COUNTRY REPORT – UGANDA



Chapters:

1. Introduction
2. Political context
3. Meeting stakeholders in Kampala and field trip to Mbale, east Uganda
4. Closing workshop in Kampala
5. Conclusion – highlights and challenges/recommendations


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1. INTRODUCTION

Uganda has implemented a number of legal instruments that recognize the rights of children at national, regional as well as international level. However, there are wide disparities between the normative standards guaranteed by the enacted legislation for the protection of child rights and the situation on the ground. Deeply rooted cultural factors and lack of education among the inhabitants of the rural areas hamper awareness of one´s rights and enforcement of the law.

Children, along with women, thus continue to be vulnerable to exploitation, mistreatment and abuse. The social norm, as highlighted by many individuals the Africa Tour delegation met, is that a child is born to help parents secure their household; anything else comes as secondary.

And yet, working minors are not as commonly visible in Uganda as in the delegation´s previous destinations. The most frequently encountered scene in urban areas was begging Karamojong children.

Karamojong people are pastoralists living in an impoverished north-eastern Uganda where cattle rustling and other crimes are rampant. Largely malnourished Karamojong children are forced by their parents or traffickers to beg in towns for food and money.

HIV/AIDS factor

According to the 2006 UNICEF survey, 34 percent of Ugandan children are engaged in work. HIV/AIDS pandemic has drastically contributed to the increasing numbers of children that not only have to tend to their younger siblings but also become breadwinners themselves.

Death of both parents almost automatically means that dropping out of school and engaging in child labour soon follows. Girls are more likely to be pulled out of school to assist their family members.

According to the Uganda´s 2002 Census Report, about 88 percent of Ugandans live in rural areas and only 12 percent in urban zones. As admitted by the government itself, “children represent a substantial part of the labour force in agriculture.” A family´s survival often relies on children´s contribution to their meager budget.

The very same census also reported total literacy of 66.8 percent with 76.8 percent of male population and 57.7 percent of female population being literate. Typical of a poor African country, cultural norms and gender inequalities determine preference of boys´ education over that of girls.

Closing workshop

The Uganda program for the Africa Tour 2008 delegation was organized by CESVI, Italian partner of Alliance 2015, and Kids in Need organization-a local NGO that rehabilitates street children and child labourers, providing them with basic needs, education, skills training and reintegrates them into their communities if possible.

The closing workshop, which took place in Kampala, was attended by various international and local NGOs and humanitarian workers, including UNICEF representative Gary Ovington, Harriet Luyima, Commissioner for Labour and Industrial Relations from Uganda´s Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, academics, local media also attended including a private TV station which ran a story on the workshop in the evening news the same day.


2. POLITICAL CONTEXT

In the 1970s and 1980s Uganda became infamous for its protracted civil war, armed conflicts and human rights violations. First it was the military rule of idiosyncratic dictator Idi Amin that plagued the nation. Then it was Milton Obote´s government that also claimed thousands of lives. During this period around half a million Ugandans were murdered in state-sponsored violence.

Since 1986 when the erstwhile armed resistance’s headman Yoweri Museweni became president of Uganda, the country has experienced relative stability and economic growth. His rule has also been credited with improving the state of human rights in the country, although serious reservations remain.

The 1995 Constitution, adopted under Museweni, fully recognizes rights and freedoms of children. In 2004 the Ugandan government adopted Children´s Act that specifically protects children´s rights, stating that “basic education is a human right”.

However, not all is well in Uganda. Despite the fact that the violence and massacres committed by cult-like Lord´s Resistance Army (LRA) in the north of Uganda for two decades are over (ceasefire holds since 2006, although the peace deal has not yet been signed), the northern part of the country still remains stuck in a humanitarian crisis with hundreds of thousands internally displaced Ugandans living in camps that lack basic facilities.

The unsettled situation in the north has made international donors, including UNICEF and The World Food Program, redirect their aid there, resulting in the sudden lack of funds in social services, particularly in the education sphere which in turn has slowed down the development of the rest of the country.


1. MEETING STAKEHOLDERS IN KAMPALA AND FIELD TRIP TO MBALE, NORTH-EAST UGANDA

I. National Council for Children

At the beginning of the first working day of the tour’s stop in Uganda an orientation meeting was held at CESVI office where Mr. Stephen Asiimwe, coordinator and advocacy officer of the local NGO Kids in Need (KIN) and the delegation’s principal guide (together with CESVI’s information officer Ms. Lillian Mboijana) presented the program for the next five days.

The very first meeting was held the same morning at the National Council for Children’s (NCC) office at the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development. Secretary General of NCC Ms. Joyce Otim-Nape first gave the delegation an overview of the council’s role and objectives before engaging in a discussion about the child labour situation and government policies in the respective delegates’ countries.

Speaking in very frank terms, she admitted the situation in Uganda was serious with up to a half of the pre-adult population (which in itself constitutes an overall majority in the country) engaged in child labour, according to the latest statistics. The number has been stagnating for quite some time now, which has prompted the government to start working on a national action plan, Ms. Nape further intimated.

“We need to do more,” the NCC head said. “The best response, of course, is to take them to school and keep them there, but the problem is if we send them there empty-handed, they will not stand.”

The economic difficulties were to be brought up repeatedly in later meetings as an alleged major factor underpinning the child labour in Uganda. The situation is further aggravated by a large number of orphans who have lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS, often times having to take over the responsibility for their younger siblings.

Ms. Nape also admitted that a wide gap exists between what is written in the laws and the reality on the ground with law enforcers largely unknowledgeable about child rights and (child) labour inspectors non-existent in many districts despite the existing obligation.

The NCC has been pushing for strengthening of its powers which are very limited at the moment and mostly restrict the organ into a role of a communicating body without any actual implementation capabilities.

A suggestion was raised during the following discussion by the Africa Tour delegation member Mr. Driss El Youbi to forge closer links between the NCC and the teacher’s union in Uganda as the Moroccan example has showed that teachers are best placed to monitor (and prevent) child labour. Ms. Nape took this as a proposal, which she promised to act upon.

II. Kids in Need – safety net

The rest of the day has been spent visiting various facilities and projects run by the Kids in Need (KIN). This Kampala-based NGO has been helping street children since 1996; in the process becoming the biggest organization of its kind in the country where a large portion of its overall young population represents KIN’s potential clients.

The program for the day started symbolically where KIN itself traces its beginnings – in Mengo Kisenyi slum area, headquarters of the organization and also rehabilitation center for boys.


Radha Koirala meeting boys in KIN boys´ rehabilitation center

The delegation sat down for an introductory talk with Mr. Asiimwe and his colleague Mr. Godfrey Musisi, social worker at the center who also presented three members of a local music band recruited from among the center’s former and current clients. The boys are now part of the KIN’s outreach programme, giving concerts in schools and at various awareness-raising events.

Delegates then got an opportunity to interact with children of various age-groups who were present for educational activities at the center. These seemed to be run in the spirit of the bridge schools, which the MV Foundation and its allies has been successfully championing in India as a preferred adjustment program for the former child labourers returning (or going for the first time) to schools.

The picture was then completed by a visit at KIN’s rehabilitation and vocational skills training center for girls in Nansana, just outside Kampala. While naturally reserved, or even shy, quite understandably - given the circumstances of their stay, a few girls expressed determination to set up their own tailoring or weaving shops in the future with the newly acquired skills.


Some of the KIN girls expressed their desire to set up their own tailoring studios

The last part of the day’s program was a meeting with the group of middle-aged ladies in one of Kampala’s poorer neighborhoods where KIN developed a small livelihood/income-generating scheme to help its clients, mostly widowed HIV-positive mothers of school-age children, support themselves and their offspring.

Interestingly, the leader of this small bead-making group, who herself did not finish primary education, intimated in a non-formal sit-and-talk session that she sends six of her seven children to school (the seventh being a toddler) to “make sure their lives will be better than mine”. She also had some critical things to say about the quality of education in public schools and expressed belief that the problems start with underpaid teachers.

Her colleague then shared with the delegation her life’s story which was a testimony of mistreatment and discrimination that women in Uganda (especially in the rural areas) face. She came to Kampala to make a living for herself and her children after the relatives of her late husband drove her off the land which belonged to him (and her, by default). Thanks to the project of KIN she now makes enough to sustain her small family.

This particular aspect of KIN’s work – i.e. working with the most vulnerable sections of society – children and their mothers – who find themselves in precarious situations not of their own making, more than anything else fortifies its position as an indispensable engine for social justice for the most desperate who would otherwise be most likely left to themselves by the system.



The Africa Tour delegation a sit-and-talk session with widowed HIV-positive mothers

III. UYDEL – against worst forms of child exploitation

The next day the delegation visited the office of Uganda Youth Development Link (UYDEL), a local NGO with a similar tack as KIN and even longer history (in existence since 1993). The welcoming duo of programme/project coordinators Ms. Regina Kacwamu and Ms. Anna Nabulya gave the delegation a run-down of their organization’s activities with a special focus on the fight against commercial sexual exploitation of children.

Nowadays, the problem concerns at least 12 thousand minors in Uganda according to the UYDEL. Often times, Ms. Kacwamu explained, domestic servants who quit their jobs, unable to cope with the work, end up in the street, exposing themselves to all the risks of sexual and other exploitation. There has lately been a case of a small boy trafficked outside of the country under the false pretense of adoption so that his kidney could be removed and sold. The boy died.

The UYDEL workers see the problem both in the lack of laws against child trafficking in Uganda and also in the weak enforcement of the existing legal norms.

Despite the challenges, the UYDEL takes pride in having served countless clients by withdrawing them from hazardous forms of child labour and helping them through rehabilitation, resettlement and psycho-social support.


IV. Field trip to Mbale, east Uganda

Leaving Kampala for a day and a half, the delegation then took a field trip to the city of Mbale in the eastern part of the country, which draws a large number of people from the rural areas in the north, affected by chronic poverty and violence.

The Mbale district labour officer Mr. Stephen Makai, with whom KIN coordinates their local projects-gave the delegation a view on the situation from the perspective of a local government official. He listed all the existing legal tools to fight the child labour and expressed belief in their potential and effectiveness. As proof that these are working, he said that a total of 103 cases of child labour have been dealt with in Mbale so far this year.

However, Mr. Makai’s estimate of child labour prevalence in his area of responsibility differed greatly from that offered by Mr. Asiimwe of KIN (two thousand vs. five thousand child labourers, admittedly very rough estimates).

In the end, Mr. Makai confessed that the “greatest challenge is sensitizing the communities so that all the concepts and tools for the fight against child labour do not only remain on paper”.

A good example of how one local community has been sensitized about the harmful effects of child labour followed next when the delegation visited nearby Doho rice scheme. The plantation used to employ many children in the past until a trade union had research done into the matter and a program was put in place to withdraw these children from work and provide them with education instead.

Serious challenges remain, however, as became apparent during a session with the school’s headmaster, teacher and a student as well as local labour officer. Retaining children in school can be tricky with the low teacher to student ratio, lack of space, stationery and – most crucially – food for the students. Only one tenth of parents can afford to pay for the full meals provided by the school.



Visiting the Namatala slum, at the outskirts of Mbale

The last of the places visited in Mbale was the Namatala slum, a place of considerable poverty where many newcomers from the north settle. The scope of problems became apparent just by walking through the settlement and talking to the local community leaders with whom KIN works on a long-term basis and the inhabitants themselves.

With rampant poverty, illnesses including HIV & AIDS, early pregnancies and other barriers to one’s progress, it is not so surprising that child traffickers descend upon this area, looking for (and often finding) an easy prey.

V. Minister for Youth and Children Affairs

After returning to Kampala, delegation had one more appointment scheduled at the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development. As Minister of State and Youth and Children Affairs, Mr. Jimmy Kinobe requested this meeting with the Africa Tour delegation.

During an informative round table discussion Mr. Kinobe presented the delegation with an overview of the government’s policies on child labour, repeatedly stressing “the strong commitment of Uganda to stamp out child labour”.

The Minister wholly subscribes to the view that the best response to child labour is education while he acknowledges the outstanding challenges of Ugandan educational system, which has been officially universalized on the primary level and is in the process of achieving the same on the secondary level.

The Minister is of the opinion that it is often times the bad attitude of teachers that hampers the progress of education. He made it clear that the government has played its part in his mind by substantially increasing the salaries of teachers.



The Africa Tour delegation shaking hands with the Minister

Commissioner for Labour and Industrial Relations Ms. Harriet Luyima, who was also present at the meeting together with her colleague, Commissioner for Youth and Children Affairs Mr. Willie Otim, added that the ministry has a working relationship with the teachers’ union.

She also highlighted the fact that the topic of child labour has been integrated into the curricula and training modules with the aim of increasing the level of awareness on child rights among the school-going public.

2. CLOSING WORKSHOP IN KAMPALA

The closing workshop in Kampala’s Hotel African was very well attended and fully reflected the wide scope of stakeholders in the child labour issue. Hearing from academicians, humanitarian workers, NGO representatives, government officials, UN agency specialists, trade union leaders and media, the audience had a unique chance to get as full a picture as possible of the child labour situation in Uganda.

The proceedings were palpably influenced by the speech of Mr. Gary Ovington, child protection specialist from UNICEF bureau in Kampala, who – playing devil’s advocate- questioned the very assumption of the slogan “Stop child labour, school is the best place to work” in the Ugandan context.

“Are schools in Uganda really the best place for kids? I don’t think so, they are not safe and they are not relevant,” he said, listing all the problems including frequent rape occurrence and other exploitation and abuses together with the deplorable conditions many rural schools find themselves in.

As another speaker, a humanitarian worker based in Gulu district, pointed out, the social status and respectability of a teacher in Uganda took a steep dive within one generation from once highly-esteemed position into a job taken only as a last resort.

A teachers’ union representative gave his view on the matter too, explaining that classrooms are often too large. “Besides, hungry teachers teaching hungry children – that cannot be right,” he said.

Minister Kinobe, in a message read out by commissioner Luyima, did not reflect upon these issues and challenges, sticking to the line, that the government has been at the forefront of fighting child labour through education since 1997, when it instituted the universal primary education. The Minister also believes that the Ugandan experience can serve as a model for other African countries.

Unfortunately, Ms. Luyima came shortly before her speech and left right after, in which case she as a government representative could not reflect the experience of NGO and humanitarian workers, many of whom work on the ground and hold extensive knowledge of the child labour problem at the grassroots level.

With such variety of problems and their possible solutions raised during the course of the half-day session, it was virtually impossible to connect all the threads when the time finally came for the Africa Tour delegation to do its bidding.

While clearly catching imagination of many members of the audience, the delegates’ perspective on child labour and the most effective ways of tackling it, was just another one in a long line, thus appearing more like a contribution to a debate than a possible guideline to be followed. More networking and experience on the ground would more than likely be needed to make a desired impact.

To end on a positive note, there certainly is clear evidence that an interest in forging a wider alliance of the concerned stakeholders exists in Uganda and a call to this effect was actually sounded at the end of the workshop by a number of participants. It remains to be seen whether this semblance of an initiative will come to any fruit.


3. CONCLUSION – HIGHLIGHTS AND CHALLENGES/ RECOMMENDATIONS

Highlights:

• Child rights are enshrined in the country’s constitution, in its laws and international conventions it is a party to
• The government recognizes the importance of eliminating child labour and is set to achieve this goal through determined promotion of universal education
• School books at secondary level contain a chapter on child rights, sexual abuse, child labour and domestic violence
• Kids in Need´s balanced approach towards their child clients which includes them in decision making about their rehabilitation/resettlement/education/training
• Community sensitization about harmful effects of child labour in Doho rice plantation has resulted in withdrawing children from work and providing them with education

Challenges/recommendations:

The government needs to:

• Sign a declaration by all government members and civil servants stating that they do not employ a child in their household to send a clear moral signal to the public
• Further sensitize public - especially in the rural areas - about child labour and child rights in general through awareness raising campaign and/or specially designed educational service
• Empower the National Council for Children, make it part of implementation of programs and policies
• Address the grievances of teachers, try to make them engaged in the fight against child labour
• Assign a more active role to local governments in promoting education and cooperating with NGOs
• Address communities´ attitude to education and highlight its positive value
• Address the issue of non-financial factors influencing high drop-out rates and/or low enrollment (uniforms, admission policies, safety and security etc.)
• Allocate subsidies to make education entirely free by eliminating the hidden costs of schooling
• Narrow the gap between the existing legislation on child rights and the prevailing practices

NGOs need to:

• Start mobilizing communities in cooperation with teachers to make education attractive to both adults and children
• Build a network of NGOs focused upon prevention and elimination of all forms of child labou
• Foster parental involvement in school activities and build interface between schools/teachers and parents to promote parents´ support to education
• Involve the private sector and media