BUJUMBURA March 8th (ABP) – The new national strategy for the prevention of the phenomenon of children in street situations (ESR) and adult beggars as well as their community reintegration is built on the vision of seeing a Burundi without children in street situations and without beggars, we learned from a related document presented on Thursday, March 3, 2022 to national and international stakeholders and partners by the Ministry of National Solidarity, Social Affairs, Human Rights and of the kind. That new strategy offers a harmonized, coherent and coordinated framework for all interventions in the field, thus reflecting the political will of the country’s high authorities to put an end to this phenomenon, underlined the ministry having social affairs in its attributions.
That ministry specifies that the new national strategy for the prevention of the phenomenon of ESR and begging proposes, initially, a process for managing the phenomenon based on preventive actions which offer those concerned the alternative of remaining in the community, c that is to say within their families, where they receive the support they need to prepare for their future.
In the second step, the ministry in charge of social affairs points out that this new strategy provides for support from the withdrawal of these children from the street to follow-up once they are reintegrated into the community or into the family of origin, passing through temporary transit centers where they prepare to return to their families and communities to play a role in development.
In terms of implementation, the strategy defines a systematic approach where all stakeholders, such as families, communities, administration, technical and financial partners, each play their role, we add while making note that the said strategy also refers to the National Development Plan of Burundi 2018-2027, especially in its strategic axis No8 with regard to democracy, governance and human rights.
The protection of the child is expressly entrusted to the Ministry having social affairs in its attributions with the participation of the Ministry of the Interior, Community Development and Public Security, the Ministry of National Education and Scientific Research as well as that of Justice, that is to say, of the ministries which contribute to the protection and promotion of the rights of the child, it is pointed out in this document.
In the same vein, the ministry in charge of national solidarity specifies that the data and suggestions for actions contained in this strategy were collected from the provincial administrative authorities, the department for children and the family (DEF), provincial directorates of family and social development (DPDFS), national associations and international organizations involved in child protection and United Nations agencies working in Burundi.
To that end, the Government of Burundi, through the Ministry in charge of National Solidarity, encourages all stakeholders to combine efforts to achieve the set objective. It is naturally attentive to all the actors to walk together towards a total and definitive eradication of the phenomenon of ESR and begging observed among some adults in Burundi.
The total amount of the budget to be mobilized for the effective implementation of the national strategy for the prevention of the phenomenon of ESR and adult beggars as well as their community reintegration amounts to more than 20 billion Burundian francs, reported Thursday, March 3 2022 the permanent secretary at the ministry responsible for social affairs, Mr. Félix Ngendabanyikwa, during the interview granted to the press on the sidelines of the round table organized by the said ministry for stakeholders who pledged their support for the operationalization of this strategy.
It should be noted that the stakeholders who participated in this round table were the representative of the resident coordinator of the United Nations system in Burundi, the ambassadors of the various countries in Burundi, the representatives of the diplomatic and consular corps accredited in Burundi, the representatives of the agencies of the United Nations system in Burundi, senior officials from the various sectoral ministries, representatives of financial institutions working in Burundi, representatives of religious denominations and non-governmental organizations, both national and international, working in the child sector, as well as those in the private sector.