Calls for strategic investment in taboo – FBC News

Minister of Women, Children and Social Protection Lynda Tabuya emphasized that the annual economic cost of violence against children in Fiji is 459.82 million dollars, which constitutes 4.23% of the Gross Domestic Product.

Speaking during the Global Ministerial Summit to End Violence Against Children in Bogota, Colombia, Tabuya called on world leaders to shift their focus from reactive measures to proactive, preventive strategies in the fight to protect children from violence.

Referring to the introduction of the Child Care and Protection Bill and the Juvenile Justice Bill into Parliament, he highlighted the steps Fiji has already taken in this direction.

He explained that these pieces of legislation serve as mandates for a change in approach that prioritizes early intervention and prevention to create a lasting impact on child welfare.

“We can get stuck in cycles where we believe that all available resources should be used to remove the child from the families and communities where he or she is being harmed.”

Tabuya emphasized that the focus should not only be on removing children from the families and communities where they have been harmed, as this can cause further trauma, especially children losing ties to the people they love.

He reiterated that priorities need to be redefined so that early intervention and prevention become the basis of investment.