COLLABORATION IS THE KEY FOR CHILD SENSITIVE POLICIES AND DEVELOPMENT

CHILD RIGHTS SECTOR COLLABORATION KEY FOR CHILD FRIENDLY DEVELOPMENT

The Zimbabwe Child Rights Sector has launched its five year Advocacy strategy with more than hundred organisations participating in the compiling of strategy document under the auspices of the Zimbabwe National Council for the Welfare of Children.

The vision of the sector is summed up in the strategy as “Full enjoyment of rights and responsibilities by children as citizens of Zimbabwe.”  In support of this vision the sector has pledged to promote, protect and respect the rights of children as a coordinated and united body. The advocacy strategy has three major priorities they desire to fulfill by 2017 and these are;

·         Access to quality Health

·         Access to quality basic education

·         Child Protection, covering subthemes like child sexual abuse, child labour, detention of minors, child marriages and birth registration.

Commenting on the launch of the Advocacy Strategy, Mr Musa Chibwana the Development Manager at Zimbabwe National Council for the Welfare of Children said that “this advocacy strategy is coming with an objective of establishing collaboration and harmony in the child rights advocacy at a macro level as well as giving the sector direction on priority issues”. His comments come at the backdrop of mushrooming individualistic and illegal children’s homes, institutions and crèches threatening collaboration for the best interest of the child.

The growth of the child rights sector was mainly propelled by the need for extensive advocacy and lobbying against human rights abuses and policy blunders by the government that was prevalent at the wake of the new millennium in Zimbabwe. It is at this time that several advocacy organisations were birthed to give alternative care to children and also put pressure on the government to observe human rights. By the year 2000, the number of organisations representing children was huge and blooming ranging from community based to faith based national and international organisations. These organisations commendably worked in different thematic areas of child rights programming and trustee response was very high to the plight of the children in the country.

Despite the good work that has been done by the sector; prevailing socio-economic, cultural and political circumstances are presenting growing challenges to vulnerable children. It is also worrying that the sector’s response to these complex challenges has been lacking consensus on the priorities and some have even ignored binding government policies. In addition to divergent priorities the other tragedy that emerged was the lack of coordinated and effective macro advocacy with key stakeholders resulting in the latter being indifferent about the sector. This discord has been downplaying the African Committee on the Rights of the Child’s concluding Observations (1995); which stipulates the need for legislative and policy reforms that will benefit all children in Zimbabwe through collaborative effort.

The sector’s advocacy strategies must be therefore be harmonised in initiating and conducting research, budget tracking, establishing systematic learning and knowledge management platforms and strengthening the capacity of children as rights holders. The organisations in the sector should then create a body of evidence by collecting on the ground indicators on the conditions and state of children’s rights in their areas. It would be upon the ZNCWC as the mother body to have a national call for policy reforms or reversal on the child rights basing on the body of evidence and this will bring a child friendly development in the country.