Child rights-based civil society organizations (CSOs) have appealed to the Government of Malawi to expedite the finalization, gazetting and implementation of the Draft Child Care Protection and Justice Foster Homes Regulations in order to address challenges children without biological parents face in the country.
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The appeal follows revelations that Malawi has recently registered an unprecedented rise in the number of children growing up without the care of their parents, where they face heightened risks of child abuse, neglect, and exploitation, latest studies have revealed.
The revelations were announced at the launch of the No Child Should Grow Up Alone Campaign in Lilongwe by six child rights-based CSOs, which include SOS Children’s Villages in Malawi, NGO Coalition on Child Rights (NGOCCR), National Youth Network on Climate Change (NYNCC), Joining Forces for Children, and the Citizen Alliance (CA).
Addressing journalists, SOS Children’s Villages in Malawi Country Director, Smart Namagonya, expressed sadness with the plight of Children Without Parental Care (CWPC) in Africa and Malawi, citing findings of a Continental Study on Children Without Parental Care in Africa (The study).
Namagonya said it is against this background that they decided to launch ‘The No Child Should Grow Up Alone Campaign! as a call to action based on the continental study report on Children Without Parental Care in Africa and the 2022 -2026 Malawi National Plan of Action for Vulnerable Children.
The study was commissioned and launched by the African Union in November 2023 and The 2022 -2026 Malawi National Plan of Action for Vulnerable Children in Malawi (The plan).
“After analyzing the available statistical data and secondary sources, the study found that there are approximately 35 million Children Without Parental Care in Africa. This revelation comes amidst limitations in statistical data on Children Without Parental Care in most AU member states including Malawi and this implies that the figures on children without parental care in Africa could be higher than this if data was available in all AU member states.
“In Malawi, the 2022 -2026 Malawi National Plan of Action for Vulnerable Children (The plan) found that 1,513,000 children representing 17% of the total child population 8,900,000 do not live with a biological parent, and 2,492,000 children representing 28% of the total child population live with their biological mother only, and 178,000 children representing 2% of the total child population live with their father only. The plan further found that child abuse, neglect, and exploitation are the key child protection issues in Malawi with parenting challenges, changes in family structure, and lack of access to quality services as immediate causes of these issues. Poverty, law enforcement challenges, and limited coverage of the child protection system and harmonization as the underlying causes of these challenges, and harmful practices and limited public financing as structural causes of the same,” he read from the statement prepared for the media and the public.
Namagonya said the findings corroborate that there are significant numbers of children growing up alone, and in the process they are exposed to various forms of child abuse, neglect, and exploitation from immediate underlying and structural causes which this campaign intends to profile and call for a multi-stakeholder approach to address them to improve the status quo of such children in the country.
In his contribution, NGOCCR National Coordinator Henry Machemba asked the government to seriously consider the inclusion of Children Without Parental Care in national statistical databases or periodic studies such as Demographic Health Surveys (DHS), Multi-Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), and National Household Surveys to generate robust national-level statistics on Children Without Parental Care in the country.
Machemba also proposed that the government and its partners should enhance child safeguarding and protection systems to ensure that all children under the various care options are protected from all forms of abuse and neglect by allocating adequate resources to the Malawi Human Rights Commission (The Commission), which is mandated to protect and promote human rights in Malawi in the broadest sense possible including conducting investigations on the type and quality of care for children in different care settings.
“The high number of children living with their mother only (2,492,000 children representing 28% of the total child population live with their biological mother only) signifies the growing childcare burden that is placed on women only against a background of limited access to resources faced by many women in the country. The campaign calls for progressive and deliberate interventions to persuade men to take proactive roles in childcare and implement strong punitive actions for those who deliberately shun away from providing care to their children,” he said.
Machemba further recommended that the government should enhance community-based systems that facilitate appropriate case management through functional reporting and response mechanisms of different child protection cases.
He also proposed that the government and its partners should profile the International Day of Families (IDF), which falls on 15th May every year and use it to raise awareness and promote best practices to propel strong and resilient families in the country.
“The government and its partners should promote the resurgence of the old family structures when child care protection and education were considered and undertaken as a shared responsibility by the extended family and all adults from the community, unlike the nuclear kind of family structures which promotes individualism and weakens the child protective environment. The government should continuously rethink and innovate Poverty Eradication Strategies that would build lasting resilience within communities and promote investments in education, healthcare, and skills development that can empower individuals and families and break the cycle of poverty for vulnerable families,” he said.
Meanwhile, the concerned CSOs have disclosed that they have lined up a number of activities in commemoration of the International Day of Families to raise awareness about the need to raise children in a family where he or she can be well and responsibly taken care of.
