By Sharon Engnui
Government of Papua New Guinea through the National Office for Child & Family Services invited the save the children organization, to partner with them to amplify the voices of children. Save the Children signed a Partnership Engagement Agreement with the National Office for Child & Family Services.The signing ceremony eventuated yesterday in Port Moresby.
Save the Children’s Country Director Fiu Williame-Igara highlighted that, despite improvements that government and development partners have allocated to support and advance the state of the children, there remains enormous challenges in health, education, violence against women and children and physical and sexual abuse of children are widely prevalent and a major threat to PNG’s development.
Williame-Igara further emphasized that, the partnership agreement will go a long way to protect children and their rights and ensure they have a positive future.
Director & CEO of National Office for Child & Family Services Mr. Simon Yanis said, they are looking for a partnership approach towards ‘Getting It Right for Every Child’ strategy – and remain committed to this partnership approach with key partners in the Children’s Development space to deliver on these objectives of Lukautim Pikinini Act (LPA).
He added that, this partnership with Save the Children PNG will be the third partnership with Development Agencies in the children’s space and highlighted that they have partnered with UNICEF, Catholic Bishop Conference of PNG & Solomon Islands.
He said, “the government agency cannot on their own fulfill tasks required in the LPA and the National Child Protection Policy for sustainable Children’s development services and improved governance must ultimately come from within with support from Key partners as such.”
He added, this partnership will form the pathway towards concrete efforts to establish a platform of regular engagement between the government and broader key stakeholder partnership with a view to evolving genuine partnership in the implementation of LPA and Child Protection Policy aimed at early intervention, prevention, and response intervention for children at national and subnational levels. He stressed that now more than ever it is critical that we collaborate more effectively, to deliver child-centered outcomes for children and families.
