A lecturer from the Makerere University Child Development Centre has called on the Government to expedite the process of coming up with a policy to enhance family protection.

According to Dr Godfrey Siu, a senior lecturer at the centre in the College of Health Sciences, the Government has been implementing the parenting agenda, but the delayed family policy is rendering all the efforts inactive.

“The family policy is the document we are all waiting for to provide guidance on what the Government priorities and outlook are, with respect to the structure of the family, the investments that the government intends to undertake, as well as what it expects its development partners, researchers, NGOs to implement,” said Dr. Siu.

He added, “We expect that the Government has incorporated parenting as a key strategy for achieving family stability and improving the well-being of the children, these days children suffer neglect and violence at the family level by their own parents and other caregivers in the family. The family is a very critical space for improving parenting and children’s wellbeing, and the family policy delay, is partly contributing to the escalating violations of children within the families,” he stressed

The policy, he says, is urgently needed since there is far limited guidance on how to proceed with all the investments in parenting: “We need direction on how to proceed with some of these things”.

Some of the participants participating in the conference in Entebbe/File photo

Siu was speaking during the National Workshop on scaling up parenting support in Uganda, organised by the gender ministry in conjunction with Makerere University Child Health Development Centre and Unicef last week in Entebbe.

The workshop was aimed at sharing the reflections and lessons that have been documented about the processes of developing the manual and piloting it within the districts.

“These lessons will help us to know the wayward regarding the development and scaling up of a National Parenting Program,” he said

The in charge of parenting at the Gender Ministry Ruth Muguta, decried lack of parenting policy saying it is incapacitating all the efforts and achievements made.

“When you see Kenya where it has reached and why it was easy, it’s because of the National family policy, which was put in place to guide how to implement the parenting guidelines. parenting cannot be effective when the family is disgruntled, “she emphasised.

The policy she said is currently at the cabinet level for review of some few things to ensure that they strengthen the functions of the family.

“We pray that at the end of the year, we will be having the national family policy to ensure that it supports the scale up of the national parenting program.

We are not going to have parents and family with no functions and hope that we will be able to achieve the scale up of the national parenting program,” she observed.

She called upon stake holders to help in quickening the family policy to enhance scaling up of the parenting program.

The policy according to Muguta emphasizes so much the formation of the family, its functions and strengthening the functions of the family of which parenting is one of the functions.

“The family is the basic unit, of which it is role of government to strengthen and protect it, the coming of the family will help to create awareness such that the back born of the country should be targeting the family.

The assistant commissioner of culture Bakaaye Lubega in the gender ministry said as the Government, together with non-state actors they are looking at how to expand the parenting agenda in Uganda.

“Since the Government started on the parenting program in 2019, we have been able to develop national standards for parenting, parenting guidelines as well as parenting training manuals to guide stakeholders in the way they implement the parenting programs in Uganda.

“We are going to consider the research that is ongoing on how to expand parenting programs in Uganda, being spearheaded by the Makerere University Child Health Development Centre.

We are trying to reflect on the existing programs, the challenges faced and what is needed to be done by both government and partners in order to have a robust program for Uganda in collaboration with global fraternity, “he explained.

Uganda, he said still has many instances of child abuse in homes and communities, schools where many parents are not well prepared to carry out the duty of parenting which is contributing a lot of children being neglected and mistreated within their homes.

“We have got teachers who are still administering corporal punishments to children and this lack of awareness is what we are trying to address,” he stressed.