Ministry given ultimatum on children’s commission

The Parliamentary Committee on Social and Community Affairs has given the Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare up to July 23 to put in place the National Children Commission.

During a meeting at Parliament Building where ministry officials appeared before the committee, Principal Secretary Roselyn Makhumula said the process is at an advanced stage.

She said the ministry needs K1 billion to have the commission running.

But committee chairperson Savel Kafwafwa said Parliament enacted the National Children Commission Act in 2019 for a reason. He said the country needs the commission to help promote the welfare of children.

Said Kafwawa: “The ministry should go ahead to put in place the commission irrespective of funding challenges. Government sometimes works in arrears. So we want the commissioners to be in office. Whether they will have no money there is need to have them in office.” 

He added that it is only when the commissioners are in place that government will appreciate the need to allocate more funding for the commission.

Kafwafwa pledged the committee’s support in pushing for additional funding during the Mid-Year Budget Review.

The commission is expected to provide guidance and coordinate issues of children’s welfare, and advise government on what needs to be done. It will have eight commissioners.

Parliament passed the Bill for the establishment of the National Children’s Commission in 2019 and later government allocated K100 million annually for the operationalisation of the commission.

However the Act was said to have gaps on how commissioners and chairperson of the commission were to be appointed which saw funding returned to the Treasury.

In 2022, Parliament amended the Act to remove bottlenecks in the appointment of commissioners.