An estimated one in eight children under 15 years in Africa has lost one or both parents, about a third of them due to AIDS.¹ Enrolment of orphans in schools might be lower either because their guardians cannot afford the costs of schooling, they are needed for income-generating or other economic activities, or their guardians have less interest in the welfare of children who are not their own.

But the extent to which orphans are under-enrolled relative to other children and the reasons for their non-enrolment have not been systematically reviewed. It is not clear, for example, whether orphaned children are worse off than other equally poor children – therefore requiring a targeted intervention linked to their special needs – or whether the impact of becoming an orphan is to swell the already large group of poor or uneducated children. According to the World Bank, of at least 67.5 million primary-aged children not in school worldwide in 1997, 58 million were living in low-income countries (31.5 million in South Asia and 25 million in sub-Saharan Africa). It is not known how many of these are orphans.

The study

A quantitative study using data from 28 developing countries in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia conducted by the World Bank examined the relationships between orphan status, poverty and school enrolment among children 7-14 years old and, for a few countries where data permitted, among those aged 15-17 years. We wanted to find out whether orphans have lower enrolment rates than non-orphans and how this was related to overall enrolment and to poverty. Orphans were defined as children who have lost one or both parents due to any cause (the cause of parent deaths is not identified).

The data came from settings where the prevalence of both HIV and orphans is relatively high (e.g., Cambodia, Uganda and Zambia) or low (e.g., Brazil, Madagascar and Nicaragua), as well as from low- and middle-income countries. The purpose of this range was to understand how country circumstances affect the results.

Are orphans under-enrolled?

The relationship between orphan status, poverty and school enrolment was diverse, reflecting different background levels of income, schooling, and adult mortality in the countries studied. In more than half of the countries, the most recent data showed that children in poor and non-poor households were equally likely to be orphans, while in the remainder, poor children were more likely to be orphans than were non-poor children. However, in all countries, children in poor households had significantly lower enrolment rates than children in non-poor households.

In 20 countries, e.g., Kenya and Benin, at least one group of orphans (maternal, paternal or two-parent) had significantly lower enrolment than did non-orphans; in two countries (Nigeria and Tanzania) at least one orphan group had significantly higher enrolment. In six countries there were no enrolment differences between orphans and non-orphans. However, once the child's poverty status was taken into account, the differences in enrolment rates between orphans and non-orphans often disappeared (seven countries) or persisted only among the poor (four countries) or the non-poor (three countries).

Not all orphans are under-enrolled

In the six countries where both poor and rich orphans were under-enrolled in schools, the size of the gap in enrolment between orphans at the bottom and the top of the income distribution was larger than the gap between orphans and non-orphans within the income group. In almost all countries, the gap in enrolment between female and male orphans among those 7 to 14 years old was similar to the gap between girls and boys with living parents, indicating that girls' enrolment is not disproportionately affected by becoming an orphan.

Implications for interventions

In countries like Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea, and Senegal, average enrolment rates for all children were less than 40% and even children with living parents from the top of the income distribution had low enrolments. This points to fundamental issues in the availability, quality, or demand for schooling that constrain enrolment of all children, whether or not their parents are alive. Policies to subsidize orphan enrolment may have minimal effect on their welfare unless these larger issues are addressed.

In the group of countries with moderate overall enrolment rates, there are often very large gaps between enrolment of poor and non-poor children. The most disadvantaged children are the poor, including poor orphans. Policies to reduce the poverty gap in enrolment will contribute significantly to raising enrolment among the neediest orphans without any orphan-specific targeting, as was shown in the Dominican Republic, Kenya, and Uganda.

In countries like Brazil, the Dominican Republic and Zimbabwe, where overall enrolment rates are high even among the poor, orphan enrolment differentials are likely related to problems specific to being an orphan, some of which may not be school-related. The reasons need to be carefully explored: policies that subsidize fees or school uniforms for orphans only may not be effective in reducing this gap while potentially transferring funds to orphans who might otherwise already be enrolled.

Concerns

A general conclusion from this study is that orphan status in most countries is not a good targeting criterion for "traditional" programmes aimed at raising enrolment rates, like providing textbooks, uniforms, school fees, medical care, or supplemental feeding for free. Also, it is likely that the benefits being channelled to orphans are things that other children or other household members lack. This might be a reason for some households to take in orphans for opportunistic reasons, which is not always in the children's best interest. Policies and programmes aimed at improving the welfare of the poorest households will help the poorest children, including the poorest orphans, without creating incentives to redistribute children in ways that may adversely affect their welfare. On the other hand, interventions linked solely to the special needs of orphans (for example, grief counselling or health services for HIV-infected children) are unlikely to invite opportunistic responses.

Further, the impacts on child schooling before parents and other adults die of AIDS – when there is a sick adult who must be cared for and for whom many resources may be spent for medical treatment – also deserve attention. In Uganda, older children (13-17 years) in households with a sick parent had lower school attendance (80%) than did children in the same age group whose parents had already died (89%).² Older two-parent orphans reported that their attendance improved after moving in with a guardian following the parent's death. In Tanzania, children attended primary school fewer hours before an adult death than after.³ By focusing exclusively on outcomes after a parental death, programmes may be neglecting larger impacts before the death that might be mitigated through short-term support for households with terminally ill adults.

Deon Filmer, Development Research Group, and Martha Ainsworth, Operations Evaluations Department; The World Bank, 1818 H Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20433, USA; tel.:1-202-473.13.03, fax: 1-202-522.11.53, e-mail: dfilmer@worldbank.org, mainsworth@worldbank.org, www.worldbank.org

More information about this study can be found in: Ainsworth, M. and Filmer, D., Poverty, AIDS, and Children's Schooling: A Targeting Dilemma. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper (2002): http://econ.worldbank.org/files/18719_wps2885.pdf

1. USAID, UNICEF and UNAIDS. Children on the Brink 2002: A joint report on orphan estimates and program strategies. USAID 2002.

2. Gilborn, L., Nyonyintono, R., Kabumbuli, R. and Jagwe-Wadda, G. Making a difference for children affected by AIDS: Baseline findings from operational research in Uganda. Horizons Program/Population Council and Makerere University 2001, www.popcouncil.org/pdfs/horizons/orphansbsln.pdf.

3. Ainsworth, M., Beegle, K. and Koda, G. The impact of adult mortality and parental deaths on primary schooling in Northwestern Tanzania, Journal of Development Studies 2004 (forthcoming).