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Overall nutrition for the nation also benefits from a school feeding program and a range of welfare/development programs – the Remote Area Development Program (RADP), the Old Age Pension, World War II Veterans grants, Destitution Policy, Orphan Care Program, Home Based Care etc. - with a focus on basic needs for groups vulnerable to poverty and hunger.

The physical availability of food is assured through a national food security policy and strategy that recognize Botswana’s limitations in food production

• Material relief has remained the principal focus of the orphan care program, without comparable psycho-social support, child welfare monitoring and HIV education and prevention.
• Other children made vulnerable by the epidemic are not eligible for Short Term Plan of Action (STPA) registration and benefits.
• There is no national child welfare policy to guide interventions for all vulnerable children, including HIV+ children.
• Considerable social and political unease is expressed about the sustainability of a ‘culture of dependency’, and lack of clearly articulated graduation strategies for orphaned children reaching 18 years.
• Poor socio-economic status to meet other basic needs: The OVCs and/or their guardians often sell or exchange the food rations and other safety nets for cash and other commodities
• Stigma-some parents or guardians as well as some school-going teenagers resist registration because of the stigma attached to those enrolled in the programs and also threats to their self-esteem.
• NGOs and CBOs providing care and support services to OVCs are concentrated on the eastern part of the country leaving other areas without adequate services