Remarks by UN Resident Coordinator at High Level National Children’s SDGs Symposium

Acknowledgements:

The Minister of State for Youth and Children Affairs Hon. Florence Nakiwala Kiyingi

The National Director of World Vision, Mr. Jason Evans

Executive Director National Planning Authority, Dr. Joseph Muvawala

Prime Minister from the Kingdom of Bunyoro

Representatives from the Government

Representatives from the Civil Society, Youth SDG Coalition,

Representatives from Private Sector, media

UN Colleagues, children

Ladies and Gentlemen

On behalf of the United Nations System in Uganda, I am pleased to address this High Level National Children’s SDGs Symposium. I would like to commend World Vision and the SDG Secretariat for organising this important meeting at this time. Let’s begin by taking a moment to reflect on why is today important and allow me to use a quote from Nelson Mandela to get us started: “Children are the most vulnerable citizens in any society and the greatest of our treasures.”  Let us observe 1 minute of silence for all the children lost during the past year due to abuse.

We live at a time when the positive African values of Obuntubulamu, the Uganda Constitution, the UN Charter and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development call on us to place the most vulnerable at the epicenter of our actions to achieve prosperity, sustain peace and protect the planet. How are we protecting children today in the world’s second youngest nation, the Republic of Uganda? What are the harmful practices that jeopardize children’s wellbeing? Seventy percent of Uganda’s population is under 30 and half of the population are children under the age of 18. If Uganda is to achieve a more sustainable future and become a modern society by 2040, it is imperative to protect, nurture and empower children regardless of gender, religion, ethnicity or social status.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent an unprecedented agreement among UN Member States to pursue global aspirations, taking into account different national realities and encouraging partnerships across the whole of society in pursuit of prosperity and peace that does not destroy the environment and does not leave anyone behind, particularly children. We cannot transform our world and achieve the SDGs without achieving SDG four on Quality Education whose focus is to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” Children, tomorrow’s leaders, must be well educated if they are to achieve their full potential. Their development must be holistic, intellectual, spiritual, physical and emotional. I wish to take this moment to convey my profound appreciation to the stakeholders present here today who are involved in the education of children. However, for children to be well educated, they must be healthy, which means that goal number three on Good Health and Wellbeing, whose focus is to “Ensure healthy lives and promote the well-being for all at all ages,” must be achieved simultaneously at homes and places of learning. To the stakeholders present here today involved in ensuring the health of children, thank you for keeping the human race alive.

According to the UNICEF  2019 Situation Analysis of Children in Uganda, more than half of Uganda’s children live in Multidimensional Poverty and it is estimated that emerging challenges of climate change, urbanization and COVID-19 will further exacerbate inequities. Today, nearly half (48%) of children do not get three meals a day; 40% of children live in overcrowded homes or in non-durable dwellings (with a mud floor); and only 62% of Ugandan children completed their final year of primary school in 2016. In this complex environment, some progress has been made in reducing child mortality and increasing life expectancy, with neonatal mortality stagnating at 27 deaths per 1,000 live births. There has also been progress in reducing the national prevalence of under-five stunting from 33% in 2011 to 29% in 2016 as well as in access to safe water which increased from 57% in 2000 to 78% in 2016. If Uganda is to achieve Vision 2040 and reap the potential demographic dividend of a youthful population, then we must work together to invest robustly in children’s safety and development.

Let us take a moment to reflect on the African value of Obwesimbu which means integrity, this Obuntubulamu value enables us to create an enabling environment for the promotion of human rights, particularly for the most vulnerable in our communities and homes, children. Children will not be able to realize their full potential when they are victims of abuse, exploitation, trafficking and other forms of violence and torture, at home or at school. Current data indicates that 68% of young men and 59% of young women have experienced physical violence during their childhood. These are impediments to children’s education and full psychosocial development. What type of adults will they become? Which values will they pass on to their children? According to the Uganda Violence Against Children Study released in November 2017, one in four girls (25%) and one in ten boys (10%) aged 13 to 17 years reported having experienced sexual violence in the past year while four in ten girls (44%) and six in ten boys (59%) aged 13 to 17 years reported having experienced physical violence within the last year. Of Ugandans aged 18 to 24 who participated in the study, six in 10 females (59%) and seven in ten males (68%) reported having experienced physical violence during their childhood. Therefore, we must all contribute to the realization of Goal 16, promoting peaceful and inclusive societies that end these abuses against the most vulnerable citizens, children. As UNESCO would remind us, peace is not just the absence of armed conflict and peace needs to be built into the minds of men and women through protection of children and teaching civic education at an early stage. We need cultural and religious leaders, the custodians of our moral values, to accelerate their efforts to eradicate these unacceptable behaviours which transform our treasures into victims.

COVID-19 has had tremendous impact on children causing disruptions to families, eroding children’s social support systems and affecting their psychosocial well-being. In Uganda, about 1 million children who should have joined school in last February will have to wait until August 2021 and many may never make it back. The closure of schools affected the nutritional status of children as some households were unable to cope with the rising cost of food. In Karamoja, for example, more than 100,000 school children missed out on the benefits of school meals during the lockdown. Every day that girls were not in school, they were at risk of rape, defilement, unwanted pregnancies, HIV and forced marriages, and as a result hundreds of girls may never be able to complete their education. What type of wives, mothers and citizens will they become? How many scientists, doctors, teachers have we lost as a result?

According to the Uganda Demographic and Health Survey 2016, before the COVID pandemic Uganda had “one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancies in sub-Saharan Africa”, 1 in 4 adolescent women age 15-19 were already mothers or pregnant with their first child. Due to COVID-19, the Uganda Child helpline recorded a 45% increase of reported teenage pregnancy cases from January to May 2020.  In addition, in certain regions like Northern Uganda, young girls are forced to sell sex in return for cash, food or even sanitary products (Save the Children, 2020). It is unfortunate, that these school-going children may not have a chance to resume education, may be faced with discrimination and stigma within the communities as well as health issues associated with teenage pregnancies. No society can afford the lost opportunity, waste of talent and exploitation of children. We must strengthen systems to ensure we do not lose children between the home and school due to child marriages, in fact we need to change this term as it normalizes defilement and rape, we are talking about child abuse. In this context, I call on all of us to regain our role as child advocates and accelerate implementation of the National Sexuality Education Framework approved by the Ministry of Education and Sports.

Uganda was the chair of the UNGA when the SDGs were adopted, Uganda has issued two voluntary reports on implementation of SDGs, the most recent last year included the voice of the youth and was shared with Parliament. With UN support, Uganda has aligned its national development plans to the SDGs, established the national secretariat, designated a cabinet focal point, rolled out a national SDG dashboard and launched a Youth Coalition for SDGs. The next aspiration is to ensure closer alignment between financing, the national budget and SDG targets. Uganda has invested successfully in infrastructure and energy, it is time to increase investment in human capital development, governance, justice and accountability.  If we are to address the impact of COVID-19 on children and achieve the SDGs, we must work and innovate together. Around the world, the pandemic has demonstrated the crucial contribution of online innovations to ensure continuity of learning for students. In Uganda, young people have developed innovations to sustain access to learning in the new normal, some are members of the Youth Coalition for SDGs which comprises over 30 youth-led organizations actively involved in the implementation of the SDGs, under the auspices of the SDG Secretariat within the Office of the Prime Minister, and the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office. I call upon all stakeholders to join hands with the Youth Coalition for SDGs and other actors to scale up these critical innovations. During my visits around the country children and youth have asked for safe spaces to learn to identify risky behaviour and channels to get help. We need to build upon the children hot lines and perhaps revisit the legal framework to ensure that people who are aware of child abuse and do not report it are also held accountable in the courts of law. We will continue our investment in JLOS alongside key development partners.

Before I conclude, on behalf of the UN in Uganda, I pledge our commitment to continue to listen to and work with children to achieve the SDGs in the new normal of COVID-19 through our UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework 2021-2025 which outlines our support to the third National Development Plan and the national Vision 2040 of a transformed and prosperous Uganda. In the spirit of this pledge, the UN in Uganda re-aligned its programming to address issues affecting children during the COVID-19 pandemic, let me share a few examples of how we helped to keep children learning at home, and supported the safe re-opening of schools: (a) UNICEF, worked with the Ministry of Education and the National Information Technology Authority to introduce a free of charge digital learning platform - Kolibri - with content approved by the National Curriculum Development Center; they also supported the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development and select districts to strengthen case management capacity to address cases of harm against children, including supporting Para Social Workers at village level and Social Welfare Officers in select sub-counties; and last but not least UNICEF supported the Ministry of Health and key hospitals to strengthen the provision of psychosocial support for children and families affected by COVID-19. There is disparity in access to digital learning but in collaboration with the government, the UN will leverage technology as a great equalizer to reduce the gap between those who have access to quality resources and opportunities and those who don’t. in this regard I wish to recognize (b) UNHCR  who procured 1,600 android tablets that were be distributed to schools in refugee and host communities for senior four students to prepare for their final exams. (c) the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) is engaging the Ministry of Education to apply solutions to achieve financial inclusion and improve access to quality education for segments of the population at risk of being left behind in Northern Uganda. (d) Through UNESCO we continue to support teachers’ professional development as well as the use of technology for capacity building in education, vocational education and training.

The UN system including WHO, UNICEF, IOM, WFP among others have worked closely with the Government, people and partners of Uganda to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and sustain critical humanitarian and development activities. As the world focuses on increasing access to vaccines, we are working to address vaccine hesitancy and encourage essential workers and other priority groups to take the vaccine while we continue to work to address the socio-economic impact of the pandemic. As the UN we will continue to support advocacy to ensure the social protection of children including teenage mothers. We welcome the decision in September 2020 by the First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, who approved Re-entry Guidelines for pregnant Girls and Child Mothers into school. We also welcome the Kampala Capital City Authority, who in partnership with UNICEF, is implementing the first ever urban social protection programme that will see 1,500 girls – in and out of school in Kampala supported by a network of mentors, accessing services and receiving a small cash transfer to help their transition to adulthood. 

I would like to conclude with my favorite quote is It takes a village to raise a child. We are members of the global village known as the human race, let today’s reflection inspire us to protect, nurture, train and empower children. The SDGs aspiration of leaving no one behind must inform our choices and decisions to make sure we do not leave the children behind in our pursuit of prosperity and peace. What type of society will Uganda have by 2030, 2040 or 2063? It is in our hands to help build a health society, confident thanks to education and the knowledge that they are loved by all of us. On behalf of the UN in Uganda, I would like to thank World Vision and the SDG Secretariat for creating this safe space for all of us to listen to the children and reflect on their role in achieving SDGs during this last Decade of Action.

Thank you.