Family structures threatened by poverty, conflict and HIV/AIDS - UNICEF

Poverty, conflict and HIV/AIDS have undermined the African family structure to the extent that it is in danger of collapse, Carol Bellamy, the executive director of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), warned on Wednesday.

Speaking in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, Bellamy said weakened family structures and kinship systems would "bury" the future of Africa's children and, with it, the future of the continent as it struggles to escape poverty.

"The families and kinship systems are endangered, and it is their fate that will largely determine whether development in Africa will succeed or fail," Bellamy said. "Clearly, we must do more than praise and celebrate the African family."

In a keynote speech at the headquarters of the African Union, Bellamy added that the family was Africa's "single greatest asset", being where children were protected, the source of their values and where they learnt their history.

"A child out of school for any time at all is immediately more vulnerable to violence, to sickness and disease, exploitation and abuse," she said. "A child denied an education is in the long term more likely to be poor, to die unnecessarily young, and to have children while they are still children themselves."

According to UNICEF, 121 million children are out of school worldwide, the majority of them girls. In Africa alone, some 24 million are out of school, while in Ethiopia in particular, one-fifth more boys go to school than girls. UNICEF has selected Ethiopia for its 25-by-2005 Campaign, an initiative aimed at minimising gender disparities in education in 25 countries by 2005.

More than 300 million people in Africa live below the poverty line – on less than US $1 a day - and according to the UN Economic Commission for Africa that figure could increase despite global anti-poverty goals for 2015. Conflict, too, is widespread on the continent: several countries have been thus ravaged, displacing, according to the UN, about 12 million Africans within their own countries.

Africa is also the continent worst hit by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Humanitarian agencies estimate that at least 6,500 people die there every day from AIDS, while another 9,500 are infected daily. The continent also has an estimated 11 million AIDS orphans.

Before making her speech, Bellamy met Ethiopian teenagers, who, on the occasion Day of the African Child on 16 June, spoke of their concerns on issues like HIV/AIDS and access to education. Some 300 teenagers joined in the question-and-answer session in the Africa Hall, at the UN complex.

During her three-day stay in Ethiopia, Bellamy is expected to meet Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and will also be briefed on the government's current resettlement programme. The scheme, under which 2.2 million people are being moved within three years to end the country's dependency on food aid, has been criticised by aid organisations, which say it is being implemented too rapidly.