Govt set to launch child protection action plan

Comment & Analysis
BY NQABA MATSHAZITHE government will this week launch the second phase of the National Action Plan (NAP2) on child protection, following up on one that had been running between 2004 and 2010.

Worth US$300 million, the new programme will run for the next four years, centred mainly on the continuation of the cash transfer programme, which entails providing an average US$20 a month to poor and vulnerable families to procure basic commodities.

The NAP2 is set to provide a framework for coordinated action to ensure that orphans, vulnerable children and their families, have incomes and access to basic services, and that all children are protected from abuse and exploitation.

Some of the key components of the action plan are that it it will target vulnerable children and their families; improve effectiveness of child-protection programmes and provide a comprehensive package of high quality interventions designed to address the wide range of deprivations facing orphans, vulnerable children and their families.

The ambitious programme, NAP2 seeks to benefit about one million children, who have lost either one or both parents. The plan will also target the children’s families, in what is considered a more holistic approach compared to the previous NAP, which only targetted the children.

It will also develop minimum standards for service provision and strengthening monitoring and follow-up and rebuilding the capacity of the government to deliver the social services needed by children and their families.