12 Jul 2015

Former Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Peter Siele is the UNICEF advocacy champion for child rights in Botswana.

Speaking in Gaborone on Thursday (July 9), Mr Siele said serving Botswana children has been his dream, as he has a vast knowledge on children’s issues which he acquired during his ministerial duties.

Mr Siele said his ministerial duties exposed him to get first-hand information about the social ills that children continued to encounter in their day to day live, hence making him the ideal advocacy champion.

“Most children are facing a number of problems which include among others, violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation,” he said.

Some children grow up without parental care and guidance, which in turn leads to increased crime among juveniles and high levels of teenage pregnancy, he added.

Mr Siele said the problem faced by children cannot be addressed by government alone nor UNICEF, stating that there was need for involvement of families, community leaders, children themselves and civil society organisations.
“My role as the advocacy champion will be focusing on public and private advocacy on child rights,” he said.

He noted that it was important that he insured creation of linkages between government, traditional leadership and communities on child rights.

The former minister noted that traditional leadership should be empowered to play a pivotal role of mobilising communities to take responsibility in moulding the behavior of children.

He added that through this partnership with UNICEF, there was great expectation of improved high level advocacy with policy makers, decision makers, legislators and civil society organisations for implementation of policies and programs.

Mr Siele said the focus would be on rural areas that are facing a number of challenges because of their remoteness.

He said it was critical to create opportunities for increased sharing of experiences on successful child realisation between districts, as this would help in identifying good practices that could help in addressing the issues faced by children.

For her part, UNICEF representative Ms Vidhya Ganesh said Mr Siele’s commitment and deep desire to help communities, and deep understanding of child rights has always been evident through interactions as the then Minister of Local Government and Rural development.


She said his ability to transcend even to the hardest made him the ideal candidate for the role of Advocacy Champion.

She said this partnership was another strategy where advocates like Mr Siele had mobilised people and public opinion to build greater momentum and deeper understanding of child rights at community level.

“As we engage with communities through Mr Siele, we believe that UNICEF and other stakeholders will have an opportunity to strengthen innovative approaches in dealing with issues affecting children such as, severe malnutrition, poor education outcomes, teenage pregnancy and motherhood, HIV, child poverty and many others,” she said.

Ms Ganesh said Mr Siele would focus on three areas as an advocate which includes public and private advocacy on child rights, creating linkages between the government, traditional leadership and communities on child right.

The third thing to focus on would be capacity building of civil society organisations for enhanced engagement on the child rights agenda.

United Nations (UN) resident coordinator, Mr Anders Pederson said, apart from his experience as the former Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Siele was chosen looking at the fact that he is a respectable Motswana elder who understands the dynamic of the Setswana culture which could have a negative or positive impact on the realisation of children’s rights in Botswana.

Mr Pederson said as UN, they firmly believe that children’s rights should be given utmost attention such as any sets of rights. “We believe that children’s rights are human rights and therefore should be protected to ensure that children thrive,” he said.

The partnership is expected not only to strengthen linkages with communities but to ensure that knowledge and technical skills needed to deliver results for children are enhanced, he said. Ends