Bridging The Efforts In Child Protection

1.Research Background and SignificanceChild protection is the prevention of and response to abuse,neglect,exploitation,and violence against children,who are defined under international law as people less than 18 years of age.A number of empirical studies on child protection have recommended the need to strengthen linkages among child protection systems.The state led(formal)and non-state led(informal)child protection systems address a variety of vulnerabilities and risks faced by children.The state led(formal)systems of child protection are usually government driven(at national,sub-national or local level)while non-state led(informal)systems of child protection are usually independently driven(at community based level).The need to strengthen linkages among child protection systems has frequently topped discussions on the child protection agenda in the contemporary society because of the inherent advantages associated.Collaborations between the state led and non-state led child protection actors often leads to improved child protection outcomes,and a strengthened relationship among child protection actors promotes greater relevance of their child protection interventions.This study is hoped to contribute greatly to the body of research in the area of child protection.The socio-metric analysis(network analysis)was used for understanding this study.According to the social network analysis,relationships exist within the state led(formal)child protection systems and these relationships are usually position-specific.It is only those actors who are members of an organization or hold particular formally defined positions to be network members and all others would be excluded.According to the social network analysis,relationships also exist within the non state led(informal)child protection systems and these relationships are usually relation-specific.They are normally based on common interests such as belonging to the same political party,clan,tribe,and so on.Children are delinked to the non state led child protection systems.This is because they have to belong to a recognized entity in order to interact with the government.The apparent ties that exist between children and the child protection system in place are of directed nature.Directed ties can either exist in only one direction or they can be reciprocated.The most existing relationships between the state led and non-state led child protection systems in Uganda are largely informal,small scale and irregular;and they are usually based on exchanges or transfers.2.Research Objectives and MethodologyThe main objective of the study was therefore to understand how linkages between the state led(formal)and non-state led(informal)systems of child protection can be better strengthened to jointly respond to the needs of children.The findings from the study are hoped to guide policy interventions in(i)building connections between civil society and a range of government structures,institutions and actors working on behalf of children;and(ii)improving service provision for children.The study adopted a cross—sectional research design.Both the qualitative and quantitative approaches to research were used,but the qualitative approach to research was largely employed.The qualitative approach to research was largely used because it deals with human conduct and motivation especially in the area of relationships which cannot be captured by the quantitative approach.Both primary and secondary data was collected.Primary data was obtained from the child protection actors both for the state led(formal)and non-state led child protection systems.Secondary data was gathered from different reports and other published documents related to the study.A total of 130 respondents were involved in the study.These included 36 state led actors and 94 non-state led actors(of these,36 were child single mothers)who were purposively selected.The methods of data collection included personal interviewing(face to face interactions with individual respondents),document review,focus group discussions and field observations from which both qualitative and quantitative data was collected.The field research tools included the interview guides(for state led and non-state led child protection actors minus children)and a semi-structure questionnaire for children(child single mothers in particular).The data processing stage involved editing,coding,tabulation and data cleaning.Analysis of qualitative data was through content and thematic analysis,and statistical analysis was done using a computerized programme SPSS and more manipulations with the use of Ms Excel in drawing graphs.There were some ethical considerations which included seeking permission from relevant authorities and validation of the research tools by the supervisor before data collection.Quality control was given serious consideration at all stages of the study.3.Research Findings and DiscussionsThe findings of the study revealed that relationships existed among the state led and non state led child protection systems.The relationships overall were good.The state led child protection actors reported working together in cooperation with the non state led child protection actors.The non state led child protection systems remain inextricably linked to the government.However,at times,the findings confirmed that the failure of government to protect the interests of the non state led child protection systems creates circumstances under which the disappointment of the grassroots people and their consequent separation from the process of governance has become quite visible.The actual linkage or relation among the two child protection systems was more on information or knowledge exchange.This is in agreement with Borgatti et al.(2009)who noted that the relationships between state led and non-state led actors are usually based on exchanges or transfers.But there were some few instances of service provision linkages as well.The roles played by the state led and non state led child protection systems in regard to these two types of linkages were explored.For instance,under the information or knowledge exchange linkages,the state led child protection systems were responsible for;research on child protection issues,trainings on children protection,awareness raising campaigns on children's rights,monitoring child protection activities,community policing,providing toll free numbers for the public to report child abuse and exploitation cases,scheduling meetings to attend to children affairs and also attending to other actors' call for meetings.The roles of the non state led child protection systems in this regara inciudea:Reporting of chinaren abuses ana exploitation cases;Througn their advocacy role,they identify unaddressed problems and bring them to the government attention;Carrying out press conferences,workshops,meetings,research,lobbying members of parliament,campaigns,trainings,among other activities to bring children issues to the government's attention and the public as a whole.The findings revealed that the two identified linkages or relations among the state led and non state led child protection systems were largely related to or based on work(duties and responsibilities).Both systems were mutually dependent but the state led system of child protection has a greater share of power and responsibilities in terms of children protection.As Haider and Mcloughlin(2016)noted,states and societies are both mutually dependent and mutually constitutive,but the government as a lead body is responsible for the protection of its citizens.AWEC(2007)pointed out that usually,the requirements of both parties formulate the type of relation they have.The areas of child protection collaboration between the state and non state led systems were quite diverse.To mention but a few,these included,school drop out of children,early pregnancies,domestic violence,drug and substance abuse,immunization of children,sanitation and hygiene of the village.Respondents reported a positive attitude towards child protection collaboration to a greater extent,and the opinion towards each other's cooperation was reported as good to a larger extent.The government at both the national and local level remains the primary source of funding for the grassroots interventions,supporting programmes to assist rural communities.However,findings from Kasokoso village provided no evidence of the significance of the government as a funder for local interventions.What is apparent is the opening up of space for increasing interactions with the grassroots people so far as implementing government programmes is concerned.Interaction was mainly through meetings.Other ways included,through media(radios and televisions),carrying out campaigns or marathons,trainings,utilizing social gatherings such as speech days at schools,transact movements in the community-door to door checking on villagers and dissemination or pinning of circulars with important information.The experience of work with each other captured a lot of emotions that varied from good to bad.State led child protection actors reported that at most times,their interests on children or plans for children converge with the expectations of the non state led child protection actors which smoothens the relationship between the two systems.In cases where the interests between the state led and non state led child protection actors diverge,disagreements come to the forefront.Collaboration influenced both positively and negatively to the way of executing child protection duties.The findings revealed a positive influence on actors' work performance to a greater extent.This is in agreement with Jones et al.(2012),who acknowledged that linkages can improve the quality of care and or protection given to children instead of the different actors competing for the scarce resources and or duplicating the services they give to children.Respondents considered a number of factors favouring collaborations between the state led and non state led systems of child protection.These included,proximity(of offices),availability of resources(for example,time,money and personnel),good customer care(image and reputation and especially in terms of service provision),timely response to issues(interest in other actors concerns),information sharing,trust,execution of own roles and duties very well(experience),knowing and respecting other actors7 roles and responsibilities,good communication skills(for example,active listening),stability in the village and unity in the village itself.When these factors were analyzed collectively,on the whole,good customer care(image and reputation and especially in terms of service provision)emerged as the most enabling factor for collaboration between the state led and non state led child protection systems.In offering services,customer care is very important because it builds trust.But when factors were analyzed independently for each system(state led versus non state led),non-state led child protection actors reported proximity(of offices)as the main facilitating factor for relationships with the state led child protection actors;while state led child protection actors reported knowing and respecting other actors' roles and responsibilities as the main enabling factor for collaboration with non-state child protection actors.The examples of successful collaborations were few but captivating.Respondents considered a number of barriers to effective cooperation between the state led and non state led systems of child protection.These included,corruption,heterogeneity of the population in the area,scarcity of resources(for example,time,money and personnel),bad customer care,conflicting loyalties,delays in service delivery,long distances to offices,different personalities of child protection actors,lack of motivation(for example,low salaries),lack of qualification for the positions held,illiteracy,lack of information on some village inhabitants,higher chargers for services,having a bad image or record in the community,lack of knowledge on roles and responsibilities of actors,language barrier and poor communication skills.When these barriers were analyzed collectively,the findings revealed that scarcity of resources is a major impediment to effective cooperation between the state led and non state led systems of child protection on the whole.But when barriers were analyzed independently for each system(state led versus non state led);the findings revealed that non state led child protection actors considered corruption as the main barrier hindering their effective collaboration with the state led child protection actors,while state led child protection actors reported scarcity of resources as the main constraint hindering the formation of solid relationships with the grassroots relevant actors.Research from other scholars also reported similar evidences on barriers to effective cooperation.Alesina and La Ferrara(2000)noted that individuals might simply dislike working with others outside their group.Bandiera,Barankay and Rasul(2005)added that heterogeneity along the lines of ethnicity,religion and social class is generally found to be detrimental to cooperation.The authors further argued that heterogeneous communities find it hard to agree on the characteristics of the common good and are therefore less likely to cooperate in its provision(Bandiera,Barankay and Rasul,2005).Weller(2014)also argued that failure(s)in communication between actors hinders teamwork and thus leading to poor cooperation.Finkelhor and Lannen(2014)noted that governments are sometimes difficult to influence and slow to move.Respondents mentioned a number of ways on how to enhance solid linkages among state led and non-state led systems of child protection.These included;financial support and especially for state led child protection systems,trust,good execution of roles and responsibilities by the actors,respect of each other's roles and responsibilities,refresher courses on(i)children's hurt and protection,and(ii)stakeholders or actors involved in children affairs,their roles and responsibities),information snaring ana putting God as the founaation of the reiationships rather than monetary benefits.The findings also revealed a number of measures to keep children safe.These included,sensitization of the general public on children's rights,teaching parents parenting skills,emphasizing formal education of children,strict laws concerning children issues,and so on.4.Conclusionsand RecommendationsThis study has shown that bridging the efforts in child protection is associated with a number of factors.It is the interweaving and interplays of these various factors that spur collaborative activity among child protection actors.This cannot be reduced to a simple formula of government or particular institutions and organizations.Research has revealed that any collaborative activity between the state led and non-state led child protection actors will have been generated,consolidated and implemented by some of these factors functioning together.The nature of the work they do obviously allows them to interlink.Another important observation was the competing reasons on actors' involvement with each other.Non state led child protection actors reported proximity(of offices)as the main facilitating factor for cooperation with the state led child protection actors because local people always value the importance of proximity to resources,as it facilitates easier utilization of services by the local populace.Seppelt(2007)noted that a short distance to resources attracts users and thus promotes collaboration.State led actors reported knowing and respecting other actors' roles and responsibilities as the main enabling factor for collaboration because their work is normally based on positions of responsibility,such as who is responsible for what.This enables them to know who to contact for what kind of activity.Brault(2014)noted that role clarity is important for integration.Relationships among the state led and non state led child protection actors are continuously being shaped and reshaped.Where there is unfairness and or divided interests,the relationships cease to exist or will not function properly.Usually the actors will need to take measures to sustain their relationships.The development and enhancement of relationships among actors essentially involves interactions,through which they achieve their objectives and satisfy their needs.If such a kind of mutually beneficial and win-win situation can be sustained,the actors will continue interacting.If this cannot be sustained to a certain extent,interactions among actors will be reduced or ended.Meetings are important interaction channels and they show us the importance of interactions in building relationships.Unless built on some kind of solid trust,most relationships cannot escape away from disagreements.Relationships are dynamic and keep on changing.Connections among actors can be weakened or can fade away due to non-operation for a long time,but can also be improved and concretized due to intensive operations.Translating collaboration commitments into action is much weaker at implementation level despite the evidence of synergies between the government and non state led systems of child protection from the study findings.There was a low absorption of the children needs in Kasokoso village by the child protection system in place.Reliance on family members emerged as a prominent source of financial support for child single mothers with money provided for critical expenses such as health care and education.This research suggests that informal safety nets do still play a role in protecting children from the worst forms of child protection deficits.Although in the context of growing urbanization and modernization,these traditional systems and values have weakened in Uganda.There is often erosion of collective responsibility in corrupt and resource constrained situations.Corruption normally affects the quality of services received and makes people lack faith and trust in their government.And it is true that normally for the success of any intervention,resources have to be at the center of the continuum,although collaboration is meant to mitigate on the challenges of meager resources.This study recommends the following concerted actions to achieve mutual cooperation of the state led and non state led child protection systems.These include:understanding the types of actors involved in collaboration;resource availability,possession and distribution;information exchange;building relationships on trust,and work experience of child protection actors.A very important challenge for the analysis of the actors' cooperation refers to the understanding of the role of formal and informal actors that support such actions,since in some cases these organizations exist only on paper and cooperation occurs spontaneously.Although strengthening linkages among child protection actors is often associated with activities carried out by the government,according to Ostrom(2004),more attention should also be accorded to informal collective action,where local networks or local groups of people organize and coordinate local action in order to achieve specific short term purposes.In rural development,knowledge of local communities play a pivotal role.The state led and non-state led systems of child protection vary considerably in capacity,so government should recognize the rate at which informal actors are able to absorb and take ownership of new initiatives.It is significant to understand the types of actors involved in collaboration,for example,the way they operate,activities engaged in,and so on.Some actors have little resources and authority at their disposal but this does not mean that they are subject to directives that emanate from actors with higher authority and adequate resources.The state and society structural relationship is complex,and can be understood in different perspectives.When we study how to strengthen linkages among actors;the availability,flow and possession of resources within and among the child protection systems is a subject for analysis.Information plays a critical role in decision making and development of ideas.Judgment concerning the reliability of information is important for undertaking and or participating in activities.It is trust that sustains the continuous existence and operation of a relationship,not the contracts or partnership agreements.When people make decisions to undertake initiatives,trust will always be a consideration in its implementation and outcome(Jingzhong,2002).Knowledge and work experience are the critical ingredients to the entire process of the actors' engagements.Respect for one another and having God as the foundation of the relationship are equally important suggestions for honorary mention as revealed by the study findings.The take home message is that,in order to strengthen linkages among the child protection systems,government must intensify activities that require actor's engagements so as to maintain dialogue with non-state actors especially.