CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Countries throughout the world have begun to systematically reform their child protection systems. This process has involved moving from an issue/response approach towards the creation of a protective environment and strengthening the child protection system. The Federal Government of Nigeria decided in 2010 to be part of this global and regional initiative. As such Lagos state decided to be part of a pilot test to map and assess the existing components of the system. Child Frontiers was recruited to undertake the mapping and assessment of the current child protection system in Lagos State. After that assessment was completed in 2013, USAID agreed to support the mapping and assessment of the child protection system in an additional six States of Nigeria: Benue, Edo, FCT, Kaduna, Kano and Plateau. USAID agreed to support CapacityPlus (part of IntraHealth International) and UNICEF to oversee the mapping/assessment in the six states. CapacityPlus coordinated logistics, administration and application; UNICEF oversaw programmatic issues. The Ministries of Women Affairs and Social Development in each of the states and the Social Development Secretariat in FCT enthusiastically supported the initiative.
UNICEF, CapacityPlus and USAID approached Maestral International to provide technical assistance to carry out the mapping and assessment in Nigeria. 3 Maestral has mapped and assessed child protection systems in many countries, particularly those in east and southern Africa, using the Mapping and Assessment Toolkit and methodology it developed at the request of UNICEF.
1.1 The Child Protection Mapping and Assessment Toolkit
The Toolkit provides a practical method to enable participants to identify the main country child protection risks and gaps within a child rights framework, and to examine the structure, functions and capacity of the existing child protection system (both formal and informal, national and sub-national), the continuum of care, accountability mechanisms and resource mobilization approaches. The Toolkit is an Excel-based instrument to gather information about all aspects of a country or state’s child protection system. The toolkit consists of 22 tools divided into five main sections (General Country Information, System Overview, Child Protection Continuum of Care, Resource Mobilization and Fiscal Accountability, and Summary and Strategies).
The Toolkit primarily gathers existing secondary data, supplemented with interviews of key informants and focus group discussions. 4In addition, the Toolkit is linked to many data sources providing information about child protection systems in general and about each country’s child protection system specifically. As the system is mapped, the Toolkit enables participants to identify system building priorities (recommendations) that are needed to address the main gaps that have been identified.
1.2 Objectives and Process
The main objective of the mapping and assessment is to identify the major gaps in the current child protection system in each state, which will provide the basis for specific suggestions on how to improve the existing child protection system at the state and LGA level. The mapping and assessment also includes a public financial review of all child protection related services and expenditures in all relevant ministries in each state which will be used as an advocacy tool to increase public allocation and expenditure for child protection services.
The findings of the assessment will also be used as a mechanism to promote better coordination among partners to optimize their support to the development of each state’s child protection system. In particular the findings will be used to determine the extent to which services are appropriate for and are reaching the most vulnerable children, the quality of such services and the extent to which the services are gender sensitive. This information will assist Nigerian state governments and partners to increase access and improve quality of service delivery for vulnerable children. The assessment will also identify areas in which the Nigerian state governments require capacity building to fulfil their obligations as duty bearers. The findings will furthermore be used to determine government expenditures on child protection services and the extent to which state governments are using evidence-based arguments in their efforts to increase the budget allocations for child protection.
The mapping and assessment uses a collaborative, inclusive and transparent methodology in which stakeholders throughout the child protection system participate in a Technical Working Group to reach consensus about the strengths and weaknesses in the child protection system, and to develop a strategy for reform. The Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development (MWASD) in each state (Social Development Secretariat in FCT) is the lead child protection ministry and led the initiative in their respective state. Other government ministries and agencies (e.g. Planning, Justice, Police, NAPTIP, Health, Education), non-government organizations (e.g. Child Protection Network), and representatives of the formal and informal sectors participated in the mapping/assessment process.
The mapping and assessment in the six states of Nigeria was completed in ten months beginning in September 2013 with an orientation workshop until the completion of the state strategic action plan for each state in June 2014. This was the first time that mapping and assessment of so many states was carried out in one country anywhere in the world.
1.3 Information Gathered
The mapping and assessment of six states in Nigeria gathered an enormous amount of information about the child protection system in those states. Although much data are available at a national level describing the risks children face, many key indicators needed for planning to improve the child protection system at the state level are unavailable such as the number or percentage of children with disabilities, trafficked children, child marriage and the urban/rural breakdown for birth registration.
The information that was gathered revealed or confirmed many of the priority issues and gaps that need to be addressed to strengthen the child protection system in the six states. The National Priority Agenda for Vulnerable Children in Nigeria 2013-2020 reported that over 50% of the population lives in poverty defined as less than $1.25 per day.5 By some accounts, the percentage of people living in poverty has increased in the recent years.6 Nationally, children’s well-being is compromised in many ways—the 2008 Situation Analysis and Assessment of OVC in Nigeria reported that 17.5 million children could be categorized as OVC and an estimated 7.3 million had lost one or both parents.7 Benue has the highest percentage of orphans (25%).8 The Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey DHS 2008 report estimated that 12% of children in Nigeria are not living with one or both parents.9 Thirty nine percent of children ages 5-14 are engaged in child Labor. Approximately 40% of children do not attend primary school, and as many as 40% of children may have been trafficked.
The risk situations in the six states are similar though conditions vary by states. For example, poverty is more extreme in the northern states of Kaduna, Kano and Plateau than in the southern states of Benue, Edo and FCT. Emergency conditions in the northern states increase the risk for children there as well.
Similarities and significant differences characterize the current child protection system in the six states. Two of the northern states, Kano and Kaduna have not domesticated the federal Child Rights Act passed in 2003 (#26) which was passed to conform to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. Benue, Edo, Plateau and FCT, which have domesticated the Child Rights Act, report that the law has not been adequately implemented and lack regulations and policies to protect the rights of women and children.
All of the six states report having significant gaps in the horizontal coordination between the lead ministry for child protection, the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development (Social Development Secretariat in FCT) and other state-level ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) that are involved in child protection. In addition, there are significant gaps in the vertical monitoring and coordination between the MWASD with the Local Government Agencies (LGAs) and community service agencies. There is a similar lack of monitoring and coordination between SDS in FCT and local area councils and community service agencies.
All states report a shortage of trained, professional social workers both within the MWASD to oversee and create appropriate policies for the child protection system, and within community service organizations to provide family assessments and case management for vulnerable children and families. Social workers are also needed to provide the wide range of social services which are not adequately available in each of the states including but not limited to a well-functioning juvenile judicial system with an effective Family Court; alternative care placements including emergency shelters; family support programs and psychosocial counseling. A child protection system that focuses on prevention is another gap consistent across the six states.
All states report that their general population does not have adequate awareness of child protection issues, including knowledge of children’s rights, what constitutes child abuse and awareness of a citizen’s responsibility to report abuse. Similarly almost all states report a gap in community awareness of the harm caused by widespread cultural practices such as FGMC, child marriage and belief in witches and wizards.
Three inter-related problems regarding funding for child protection were also identified by all states. First, child protection is not a designated category in the budget of any of the states, making planning difficult. Second, the allocated budget for child protection in each state is not adequate to address the many systemic child protection problems. But more important at the moment, the MWASD in each state and SDS in FCT generally expends only a small percentage of the funds allocated for child protection.
The mapping and assessment of the child protection system in each of the six states identified these and other issues and gaps. A Technical Working Group in each state, composed of a broad range of representatives of government and non-government, state and local child protection stakeholders, identified broad strategies and activities to remedy these gaps. This report presents the process the states followed to map and assess its child protection system, describes the most significant gaps and presents feasible strategies and activities developed to remedy the gaps in the child protection system.
