May 2003

Succession Planning in Uganda:
Early Outreach for AIDS-affected
Children and Their Families

Key Findings (continued)

Will writing doubled in both groups, but still only a small proportion of parents had written wills. A striking finding at baseline was that many parents feared that, when they died, their property would be taken from surviving family members by non-heirs (community members or relatives). Almost a third (31 percent) of widowed females had themselves experienced property grabbing (compared to only 5 percent of male widowers). Meanwhile, only 23 percent of all respondents had made any arrangements for inheritance of their property, and only 9 percent of parents had written a will. Legal training and will writing were then introduced as part of SP.

In each group, the proportion of parents who had written wills doubled from about one in ten (9 percent SP, 10 percent comparison group) at baseline to about one in five (20 percent SP, 21 percent comparison group) at the final interview. The change over time was significant (p < 0.05) in both groups, but there were no differences between groups at either baseline or at the final interview. Nor were there within-round differences in the proportions who had appointed executors (47 percent of parents in SP and 37 percent of comparison parents at final round of interviews, NS) or in knowledge of women’s and children’s property rights.

Qualitative data collected from counseling aides and parents from SP sites highlight the formidable fears and cultural obstacles faced by the program in trying to introduce will writing (see sidebar). Although there are written laws protecting the rights of women and children to a portion of familial property, customary or traditional law prevails in most of Uganda.

Despite these barriers, qualitative research revealed considerable interest and confidence in the value of wills among parents in the SP group, with many reporting that they had written wills as a direct result of program involvement (26 of 69 women and 17 of 32 men in the focus group discussions).

Sub-group analysis of the quantitative data reveal that within the SP group, respondents who reported attending the legal training component of the intervention were more likely to have written wills (25 vs. 12 percent, p < 0.05), to have an executor (54 vs. 38 percent, p < 0.05), and to have discussed property laws with their children (42 vs. 32 percent, NS). This suggests that there may have been a program effect for those exposed and that the findings on the larger group may have been diluted by the fact that not all parents received the legal component of the program.

Some focus group participants mentioned that they had heard of instances in which a will effectively protected a survivor’s property rights, which in turn motivated more parents to write wills. Counseling aides predicted a change in practices would occur slowly but surely.

Counseling aides observed that there was a need to increase will writing among men, whose participation had been limited but is critical to the preservation of familial property. Indeed, male participation in the entire SP program was low compared to that of females. They also reported that wills were more effective when the survivors were adults or older children, and far less so when the survivors were young children. A strong recommendation from many counseling aides and parents alike was to increase community sensitization and to involve local religious, clan, and government leaders in upholding property rights.

Standby guardians appointed by parents are predominantly male, but it is women who ultimately assume much of the responsibility for orphaned children. The research team was only able to contact and interview a limited number of standby guardians because some parents had not yet identified one and because many appointed guardians lived outside the study area. At baseline, the standby guardians were predominantly grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Many of the standby guardians were already taking care of children who were not biologically their own (55 percent of those in SP and 43 percent in the comparison group). This raises serious issues about the capacity of this group to take responsibility for more dependents and about the weakening of the social safety net for AIDS-affected children in the study areas.

More than half (57 percent) of the parents at baseline who had appointed a standby guardian chose a male. Yet, nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of current guardians (i.e., already caring for orphaned children) who were interviewed at baseline as part of the larger study were female (see Gilborn et al. 2001).

This seeming contradiction was explored in the data interpretation meetings with counseling aides, who explained that males, being wage-earners, are the parents’ ideal providers, but that some males appointed as standby guardians are motivated by the prospect of material gain (of parental property or, in the case of girl orphans, bride-price). In some instances, after male standby guardians have taken what they can or discovered there is little to be gained materially, they shirk their responsibilities. In those cases, according to counseling aides, it is the women who take the children in.

Overall, there was little change as a result of the program with respect to the attitudes and behaviors of standby guardians exposed to SP. Indeed the program offered limited opportunities for participation by standby guardians and did not appear to have substantial impact on the small sample interviewed.

SP principles “spilled over” into neighboring communities, suggesting widespread acceptability of SP services. After preliminary data analysis, the research team was puzzled to find that improvements in some outcome variables directly related to the SP program were also found among the comparison group (although often to a lesser degree of magnitude). This unexpected finding was discussed with counseling aides at data interpretation meetings. They explained that news of the SP program had spread across the boundaries of the study areas and that neighboring communities were demanding the same services. Because some of the same organizations and counseling aides work in both study areas, it is possible that they responded to this demand in an ad hoc fashion. This “spillover effect” limits the study’s capacity to deduce statistical inference about the program’s effects. However, it may also be a testimony to the SP program’s appeal and acceptability.

What about the children? The ultimate goal of SP is to ensure a better future for children whose parents are HIV-positive. A two-year study is not sufficient to assess the long-term effects of SP on children once they are actually orphaned. For this reason, the current impact analysis focuses on steps taken by parents and standby guardians exposed to SP to increase the likelihood that AIDS-affected children are better prepared to face the future. Perhaps one of the most important effects of SP occurred among older children, who generally expressed a desire for parents to be open with them about the parents’ HIV-status. Between 1999 and 2001, there was a significant increase in the proportion of older children in the SP group who reported that a parent disclosed his/her status to them (35 vs. 57 percent; p < 0.05).

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This page updated
19 October 2007