the local; national; and international social and political economic systems that differentially shape survival strategies and opportunities-and people's judgments of the morality of these strategies-for females and males

The Role Played by Recruitment Agencies in the Emigration of South African Nurses

Active recruitment of foreign nurses might offer solutions to many countries' nursing shortages. During 1999; the International Council of Nurses (ICN) expressed concerns regarding the aggressive international recruitment of nurses.The ICN maintained that internationally recruited nurses might be particularly at risk of exploitation or abuse. The ICN denounced unethical recruitment practices that might exploit nurses (ICN; 1999a:1-6). Many nurses who leave the Republic of South Africa might use recruitment agencies' assistance. These concerns raised by the ICN indicated the need for obtaining information about the emigration of South African nurses and the role played by recruitment agencies. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe how recruitment agencies contributed to the emigration of South African nurses. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used. A purposive sample of recruitment agencies that recruited South African nurses to practise in foreign countries (N=4) was drawn. The second sample; a purposive sample selected through snowball sampling consisted of South African registered nurses who were practising in foreign countries (N=27). The findings obtained from structured interviews conducted with recruitment agencies were supported by findings from e-mail responses from nurses working in foreign countries. These research results indicated that recruitment agencies in South Africa provided professional services to nurses who wanted to work in foreign countries. Contrary to research reports published in other countries; no evidence was found of nurses being exploited by recruitment agencies in South Africa

CAFOD : protecting children : what can humanitarian agencies do?

In its work with children; as with all CAFOD's work; there is a continuum between immediate emergency response in situations of conflict or disaster through to rehabilitation; reconstruction and development. Many situations requiring a humanitarian response are compounded by human error; political ideologies and civil conflict. CAFOD; working beside Caritas and other humanitarian aid agencies; is able to react quickly to emergencies; and has the local networks to enable it to support imaginative; longer term programmes of development

AIDS epidemic update

This publication is about latest developments of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the world. The most recent estimates of the epidemic's scope and human toll; new trends in the epidemic's evolution and women and AIDS issues; are presented