Highly Vulnerable Children

	Source: Blue Raster

The world is not yet child-friendly – far from it:

• 413,000,000 children are living in extreme poverty.
• 302,000,000 children have experienced severe physical punishment at home.
• 150,000,000 girls have experienced sexual abuse.
• 115,000,000 children are involved in hazardous work.
• 18,300,000 children have lost both parents.
• 2,000,000 children are in institutional care.
• 1,800,000 children are in prostitution or pornography.
• 1,100,000 children are in forced labor as a result of trafficking.

Public Law 109-95 [PDF, 45KB]: The Assistance to Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children in Developing Countries Act was signed into law in 2005 to respond to the global orphans and vulnerable children crisis. It calls for the U.S. Government (USG) response to the crisis to be comprehensive, coordinated, and effective.

Seven USG agencies – Agriculture, Defense, Health and Human Services, Labor, State, Peace Corps, and USAID – provided $2.62 billion in FY 2009 to implementing partners for approximately 2,000 projects to assist vulnerable children and their families in 107 countries.

USG-supported projects for highly vulnerable children are tracked in a publically accessible online database. The project database is linked to another database that tracks global and country-level indicators of children’s vulnerability. Both databases are designed to facilitate coordination and strategic planning and can be accessed through the PL 109-95 Web site.

We are helping millions of children, yet millions more are suffering due to poor governance, conflict, disaster, disease, and poverty deepened by the global recession. With the increasing number of children in need, tight funding, and a multi-USG agency response, it’s more important than ever to use PL 109-95 to improve the coordination and coherence of the overall USG program and make the impact on children of our collective effort greater than the sum of its individual parts.

For more information on the USG response to highly vulnerable children in developing countries, please see www.hvcassistance.org.

• Annual Reports to Congress on Public Law 109-95, the Assistance for Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children in Developing Countries Act of 2005:
  
  • Fifth Annual Report to Congress: A United States Government Interagency Approach to Assisting the World's Most Vulnerable Children - December 2011 [PDF, 1.3MB]
    • Fifth Annual Report to Congress Annexes [PDF, 1.6MB]
  • Fourth Annual Report to Congress: A Whole-of-Government Approach to Child Welfare and Protection – December 2010 [PDF, 1.7MB]
    
  • Third Annual Report to Congress – U.S. Government and Partners: Working Together on a Comprehensive, Coordinated and Effective Response to Highly Vulnerable Children - December 2009 [PDF, 2.6MB]
  • Second Annual Report to Congress: Supporting Highly Vulnerable Children: Progress, Promise and Partnership – December 2008 [PDF, 2.3MB]
    
  • The U.S. Government Special Advisor for Orphans and Vulnerable Children, First Annual Report to Congress: Highly Vulnerable Children: Causes, Consequences and Actions – August 2007 [PDF, 2.2MB]
    
    
• Read more about USAID’s efforts to support highly vulnerable children through the HIV/AIDS Program.