Strategies for Preventing and Responding to Sexual Violence against Children in Rombo District, Tanzania: A Mixed Method Study

Michael Reuben,Felician Mutasa,Fauzia Mohamed

doi:10.4236/jss.2021.99032

Abstract

This paper examined the strategies for preventing and responding to sexual violence against children in Rombo district, Tanzania. Sexual violence against children (SVAC) remains a major concern in many countries across the globe and in developing countries such as Tanzania. The SVAC encompasses a range of offenses such as completed non-consensual sex acts such as rape, attempted non-consensual sex acts, abusive sexual contacts such as unwanted sexual touching and non-contact sexual abuse. Studies have been conducted to assess strategies to prevent and respond to sexual violence against children. However, studies that focus on examining the strategies and how they are used by Community Based Child Protection Mechanisms (CBCPMs) are still limited in Tanzania. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the strategies used by CB-CPMs to prevent and respond to sexual violence against children in Rombo District, Tanzania. A mixed methods study was conducted involving 158 members of CBCPMs. A total of 108 responded to a questionnaire, 4 Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were conducted involving 40 members of CBCPMs and 10 Key Informant Interviews(KIIs) were conducted to complement data collected through questionnaire. Descriptive data analysis was conducted with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) version 23. Qualitative data was analyzed using thematic content analysis. The study concludes that awareness raising, provision of advice, communication, identification of children, referral of abused children, mapping and monitoring of children had effects on combating SVAC. The study revealed that CBCPMs have improved situation of SVAC and child protection environment in Rombo district. Therefore, study recommends that, the government should support CBCPMs through funding, monitoring and capacity building in order to strengthen their skills to combat SVAC. The study also recommends that more awareness raising should be carried out to the community in order to address sexual violence against children.

Highlights

Sexual violence against children (SVAC) remains a major concern in many countries in the globe developing countries such as Tanzania (Ligiero et al, 2019)
The percentage of females were higher than that of males and majority (47.2%) of the respondents fell in the age category of 36 - 52 years because according to the NPA VAWC guidelines majority of the committee members are adult from government departments, parents and representatives of different marginalized groups and few children
This study aimed to examine the strategies used by Community Based Child Protection Mechanisms (CBCPMs) to combat SVAC

Summary

Introduction

Sexual violence against children (SVAC) remains a major concern in many countries in the globe developing countries such as Tanzania (Ligiero et al, 2019). Tanzania was selected because it is one of the pathfinder countries and the first African country to showcase the initiative to End Violence against Women and children (NPA-VAWC 2017/2018-2021/2022). In Brazil the past studies show that sexual violence against children was related to school structure and lack of discussion on the subject matter (Pereira et al, 2020). In Indonesia, the study found that the root causes of sexual violence against children were family disharmony, religious values, uncomfortable environment, technology and internet and lack of education (Rosyadi, 2016)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion