By Akani Nkuna
Children must be involved in formulating policies that affect them, according to delegates attending the Africa Children’s Summit in Johannesburg.
Delivering the keynote address, Social Development Minister Sisisi Tolashe said the summit must create a platform to agitate for accelerated action needed to realise the full enjoyment of human rights and freedoms for all children in Africa.
“Because it is led by you children, it gives you a collective voice to share your views and hold African leaders and governments to account on key issues affecting you. These include democracy, emerging technologies and climate change, promoting inclusive education for all children, the role of artificial intelligence in education, addressing school violence, gender-based violence and violence against children…,” Tolashe said.
The meeting, organised by Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and the Social Development Department, brought together 1300 children from across five African regions.
It follows the inaugural summit in Nairobi in Kenya in 2023, with an emphasis on the importance of children’s agency under the theme: “Nothing about us with us”.
Tolashe said children in sub-Saharan Africa faced increasing risks due to the climate crisis, population shifts and technological inequality.
Many children were denied quality education, were pushed into child labour, conflict or early marriage. Illiteracy remained a major barrier, trapping the continent in poverty despite its rich human and natural resources, the minister said.
“The key to… interventions is the need to promote child participation by listening, hearing and engaging the voices of our children, as per the recommendations of both the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child,” Tolashe said.
Child president of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Parliament, Dikgang Morudu, told the summit that children must be recognised as key stakeholders since policies directly impacted their lives.
“We cannot celebrate the inclusion when most decisions are made without us. We cannot praise participation when children are brought into programmes for decorations and not transformation. We cannot smooth talk about child-led advocacy when the platform is only given after the plan has fallen into place,” said Morudu.
Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund CEO Linda Ncube-Nkomo stressed the need to prioritise children in national budgeting.
She advocated for increased funding to support their development and well-being, underscoring the importance of investing in the next generation.
“When budgets are being allocated, we need to be asking how much of this budget is going towards the children… We need to make sure that the money that is allocated for [gender-based] violence has got to be a significant portion that going towards the issues that affect children,” Ncube-Nkomo said.
The summit ends on Monday.
INSIDE EDUCATION
