UN envoy speaks on state of child rights in Tanzania

Child rights issues have in recent months hit headlines in Tanzania. Reports of abductions, raising cases of rape and witchcraft-linked killings of children have forced the government and stakeholders to come up with multi approaches to address the dangers. The Citizen’s Reporter, Syriacus Buguzi held an interview with outgoing Unicef’s Representative to Tanzania Maniza Zaman, who discusses at length on what it takes to ensure child rights are protected. Excerpts.

Qn: You have been Unicef Representative in Tanzania since January 2016. What’s your overall reflections on the status of the child rights and protection in the country?

Ans: When I look at the issue of children and child rights here in Tanzania, I like to look at it in terms of a glass half-full. When a glass has water, you can either look at it as half empty or a glass half full of water. From my perspective, let’s look at it as a glass half full because Tanzania over the years has made strong progress in child rights. For example, when you look at child survival, we have more children who are surviving when they are born than we had 20 years ago, so in terms of reducing child mortality, Tanzania has done very well. It has maintained very high rates of immunization coverage and it continues to do well. The country is also getting less and less children infected with HIV from their mothers. We are also seeing so many more children in schools, and that’s a positive thing. When it comes to child protection, there is a positive policy environment in Tanzania and I think the country is leading in the region in terms of plans and policies that support children. But, the children of Tanzania still face numerous challenges – and there are challenges in other countries too. Among the issues is undernutrition and stunting. While there has been progress over the last 15 to 20 years, there still are one in three children in Tanzania who are stunted. There are high rates of children who die in their first month of life and the country is struggling with high rates of maternal deaths. We still have 45% of the population lacking safe drinking water and this is very important for children’s health and well-being. There is also a considerable shortage of access to proper toilets. Issues of abuse of children is something of key concern, as is child marriage, teenage pregnancy and the higher vulnerability of adolescent girls to HIV infections. So it is important to come together as partners, understanding the root causes of the issues and then take action.

Qn : As a leader of Unicef in Tanzania, what has been your main role in the country’s efforts to support the welfare of children and development as a whole?

Ans: It’s difficult to talk about my role without talking about Unicef because I am part of the team. But also, Unicef is part of the broader United Nations family and in Tanzania, we work together as the One UN family. So, when I think of, what has been Unicef’s role and within that context, my role here, there are a few things. It has been about understanding the and bring evidence and data to the policy table. Unless you have the data and evidence, you don’t know the magnitude of the problem. For instance, in some parts of the country have higher rates of stunting than other parts and so you can’t go with the same approach for the entire country. Being a global organization, Unicef brings wide experience, tried and tested solutions to children’s issues and we offer these as options for the government to consider. We are there to provide technical advice and support to strengthen national and local systems on health, education etc. to deliver tangible results for children. Unicef plays a role in catalyzing broad-based partnerships for children. We can support the government to bring stakeholders around the table, analyse certain issues, have a common understanding on children’s rights and agree on what action can be taken. Here in Tanzania, we have partnerships with faith leaders, the Editors Forum, online influencers, civil society, NGOs, academia, and growing partnerships with parliamentarians and the private sector. These can impact children in a positive way. We have also worked on the decentralization process and support local government authorities to plan better and use their own resources for efficiently for children. .

Qn: After three years in Tanzania leading Unicef in advancing children agenda in the country, what do you think are your major achievement so far?

Ans: Over this period, one key achievement has been the work on birth registration. This is important because a birth certificate it is the first legal identity of the child. Previously in Tanzania the certification rate was very low -around 12 percent of children, actually having birth certificates. Over the last few years, working with government, we have managed to reach over 3.1 million children with birth certificates. This is thanks to simplifying the birth registration system, going from region to region with the government and then moving in an accelerated way with the program. Families now they know they can get a birth certificate through a one visit, one step process and this is quite an achievement. The second area is the work that Unicef has supported on combatting stunting. We have done this in partnership with others.. We have noted that in the specific geographic areas where we have focus with nutrition programmes, the rates of malnutrition have gone down. Unicef has also been catalytical in the very effective the nutrition governance system in Tanzania. Additionally, our achievements in health include improving facilities, technical training health of personnel, support to community health work and immunization. There are significant achievements in education too, from the policy to grassroots level. For example through our support hundreds of classrooms in schools in the Southern Highlands have been transformed to become more stimulating for children. We have also invested in teachers and trained them to teach in child-friendly way. In the area of child protection working on the National Plan of Action to End Violence against Children and Women and strengthen the child protection system in Tanzania has been a significant achievement. Unicef has also been consistently supporting the refugee children as part of our humanitarian work.

Qn: We believe it hasn’t been an easy task. Tell us about the moments you felt there were barriers as you implemented strategies for children’s welfare here in Tanzania. And, how did you surmount those barriers?

Ans: For me, I feel that a job that is worth doing is not always going to be easy -—in any country. I don’t really think of barriers; I think of overcoming challenges. One of them is resources. Do I have resources to do what I have to do? Its often about making hard choices. And when resources are inadequate, we really need to be innovative. Secondly, in Tanzania the number of children is growing very fast. Children are half of the population. To serve these children we need a large number of health personnel, teachers, social workers and others. That has been a challenge.

The third has been some of the negative social norms that affect children. It was painful when I heard of cases of abuse in Njombe and Mbeya recently. We have to right this wrong. Children are innocent. They have rights. This message is urgent and needs to be repeated by a wide variety of influencers as these social norms are deep rooted. This is not only as issue in Tanzania - I have seen it in other countries. So, to summarize these are the issues that have kept me awake as barriers or rather challenges, if you wish.

Qn: Local human rights organizations have recently pointed out that children are increasingly being abused and deprived of their basic rights. What do you think is the best strategy to get to the crux of this problem?

Ans: I am aware of the report and there are dimensions to tackle. It is helpful to consider one issue. When society gets to know about such injustices and understand them as wrong, you can an upsurge in reporting. But increasing reports does not necessarily mean rising incidence. What this actually means is that people are becoming more aware of the abuses, feel they need to report and that there are systems in place where people can go and report issues. Notwithstanding all this, even one case of child abuse is not acceptable.

To the question of strategy? I think, here we have to go back to the fundamentals of families and the community. Often the perpetrators of violence and abuse against children are those in positions of trust who are very close to the children. It’s sad to say they are at times relatives, neighbours and in personnel in schools.

That’s why we have to go to the communities and start a movement there. We have to think of what are the positive Tanzanian values and ways of protecting children and promote those and build on that. As this is done, a second area has to be very strong - is law enforcement. If something happens to a child you have absolutely clear that the perpetrator will be punished. At times no action is taken against the perpetrators. People try to solve these things in a “family way”. You can’t solve these in a family way. People have to know that any form of child abuse is absolutely not acceptable. .

Qn: The years you have been in office (here in Tanzania) are concurrent with the years when there was a huge outcry over the teenage mothers being deprived of their right to full education, such as not being allowed to proceed with public school in case they get pregnant. First of all, what was your first reaction when President Magufuli announced that girls who become pregnant in school, must not be allowed to continue in public schools?

Ans: I thought about the Convention of the Rights of the Child, which guides Unicef’s work and the multiple rights that every child has to survival, growth, education, protection and participation. I thought about the dilemma at individual level and how the girls might be feeling at a human level. Then, I thought about what , Unicef’s role can be with partners to ensure that the children’s multiple rights are protected.

Qn: What steps did you take immediately after the announcement was made?

Ans: It was a process of trying to understand, with a perspective, the different policy issues that governments come up with. I really want to emphasize that you have to first understand what’s at the core of any policy decision. What are different people thinking about this whole issue? I think this approach is helpful in the long run than jump into a reactive mode. In Tanzania, there are children who are out of school for a number of other reasons, whether it’s because of poverty, disability, distance or because they lack resources to go to school. While continuing the policy dialogue, Unicef, worked with other partners, to look into practical solutions and alternative pathways to help children get to schools. With the Ministry of Education, we have now an ongoing integrated programme that can help get children into school or pursue others streams such as vocational training if the children, for very specific reasons, cannot go to the mainstream education system.

Qn: Did you think of talking to the president? Or you wish you should have talked to him?

Ans: [Laughs abit]...You know advocacy and conversation take place at many levels. If we had a chance to talk to His Excellency the president we would talk about many different issues to do with child rights.

As I said, we would discuss both the positive areas of progress in Tanzania but also the areas we can do more for children’s rights. So, certainly, had there been an opportunity, it would be a welcome opportunity. What we regularly do is dialogue and conversations with other ministers, including the Honourable Minister of Education and the Honourable Minister of Health. Unicef, with partners, has been working an integrated plan for the wellbeing of adolescents, which includes a component to prevent teenage pregnancies. So a focus on ending teenage pregnancies is also very important as much as a response to out-of-school children and adolescents.