Page |8 The Lesotho National Strategic Plan on Vulnerable Children (NSPVC) 2012–17 replaces the outgoing National OVC Strategic Plan (2006-10). It notes the MoSD as the body responsible for providing leadership in the national response to vulnerable children, providing policy guidelines and developing plans for Lesotho’s response to vulnerable children. The plan also articulates a paradigm shift to more human rights and resultsbased approaches, moving Lesotho from a social welfare to a social development approach. It focuses more on child vulnerability rather than a child’s orphan-hood status. Further, the plan explicitly adopts a broader definition of vulnerability than the CPW Act which defines a vulnerable child as “a person who is below the age of 18, who has one or both parents who have deserted or neglected him, to the extent that he has no means of survival and as such is exposed to dangers of abuse, exploitation or criminality and is therefore in need of care and protection.” Instead it defines vulnerable children as those whose rights to survival, development, protection and participation are not met because of certain conditions or circumstances beyond their individual control. The NSPVC offers five priorities: raising awareness and commitment to vulnerable children’s rights and needs through advocacy and social mobilization; strengthening the capacity of families and communities to protect, care for, and support vulnerable children; strengthening social, legal, and judicial protection of vulnerable children and their families; scaling up availability and access to services by vulnerable children and their families; and strengthened systems. The plan highlights the importance of strengthening families and communities in which children live rather than focusing on the individual child. The Situational Analysis on Vulnerable Children and Women in the Kingdom of Lesotho (Sitan) was conducted in 2011. It primarily utilized a desk review methodology for data collection coupled with a causality analysis of client’s verbal responses to survey questions. The Sitan examined the problems affecting women and children and their causes and linkages. Created in 2006, the National HIV and AIDS Policy had specific objectives to reduce the vulnerability of women, orphans, and under-privileged children to HIV and AIDS, and to increase access to information and services to all young people. The policy outlines commitments by the government to address violence against women and children, including: protection of women and girls against gender based violence; protection of women’s rights to have control over their own bodies, and to make decisions free from discrimination or coercive violence on matters related to their sexual and reproductive health; development of mechanisms for protecting women who suffer abuse and domestic violence, to assert their rights to safer marital sex and other rights; ensuring that vulnerable populations have unimpeded access to affordable legal support services to enforce their rights; development of guidelines and minimum standards of care that would ensure that orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) are not exploited or abused; strengthening and enforcing legislation to protect children and young people against any type of abuse or exploitation; establishment of guidelines for the management of sexual abuse at health care delivery and law enforcement offices; development of guidelines