Zambia among least child friendly countries according to report

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Zambia among least child friendly countries according to report

8:31 CAT | 08 Nov 2018

File photo: Lusaka Times

Press Statement on Zambia’s Poor ranking in the 2018 African Report on Child Wellbeing

Save the Children wishes to share its concern on Zambia’s ranking in the African Report on Child Wellbeing of 2018 by the African Child Policy Forum (ACPF) released on the 2nd of November 2018 by the board chair Madam Graca Machel.

Zambia is among the bottom nine “least child-friendly” countries and ranked 48th out of the 52 African countries. In 2013, Zambia ranked 36th in Child Friendliness Index and moved down 12 places over the last five years.

The report measures how child friendly African governments are using a Child-Friendliness Index (CFI), which is a rights-based statistical methodology that ACPF developed to measure, monitor and promote government performance in realising the rights and wellbeing of children. It measures state accountability to child rights, as stipulated in international and regional child rights instruments especially the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the African Convention on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC or ‘African Children’s Charter’). It looks at government performance in areas of nutrition, education, budgeting for children, laws and policies and protection of children especially in conflicts and crisis.

According to the report, a child-friendly government is one which is maximising efforts to meet its obligations to respect, protect and fulfil children’s rights and ensure their well being. This includes; efforts made to adopt, implement and enforce laws and policies for the protection of children; public expenditure committed to children’s basic needs and how effectively it achieves concrete child well being outcomes; and efforts made to include children in decisions that affect their well being.

The 2018 Child-friendliness Index covered all African countries except Libya, Somalia and Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Page xxiii of the report indicates that ‘the “least child-friendly” governments at the bottom of the 2018 table comprise South Sudan, Central African Republic, Chad, Cameroon, Zambia, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea and Eritrea. The legal and policy framework and the enforcement mechanisms in most of these countries remain inadequate and weak. They also invest the least in education, health and well being, despite the prevalence of multiple deprivations amongst their children.’

As the world leading independent organisation for children, Save the Children supports government and other stakeholders to prioritise the rights of children, especially their right to basic services and their right to participate in civic space. The African Report on Child Well being highlights the situation faced by children in Zambia and the many challenges they continue to face.

Why is Zambia’s performance score and ranking very low?

With regards to legal protection of children, Zambia has yet to adopt several child-related laws such as the Optional Protocol to CRC on the sale of children, child prostitution, and pornography; the Optional Protocol to CRC on insolvent of children in armed conflict; and the Optional Protocol to CRC on communications procedure.
The minimum age of criminal responsibility is 8 years, which is below the recommended 12 years.
Minimum age of marriage both for boys and girls is set at 16, below the endorsed age 18.
Zambia has the 2nd lowest level of birth registration in Africa – only 11.3 percent of the children under the age of 5 registered with the civil authorities.
Prevalence of child labour is among the ten highest in Africa – nearly 41 percent of the children aged 5-14 involved in child labour. Corporal punishment is not prohibited in the home and alternative care settings despite widespread practice of physical violence within these settings.
Education spending is only 1.1 percent of GDP– the lowest in Africa.
The average number of students per teacher in Zambia is 48:1, which is above the recommended level 40:1.
The proportion of population living below 1.90 USD a day is about 58 percent – among the ten highest in Africa.
The prevalence of chronic malnutrition (stunting) is among the ten highest in Africa – two in every five children aged below five are stunted.
The proportion of population with access to safely managed sanitation facility stands at only 30 percent – below the African average 34 percent.

It is also worth mentioning that Zambia had made improvements in some areas:

Under-five mortality declined significantly – from 148 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2008 to 63 deaths in 2016.
Immunisation coverage increased moderately – from 84 percent in 2005 to 93 percent in 2016.
Access to primary education has been improved to some extent over the indicated period.
Skilled birth attendant increased from 43 percent to more than 63 percent.
While Save the Children commends the President’s commitment towards promoting children’s rights to participation in his inaugural speech we look forward to seeing the concrete results of this commitment. The African Report on Child Wellbeing shows that the Zambian government is not doing enough. Save the Children therefore calls upon the government to respond effectively to children’s needs and priorities by doing the following:
Increase investment in Children especially in areas of Health and Nutrition, Protection and Education. We believe that the 2019 national budget is a missed opportunity to increase investment in children which will ultimately help improve Zambia’s child friendliness status on the continent. The debt servicing allocation in the 2019 budget is more than the combined allocation to Health, Education and Social Protection.
Further, we ask the government to budget and expend adequate financial resources to enable children enjoy their rights in line with the international and African Child Rights frameworks the government of Zambia has committed itself to.
The fact that the legal and policy frameworks have been cited as being weak in the least child friendly countries leads us to remind the Zambian government to expedite the enactment of the Child Code Bill. It is our considered view that Zambia’s poor ranking in the mentioned report is a compelling reason for the prompt presentation and enactment of the Children’s Code Bill without delay. The delayed enactment of the Children’s Code Bill has denied many Zambian children who would have benefited from the progressive provisions of the Children’s Code Bill in the last 12 years since the comprehensive review of all child related legislations begun.

It is our sincere hope the government will take time to review this report and develop clear commitments to create an enabling environment for children to participate in the government’s developmental agenda for Zambia.

Domestication of child friendliness requires a meaningful dialogue by stakeholders, including children, appropriate legal and institutional arrangements for government local revenue management, resourcing of child-related sectors and their service delivery and a system of incentives to enforce programmes and policies that promote and protect children.

Duncan Harvey

Zambia Country Director
Save the Children

Source: Lusaka Time