Uganda
Protecting Uganda’s Children
Ending Child Trafficking
Economic opportunities in Uganda are greater in big cities, such as Kampala, than rural areas. The country’s metropolitan areas therefore have enormous appeal, attracting a lot of migrant workers. These workers include children, who are vulnerable to trafficking, labour and sexual exploitation.
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Josephine Akiru
Country Director UgandaViolence, exploitation, and abuse in any form pose serious threats to the development and full potential of children. As the future of our societies, children deserve to be nurtured and safeguarded.
Children in Uganda
Uganda has a population of over 26.4 million children and unfortunately, 56% of them endure multidimensional poverty and a substandard quality of life. Over half of children under 5 years old and 38% of school-aged children live in impoverished conditions, with limited access to essential rights such as adequate nutrition, healthcare, education, clean water, and protection from violence and exploitation.
More than 8 million children are considered to be vulnerable to harm. Girls are especially at risk of child marriage, teenage pregnancy, and female genital mutilation. Millions of children are working in exploitative conditions in Uganda, with 93 per cent of rural children believed to be engaged in commercial or subsistence agriculture.
1 in 10 children have experienced being asked to do something sexual either in person or online in return for money and/or gifts. Transactional sex is also heavily impacted by the financial situation of the child and their family. For example, some girls exchange sex or sexual favours in order to get rides to school as the journey may be dangerous, others do so to buy food and clothes
It is crucial to recognise that children have inherent rights to protection, education, and the opportunity to create a brighter future.
Our approach: Children at the centre
Children are at the centre of everything we do. We support them to get access to education and other skills development so they can eventually find jobs to earn better incomes to enhance their opportunities to live a decent and dignified life. We build their resilience and facilitate their empowerment. And we help them amplify their voice, opening opportunities to speak up to those with the power to realise systemic change.
Strengthening child protection
We educate parents and communities. We build the capacity of local structures to effectively prevent, detect, report and respond to child exploitation. We collaborate with other actors to influence strengthening of the legal and policy environment for better promotion and protection of children’s rights.
Our work in Uganda
In Uganda, Terre des Hommes Netherlands works on preventing child sexual exploitation, child trafficking and unsafe migration,child labour and gender and women empowerment. A lack of and or limited access to educational opportunities coupled with poverty lead to numerous incidences of child exploitation.
Sexual Exploitation of Children
Commercial sexual exploitation is a growing, underestimated, and under-represented issue of grave social, health, economic, and policy concern in Uganda. The immediate and long-term public health consequences of commercial sex exploitation undermine investments in education, health, and child well-being, and erode the productive capacity of future generations (UNFPA, 2020).
Research findings indicate that the lack of livelihood skills and economic disempowerment drive and sustain sexual exploitation among girls and young women in the urban slums. Many children are sexually exploited by older adults, particularly girls. Often, in rural Uganda, the transaction may not be monetary, but may present girls with a perceived pathway towards a more formal relationship such as marriage.
Online Sexual Exploitation of Children
In recent years, there has been an increase in Internet access and mobile cell phone subscriptions in Uganda. Children in Uganda are already being confronted with risks posed by digital technology. Public awareness is low, efforts to prevent risks are limited, and when children are subjected to online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA), they receive little support – and few offenders are brought to justice
40% of children between the ages of 12-17 are daily internet users, the most popular trend is to access it online, often to go on social media sites such as Facebook and WhatsApp. When victimised online, 30-40% of children only disclose the event to a friend and around 25% do not report anything at all. This accumulates to over 50% of children not reporting victimisation to authority figures.
Child Trafficking and unsafe migration
Child Trafficking is a major concern in Uganda, with specific groups of children at high risk, including orphaned children, children from poor households, children out of school, children who live and/or work on the street, children separated from their parents, children with low formal education and children living in violent households (UNICEF, 2015).
Domestic trafficking predominantly affects children, who are mostly trafficked from other regions to Kampala. The biggest source of child internal trafficking child victims in Uganda are ethnically Karamojong. Karamoja’s extremely high rate of multidimensional child poverty, which refers to a lack of both material and social needs, (84%) and a traditional acceptance of migration for livelihood increase children’s vulnerability to SEC.
Girls are trafficked directly into Sexual Exploitation, often under the cover of working as waitresses in bars or restaurants. Forced child marriage is also a form of sexual exploitation and trafficking for girls. Child Labour Children are also trafficked to Kampala to work in scrap collection, forced begging, and food vending – selling eggs and other food commodities on the street.
Child Labour
Child labour poses a significant challenge in Uganda with children comprising a substantial 56% of Uganda’s population, this issue emerges as a pressing concern in the country. Findings from the National Child Labour Force Survey 2021 indicate that 40% (6.2 million) aged 5-17 years are engaged in child labour (UBOS, 2022) depriving children of their childhood potential and dignity.
Most of these children work in agriculture, though they can be found in other sectors including construction, mining, manufacturing, domestic service, street work and sexual exploitation. Child labour is more prevalent among boys than girls (41% vs.38%) (UBOS, 2021a). The significant increase in the prevalence of Child labour could be attributed to the unprecedented economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This grave issue impedes Uganda’s progress towards achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Target 8.7, which aims to eradicate child labour.
Gender Equality and Women Empowerment
Gender inequality remains one of the most pervasive forms of discrimination in Uganda. Uganda’s estimated total population is 43 million people , 51% of it being female and 49% is male. While gender inequalities can affect anyone, impeding global progress towards achieving sustainable development, it is women who face the most discrimination.
Gender inequalities have strong impacts on the lives of adolescent girls and young women who continue to experience multiple vulnerabilities at the individual, household and community levels. Unemployment rates are higher among young women as they encounter more difficulties finding paid work than young men, further exposing them to higher risks of poverty and sexual exploitation.
Some of the critical structural barriers to gender equality in Uganda include:
- Entrenched social norms and practices
- Rising gender inequality in economic empowerment
- Policy implementation gaps
- Gender-dimension of the Youth dividend
- Unequal capacities in adaptation to disasters
Financing the institutional framework for gender mainstreaming is limited
Our projects & programmes in Tanzania
Our partners in Uganda
Terre des Hommes Netherlands is part of
- Joining Forces Alliance: an alliance of the six largest child-focused international NGO;
- and She Leads, a five-year strategic partnership between the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and four consortium organisations – Terre des Hommes Netherlands, Plan Netherlands, DCI-ECPAT Netherlands and the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET).
Our work in Uganda currently is made possible through the generous support of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In our work, we closely collaborate with the Government of Uganda, in particular the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (MGLSD) and other partners:
Contact
Uganda Country Office
P.O Box 73435, Plot 2045,
Serule Close,
Kalinabiri Road, Ntinda
Kampala
Afrika
Business hours
Monday to Friday 08:00 – 17.00
