Let’s build our world back better, stronger

We are living in tough times and we are not yet ‘out of the woods’, as the saying goes. But we can hope and plan for a better world once the pandemic is defeated. Ultimately, the Covid19 pandemic will be defeated, schools will reopen, curfews will be lifted, public transport will resume and we will go back to ‘normal. But what is ‘normal’? 

Is it ‘normal’ when children are wasting away and stunted, not able to read and write, subjected to child labour, child sacrifice, and all forms of violence? Can we not use this time lag to change and provide better platforms for children? I think we can.

The Latin people say, “Corpora Fortuna”, which means a “Blessing in disguise”. It is a paradox, but Covid-19 has afforded us a rare opportunity to step back, reflect, and come back stronger. Many lives have been lost to Covid-19, many livelihoods have been disrupted, and as Chinua Achebe wrote in Things Fall Apart, “Okonkwo remembered that tragic year with a cold shiver throughout the rest of his life… He knew he was a fierce fighter but that year had been enough to break the heart of a lion”. Chinua Achebe writes how Okonkwo used to boast, “Since I survived that year, I shall survive anything”.

The Cabinet resolved to transfer Shs100,000 via mobile money to the ‘vulnerable’ poor. This is in addition to the over Shs58 billion used to avail food assistance in early 2020 and other social protection schemes like “Emyooga Fund”, stimulus packages to resuscitate Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), etc. Of course, all this has a bearing on children. Economically productive parents translate into well-fed, educated, healthy, and well-protected children.

Social protection has gained such policy traction worldwide that it is no longer viewed as a preserve of the rich nations. A study by World Vision shows that governments globally have implemented 1,600 social protection programmes since the outbreak of the pandemic. In the same period, cash transfers (a type of social protection) have grown by 240 per cent, impacting over 1.1 billion people.

We need clear programmes on strengthening the family and improving parenting. Covid-19 and its lockdowns have acted as a wake-up call to all of us to review and position the family as an education center, a source of livelihoods, and above all as a child protection structure. 

As we look into post-Covid-19 Uganda, we need to look at having strong families that can provide for and protect their children. Defeating the pandemic should mean that we are going into a world where children achieve their full potential. A new ‘normal’ is one where social protection is a right, not a privilege. Families and communities should have resilience buffer zones to adversity, market shocks and failure, livelihood disruptions, and disease. That is the new ‘normal’ we all envisage and that is how we should be building back stronger and better.

Yes, the past year has been enough to break the heart of a lion but it has taught us that we need to increase individual, familial, community, and national resilience to adversity with the interests of the child at the centre. That way, we can survive anything like Okonkwo.

Prosper Mubangizi,  [email protected]