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The High-level Child Budgeting Dialogue by stakeholders held in Harare today has brought to the fore the importance of Child Protection Financing in Zimbabwe.
This dialogue led to the exchange of knowledge and generated recommendations that contribute towards shaping and improving national and subnational policy interventions and investment in the Child Protection sector including the National Budget process.
Addressing the delegates at the meeting, Prof. Paul Mavima, the Minister of Public Service, Labour, and Social Welfare said the government is committed to improving the care and protection of children.
“In working towards the care and protection of children, stakeholders should bear in ming that giving children access to education and health gives any country the demographic dividend. The population thus should be well-educated and healthy. It starts with taking care of children.
“The government is working on scaling up child protection, by giving them access to national registration and monitoring of child care facilities. There is also a need to document information about the needs of children. For example, we need to know the number of children of school-going age living and working on the streets of Harare.
“Thus data compilation becomes the basis for policymaking. Zimbabwe also embraces various legislations and conventions on child protection worldwide and on the continent. We are also working on the amendments of the Child Act and the Child Justice Act,” Hon Mavima said.
The Minister highlighted the need of strengthening institutional capacity in implementing the national development strategy (NDS1) whose success can be attained through a whole of government and multi-sectoral approach.
He underscored the importance of improving management of information systems and the understanding of emerging issues like drugs and substance abuse, climate change, embracing indigenous knowledge systems as they relate to child protection.
For example, the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM) is supporting 1, 5 million children but children in need have risen to 5 million.
H.E.Ms. Åsa Pehrson, Ambassador of Sweden to Zimbabwe, said Sweden places maximize importance on children’s rights globally and specifically in Zimbabwe.
She bemoaned the fact that donor financing of child protection was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic with donors now looking carefully at their funding and maximizing its efficiency.
“COVID-19 implications on budgets were dire. The Russian-Ukraine war on the other hand, affected national budgets capacities and possibilities of channelling donor funds. We are hopeful the crisis in Ukraine will be overcome soon. In Zimbabwe, Swedish Agency for Development Cooperation is supporting the child protection fund,” she said.
Sweden is also capacititating government officials in the area of child protection through training programmes.
H.E. Dr. Margret Verwijk, Ambassador of Netherlands to Zimbabwe said the government has a moral duty to prioritize child protection and consider it as a social investment.
Netherlands has traditionally been a global donor to Unicfef. It supports historically marginalised vulnerable groups. In Zimbabwe, the Ebassy funded Musasa to build shelters for women and girsl. It offers a referral systems for survivors of gender-based violence to access the shelters and is actively involved in the programme on ending child marriage.
Ambassador Verwijk said the shelters were initiated in 2019 but the COVID-19 pandemic increased the demand for the services hence the need to channel more attention and resources towards child protection. She said pandemics and the war in Ukraine set tone for mainstreaming child protection through policy and financing as well as child-sensitive policy framerwork.
On the other hand, CSO and NGOs should inform and plug the gaps in policies on child protection. She called for improved working relations between the state and public voluntary organisations (PVOs) and NGOs since they complement government development programmes.
She encouraged the government to ensure an enabling environment for all players and to support efforts of NGOs, and private sector that are key partners in promoting children’s rights.
The Ambassador said the mining and agriculture sectors are sadly a host to child rights abuses hence the need for policies and regulations targeting those sectors in order to promote international standards on fair trade, and bring economic incentives to the fore of child protection work.
Ms. Lieke van de Wiel, Deputy Regional Director of the UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office said regional trends offer opportunities for countries to learn from each
“Each sociey should reflect respect of child protection in the budget. In the region, the bulk of most budgets go towards salaries. The social workers in volunteer schemes and line ministries should be safeguarded and offered dignified incentives. They need capacity building. Most resources go towards response. There is a need to fucus more on prevention. Stakeholders should be aware of child protection risks in society. In the region, development partners are strong in child protection and Sweden is particularly strong in this respect.
“There are regional bottlenecks around child protection. Across different sectors – health, education, and justice, child protection elements are difficult to measure and identify. There is no specific financial commitment towards this cause. The absence of a regional target on public budget for child protection is also a cause of concern,” the UNICEF regional director said.
She added that domestic funding must be more reliable, larger, and sustainable. She called on creation of safety nets for vulnerable children.
Zimbabwe was invited to be the trailblazer in setting a regional threshold for financing of child protection.
Prof Mthuli Ncube, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, speaking through a representative, said Treasury is opf the view that investing in children results in better outcomes for children, and a prosperous nation.
“There is a need to safeguard children from violence, exploitation, and abuse. The Government is committed, under Section 30 of the Constitution, to provide social security and care to those in needs. Under NDS1, social protection and poverty alleviation are intertwined,” he said.
He said NDS1 provides protection of vulnerable persons including children, and the elderly. Treasury also funds the integrated case management system and offers child grants protection. The Government is also scaling up national case management, promotion and adoption of foster care, and residential child care institutions.
It also funds the improvement of database on children’s needs to ensure policies are research-based and also funds the provision of probation services.
Dr Tajudeen Oyewale, the UNICEF Representative in Zimbabwe said the child the High-level Child Budgeting Series Dialogugue is intended to exchange knowledge and generate recommendations that contribute towards shaping and improving national and subnational policy interventions and investment in the Child Protection sector including the National Budget process.
“Initiated by the UNICEF and the Zimbabwe Economics Society, the Child Budgeting Series serves as a knowledge exchange platform to discuss how macro and microeconomic policies and investments impact children and seek to influence policy development in the social sectors. The series features several policy issues across; child protection; education; health; water, hygiene, and sanitation; climate adaptation and mitigation; social protection; and other issues of importance to children in Zimbabwe,” he said.