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Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeNewsWeak Social Spending Negatively Affecting Children: ZIMCODD

Weak Social Spending Negatively Affecting Children: ZIMCODD

Debt and development advocacy group, Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD) says there has been an increase in the number of child vendors since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement, ZIMCODD said the increase in child vendors is an indication of underlying currents that affect the wellbeing and rights of children across the country.

“Since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, Zimbabwe has seen a rise in the numbers of child vendors. Child vending is nothing but a manifestation of a plethora of underlying dynamics that are militating against the rights and well-being of children. Some of these underlying dynamics include but are not limited to poor social protection policies, economic meltdown, maladministration, poor public resource management, infrastructural gaps, child marriage, school drop outs, exploitative and exclusionary policies.

“All these challenges seem to gain traction in the lives of children across the country despite the availability of a myriad of policies, legal, institutional and regulatory frameworks that speaks to child protection. These include but not limited to; Zimbabwe Children’s Act [Chapter 5:06], the Constitution, the Zimbabwe National Orphan Care Policy (1999), Zimbabwe National Action Plan for Orphaned and Vulnerable Children, the Zimbabwe National Residential Care Standards Policy, Ministry of Health and Child Care, Office of the President and Cabinet, Parliament Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare to mention but a few,” said ZIMCODD.

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The coalition said among other issues poor public resource management had influenced negatively on domestic resource mobilisation.

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“Poor Public Resource Management (PRM), debt distress, resource leakages and Illicit Financial Flows (IFF) have militated against effective Domestic Resource Mobilisation (DRM) which is integral in mobilising funds for social spending. The impact of weak DRM has been adverse on the cost of living for the ordinary Zimbabwean and social spending as it has widened the inequality gap.

“The social welfare workforce is depleted and there is an insufficient National Budget for child justice, social welfare and limited implementation of legislation. Zimbabwe`s social spending is below the agreed 4.5% of the African Social Policy. Since 2017 Zimbabwean social spending has never reached 4%.

“The ramifications of weak social spending have imposed an unbearable cost of living on children. A rapid assessment conducted by ZIMCODD of child vending in Harare shows that approximately 20 children join the streets every day as beggars and vendors which is a clear testament to the dysfunctionality of child protection systems in Zimbabwe,” the coalition said.

According to the 2021 Zimbabwe Annual Report by UNICEF child poverty has increased tremendously in Zimbabwe. The report stated that, 1/3 women aged 20-24 years married before the age 18, 35% of children between the age of 5-17 are experiencing child labour, while 13% are working under hazardous conditions and over 51% of children are not registered at birth.

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Zimbabwe has a population of approximately 15 million inhabitants, with 54% under the age of 20 while a 61.3% of children live in multidimensional poverty – worse in rural areas, high-density and peri urban informal settlements.

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