Save the Children reaffirms support for child participation in Malawi

Save the Children has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting systems and initiatives aimed at promoting child participation and ensuring children’s voices are heard in national development processes.

Save the Children Country Director for the Malawi-Zimbabwe Cluster Bhekimpilo Khanye said this during a children’s engagement meeting in Lilongwe.

Khanye said the organisation was committed to supporting platforms that enable children to participate in decision-making processes.

He said children had raised 20 key issues requiring attention, and urged stakeholders to ensure their concerns and recommendations were acted upon.

Khanye said Save the Children would continue supporting initiatives that promote child participation, saying this would help amplify children’s voices across the country.

He said: “We need to prioritize the importance of ensuring that there is no child left behind in everything that we are doing. We must also think and ensure that we are reaching those in areas that are difficult to reach, so that nobody is left behind.”

Khanye also called for stronger support to the Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare to implement child-focused initiatives sustainably.

He said such initiatives should be strengthened in a way that ensures they do not depend solely on support from Save the Children.

Meanwhile, National Children’s Alliance Chairperson Holiness Kalimbira said the Alliance was responsible for following up on issues raised by children with government and development partners, to ensure their programmes and demands were implemented.

Kalimbira said the Alliance had engaged the Ministries of Gender, Education, Science and Technology, and Finance, among others, which had assured children their concerns would be addressed by December this year.

She said the Alliance wanted children from all 12 districts to participate in presenting challenges affecting them.

She said: “We need 12 districts to be involved and participating in ensuring that children are presenting their challenges.”