The Children’s Parliament President tells us that;

‘Mozambique is a member state of signatories to global and regional legal instruments, international and regional conventions to protection of children’s rights. It is the role of parliamentarians as mandated by the instruments to make sure that children’s rights are protected. It is important for the national budget to incorporate children’s issues as a way to contribute to social and economic issues of their country. There has to be equity in distribution of resources. Children and youth have to be represented in the budget. Children needs assessment should be conducted to establish how children have been affected by COVID-19 in Mozambique and lead SADC by example as Chair of the region. Child participation is also paramount for them to tell their own stories. Interventions should be well spent in order to enact child friendly budgets that cater for the needs of children and ascertain and assess use of public funds set for the purpose and measure how leaders use funds appropriately.  The issue is not about the scarcity of resources but whether the budget set aside is used for intended purposes. In Mozambique there were budgets made specifically for COVID-19 and we need to make sure that the budgets help people with education on COVID-19 and enable all children to access online education for equity assurance.

That is why as Children’s parliament we saw it fit to play our part in the COVID 19 emergency response joined CSOs to empower and protect children and their parents with initiatives aimed at fighting COVID 19 such as empowering children to become leaders. We reach children via radio programs and radio programs. This has helped a lot to reduce anxiety among children as peers like them speak to them and it has also helped parents to take us seriously.’

Mozambique case demonstrates that children can play a leadership role that positively impact on other children and need to be harnessed for greater reach and results.