Oro bags ‘Seal of Child-Friendly Local Governance'

• Source: https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/1778150
• Wednesday, December 12, 2018

By PJ ORIAS

THE Cagayan de Oro City Government has been hailed as one of the recipients of the Seal of Child Friendly Local Governance Award for 2017.

The award, which was given last week, marked the city's third time to be recognized as a child-friendly city by the Council for the Welfare of Children.

City Administrator Teddy Sabuga-a said the rating for last year's performance was 44 percent, an increase from the 37 percent rating of the city in 2016.

Sabuga-a, however, noted that the city still has to strive more in reducing the child mortality rate.

But he noted that most of the children who died were not from the city, but from other provinces.

"We cannot prevent them from going here, what we will do is establish a system which will strengthen coordination among local government units so that they can monitor deaths among one of their children, but unfortunately died here in our city," he said.

He said the coordination will also allow a better prevention program to prevent mortality among children.

Despite having a low rating in the mortality category, Sabuga-a said the city thrived in its program for children in conflict with law and nutrition program.

Launched in 2014, the Seal is the advocacy and programming framework adopted by the CWC in response to both national (Child 21 and 2nd National Plan of Action for Children) and international commitments. It is consistent with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC) and it requires the involvement of different stakeholders at various levels.

The Child-Friendly Philippines framework promotes child-friendly local governance wherein local government units give priority to children in their planning, budgeting, legislation and delivery of services and is able to assure that all children enjoy their rights classified as survival, development, protection and participation.

The LGUs shall be audited based on the following criteria: percentage reduction in the deaths among children below five years old or under-five mortality rate, percentage reduction in the number of children under-six with below normal weight, and percentage increase in the number of 3-4- year-old children attending center-based day care services.

The completion rate for elementary schooling, absence of child labor or percentage reduction in child labor cases, percentage reduction in the number of children victims of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation are also included in the criteria, among others.