World Bank tasks govt over sexual violence on children

Kampala.

Government must ensure serious enforcement against acts of sexual violence on children to mitigate the vice, Mr Margarita Puerto Gomez, a World Bank official said on Tuesday. Ms Gomez is the World Bank’s Task Team leader of Supporting Children’s Opportunities through Protection and Empowerment (Scope).
“Uganda has best laws but the problem is weak enforcement which makes children vulnerable to sexual violence. There must be a very strong enforcement against the vice and ensure that there is compliance with the law to protect children,” Ms Gomez said.
Scope is a World Bank-funded project implemented by the Ministry of Gender, Labour, and Social Development in partnership with selected civil society organisations and Kamwenge and Kabarole districts.
She was speaking during the annual review of the scope project which seeks to enhance the provision of prevention and response services related to sexual violence against children in Kamwenge District.
She noted that while government is carrying out infrastructural projects across different parts of the country, there must be respect for human rights of the population where such projects are carried out to protect them from sexual harassment.
“When construction of roads commences, the workers tend to take advantage of the poverty levels of the area population hence they sexually violate them. The law must therefore be clear on how to protect such residents when such projects come up,” she added.
Scope project was started after an incident during the construction of the Fort-portal Kamwenge road in 2015 where some of the workers sexually abused girls in Bigodi, one of the villages along the road. The construction was being funded by World Bank but the funds were later suspended when Joy for Children, an NGO, petitioned World Bank, highlighting the cases of sexual violence against girls in Bigodi.
When World Bank suspended the funding, the government intervened and financed the project. Scope project was formed as part of the broader efforts by World Bank to prevent and mitigate risk of sexual exploitation and abuse and other forms of gender-based violence in World Bank-supported infrastructure and other area-based investment projects.
The project which started in July 2017 will end in November this year, with funding of $800,000 from the Rapid Social Response Trust Fund.
The commissioner of Equity and Rights in the ministry of Gender, Mr Bernard Mujuni, said that the project will help both local governments of Kabarole and Kamwenge and other partners come up with safeguards against acts of gender-based violence.
The Kabarole District chairperson Mr Richard Rwabuhinga, said the Bigodi incident became an eye opener for them to start sensitising both contractors of road projects and the people where such projects are being undertaken.