21 Mar 2021

The Children’s Act of 2009 serves as the principal legislation for the promotion and protection of the rights of the child and general well-being of children.

Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Sethabelo Modukanele said the implementation of the act was undertaken through 10 priority areas which included the establishment of structures at national, district and community level, the dissemination of the act to the public, capacity building and institutional strengthening.

Mr Modukanele also said the National Children’s Council was in place and full operational.

However, he said the council had not had a dedicated budget until 2020/21 financial year when a budget amounting to about P6 million was allocated to the council.

“The amount was adequate to facilitate the initial requirements for implementation of the coordination, engagement as well as advocacy mandates of the council. For the financial year 2021/2022 a budget of P3 000 000 had been allocated,” said Mr Modukanele.

The Children’s Consultative Forum, he explained, was also in place with the current members’ term of office coming to an end in December 2021.

He said Village Child Protection Committees were established and fully functional in most areas while in some areas they were not functional, adding that there were a few areas where the committees were not yet established.

Mr Modukanele further said the Children’s Consultative Forum had been used at the district and national levels to promote child participation. 

“Children from Botswana participate in various local and regional fora to influence programming and policy development,” he said.

On advocacy and social mobilisation for the protection of children’s rights and well-being, Mr Modukanele said stakeholders were engaged to be aware of child protection in the context of the rights based approach so that they could be able to prevent and respond to all forms of violence, abuse and exploitation of children.

He said the districts of Chobe, Kgatleng, Hukuntsi, North West, Gaborone, Jwaneng, Ghanzi, Kweneng, Tlokweng, Southern and Central had functional Village Child Protection Committees (VCPC).

He said the absence of such committees in other districts was attributed to non-availability of incentives for members while in other areas inadequate support from other structures within the village had been a demotivating factor.

Mr Modukanele said the VCPCs were voluntary institutions that were created to facilitate community participation in the protection of children within their villages by their own parents, guardians, relatives and neighbours. “No budget is, therefore, allocated to such committees,” he said.

The assistant minister said although he appreciated the need to employ additional social workers, not only for facilitation of implementation of the Children’s Act, there were challenges of inadequate budget to accommodate additional manpower.

Mr Modukanele also said his ministry would continue to rationalise the limited vacancies to meet the demand for social work related services.

The MP for Bobonong, Mr Taolo Lucas had asked the minister to state whether the Children’s Act of 2009 was fully implemented, and whether all structures envisaged by the act were in place.

He also asked on the budget allocated to the National Children’s Council for each of the years it had been in existence, and whether it was commensurate with the mandate of the council.

He further asked on the number of functional Village Children Welfare Committees across the country as well as the number of non-functional or non-existent committees and the challenges, if there were any reasons for the absence of such.

MP Lucas wanted to know the average annual budget allocated to a Village Child Welfare Committee, and if it was enough to carry out its mandate. He also asked if the minister would consider employing more social workers in districts to ensure the full implementation of the Children’s Act of 2009.  ends