21 Mar 2021

Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) can protect children against risk and vulnerability and mitigate the impact of disasters in children’s lives.

This was said by senior social worker in the Department of Social Protection in the South East District, Mr Ngoni Mmolawa on Friday during a seminar held to discuss possible interventions on child welfare.

Mr Mmolawa said government had joined together with Public-Private Partnership (PPP) and civil society organisations to assist in the implementation of social protection services.

Speaking during the seminar held by the Motor Vehicle Accident Fund (MVA Fund) in conjunction with the South East District Social Welfare and Community Development (S&CD), Mr

Mmolawa said communities could help government in implementing social protection programmes through community based structures such as the National Children Council and National Children’s Consultative Forum.

For technical and financial support, Mr Mmolawa said Botswana had partnered with UNICEF for policy reforms concerning children and child protection coordination system support.

He further noted that they had partnered with the World Bank for purposes of systems strengthening which included a single social registry.

Mr Mmolawa said through the S&CD they supported children who suffered from chronic diseases to secure basic livelihoods, adding that social work had the role to direct work with recipients of social welfare programmes through various interventions.

For her part, MVA Fund case manager, Ms Buyani Chidoda said the fund had been at the heart of aiding children after the passing on of a breadwinner due to a vehicle accident.

She cited as one of their activities covering children a return to school and monitoring of academic performance.“All children of the deceased are entitled to the loss of support. For children born out of wedlock, a paternity investigation is conducted,” she said.

Ms Chidoda highlighted that in cases where the deceased was the father, and where the birth certificate had no father’s name, they conducted an investigation on the paternity of both maternal and paternal sides of the families.

She further said after proof and verifying paternity, the minor would start benefiting until at the age of 21 years.

Ms Chidoda further noted that they performed follow-ups and made an investigation to prevent misappropriation of funds, further stating that they checked if claimants still met the requirements.

She pointed out that they were challenged by limited comprehensive and consistent psychological support facilities in remote areas, calling for the engagement of social workers in remote areas.

Social workers who attended the seminar also presented resolutions concerning ways to partner with the MVA fund in improving the livelihoods of children who benefitted from the MVA fund.

South East District Council chief social and community development officer, Ms Sylvia Gilika suggested that MVA should have an officer who could liaise with the fund and the S&CD to help in making progress in child welfare.

She further suggested that MFA Fund and S&CD should improve on information sharing to deal with referrals properly.

Ms Gilika noted that from different districts they had realised the misuse of funds from MVA hence the need to improve the living standards of people benefiting from the MVA Fund.

Tlokweng Sub-district social worker, Mr Lefoko Katisi suggested that the money from MVA to children of the deceased could be better if paid yearly.

Appreciating suggestions, Ms Chidoda said information sharing was important, more so that they struggled when doing investigations.

She further said they had cases of mismanaged funds where the claimant was struggling to make a living despite that they were receiving funds of loss of support from MVA.

Meanwhile, MVA Fund senior manager case management, Ms Lydia Masilo-Nkhoma said the purpose of the seminar was to provide a holistic understanding of the functions and operations of the fund by sharing and reinforcing MVA Fund products and services in terms of loss of support.

She further said they wanted to improve working relations and enhance good stakeholder relations.

Ms Masilo-Nkhoma said they wanted to improve service delivery through the seminar.

MVA Fund is expected to conduct seminars across the country to find ways of working with S&CDs to better relationships in improving citizen social life.ENDS