Zorena Jantze
NAMIBIA is ranked very high in Africa in terms of its commitment to protecting the rights of children, especially young girls.
Namibia is ranked at number seven out of 52 African countries according to the 2020 Africa Child Wellbeing report.
This was revealed at an Inter-ministerial dialogue to end Violence Against Children (VAC) in Namibia.
Speaking at the event, Minister of Gender Equality, Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare, Doreen Sioka noted that in 2019 the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare in an effort to develop evidence-based responses/policies conducted a survey on Violence against Children.
The survey report, which recently received Cabinet approval, indicates that nearly two out of five females (39.6%) and males (45.0%) aged 18-24 years experienced physical, sexual, or emotional violence in childhood.
The most common form of violence is emotional violence with 39.3% girls and 30.0% boys experiencing emotional violence inflicted by peers, while children continue to experience corporal punishment both in the home and school setting.
The survey furthermore found that 7.3% of boys and 11.8% of girls have experienced sexual violence before they turned 18 years. Intimate partners are the perpetrators of sexual violence for both males (33.4%) and females (28.9%).
With 39.3% girls and 30.0% boys experiencing emotional violence inflicted by peers (bullying), this is the most common form of violence experienced by children and a major source of concern in Namibia
Sioka stated that it is against this background that the Ministry mobilized support from key stakeholders to address violence against children.
She further explained that the National Plan of Action on violence against children was developed in consultation with technical inputs from various Ministries, NGOs as well as development partners.
Giving commentary on the matter members from different stakeholder ministries, and institutions raised concerns on the country’s escalating girl child pregnancies, with over 3800 school-going girls falling pregnant last year during the lockdown period. It was noted that more needs to be done legislatively on what will happen to adult males that impregnate girls. It was further raised that government will make a budgetary allocation to all schools for the provision of sanitary pads for marginalized school-going girls.
