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Orphanhood Prevalence, Living Arrangements and Orphanhood Reporting in Lesotho, Malawi and Zimbabwe

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Abstract

This study explores the relationship between orphanhood prevalence, living arrangements and orphanhood reporting. Research on children’s orphanhood status and living arrangements is well established, but not so much in the context of orphanhood data quality assessment. The study provides a historical context of the measurement of orphanhood, the assessment of data quality, and concludes that in the context of sub-Saharan Africa, where child fostering is common, parental coresidency may be more inclusive and may provide a better understanding of children’s vulnerability than the survival status of parents.

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Notes

  1. Orphans are defined as children under 18 years who have at least one parent dead; and further disaggregated into maternal, paternal and double orphans for biological mother dead, biological father dead and both biological mother and biological father dead respectively (UNAIDS, UNICEF and USAID 2004).

  2. Southern Africa comprises Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS 2010) and the African Union (African Union 2014).

  3. The response rate for individual interviews for three countries ranged between 93 and 98 % for the latest DHS surveys.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Mercy Shoko & Latifat Ibisomi

  2. Statistics South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa

    Mercy Shoko

Authors
  1. Mercy Shoko
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  2. Latifat Ibisomi
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Correspondence to Mercy Shoko.

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Shoko, M., Ibisomi, L. Orphanhood Prevalence, Living Arrangements and Orphanhood Reporting in Lesotho, Malawi and Zimbabwe. Child Ind Res 10, 929–943 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-016-9404-0

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