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Street Children (Congo)

From what I witnessed in my short time there, I know that my hon. Friend is correct. I share his concern and I will come on to that, as some good work is going on but it very much needs to be extended. It is common for children to have to work on the streets and fend for themselves during the day, because their families are simply unable to care for them. Those street-working children are particularly vulnerable to becoming fully fledged children of the streets. As well as the 40,000 street children in Kinshasa, there are thousands more in other cities such as Mbuji-Mayi, Bukavu, Lubumbashi and Goma. The street child problem in the DRC is at crisis level. Street children survive through begging and stealing, which brings them into conflict with the law. Many undertake arduous work such as portering and regularly smoke marijuana to numb the effect of the reality in which they live. Nevertheless, it is important to acknowledge that some progress is being made by the Government of the DRC in developing legislation and judicial codes as a platform for juvenile justice and as a basis for dealing with fetish pastors and abuses against children. That progress is limited to the commitment of individual civil servants who are rarely paid and is primarily confined to paper in a country where justice is rarely applied and more often corrupted. Non-governmental organisations including international charities such as War Child are supporting locally run centres in the provision of family tracing, mediation and reintegration of street children. They are also providing income-generating support for street youths, but there is no coherent structure to bring those efforts together in a focused and co-ordinated way to maximise the limited resources available for addressing the crisis. Many of the civil servants and key service providers rarely receive salaries, so have to spend their time developing other forms of income. Why is the street child crisis in the DRC anything to do with us? Why should our Government seek to allocate time, money and expertise to resolving the crisis, when we are already doing so much in the DRC? Street children in the DRC suffer unimaginable poverty. The marginalisation and suffering that extreme poverty brings is a frightening indicator of state destabilisation. Destabilised states such as the DRC become havens of unrest, violence and even regional and global insecurity. We need only to look to Afghanistan as a typical example of that. It is well recognised by the Department for International Development, which is investing upwards of £60 million per year, and more broadly by the UK Government, who have invested upwards of £30 million in the election process in the DRC. It is in the interests of national security to work with partners from the developed world in creating stable, viable states throughout the developing world and in so doing combat the cancer of poverty. It is also important that we recognise the established and deep commitment of the British public to addressing poverty, especially among the most marginalised people such as street children. That was demonstrated by the mass participation in and commitment to the Make Poverty History campaign, and is reflected in the millennium development goals to which the UK Government have already signed up. As a signatory to the United Nations convention on the rights of the child, the Government are committed to securing the rights of children by"““Recognizing the importance of international co-operation for improving the living conditions of children in every country, in particular in the developing countries””." The British economy is the fourth largest in the world, which establishes the UK as one of the most significant signatories to the convention on the rights of the child. The UK must therefore take a significant proportion of responsibility for ensuring that the rights of children, especially those who are marginalised, are realised in countries such as the DRC. The all-party parliamentary group on street children is considering some draft proposals based on the fact that the UK Government have significant influence as well as responsibility in the DRC because of the scale of the commitment made on behalf of the British people. Consideration should be given to investment in education sector reform. Development is crucial both in formal and non-formal education, and the inclusion of women is especially important. The education of women will reduce their vulnerability and indirectly the vulnerability of their children. The education of children, especially marginalised children, will establish a key socialising process in its own right and a basis on which exclusion can be overcome. Crucially, education per se will address the deep-seated belief in witchcraft and the subsequent vulnerability of many children. That must be a priority for DFID and, through Foreign Office lobbying, for the European Union. Investment is required in the strategic architecture to ensure focus, direction, best practice and coherence across all agencies working with marginalised children in the DRC, especially street children. At the broadest level, that should involve the allocation of resources and technical assistance to support the Government of the DRC in developing a plan for the implementation of the convention on the rights of the child to which the DRC is already a signatory. That plan must make specific reference to marginalised groups of children, especially street children and those formerly associated with fighting forces as child soldiers. The key elements of the plan and specific mention of street children must be reflected in DFID’s country-engagement plan and subsequently the country strategy that is being developed. Also, the key elements of the plan must be championed by Foreign Office policy and in its advocacy efforts with other significant bilateral and multilateral partners of the Government of the DRC, especially the EU. Clear human rights indicators that refer to the status of marginalised children must be developed as part of the national plan to implement the convention on the rights of the child. Investment in the capacity of state actors to service and protect the rights of marginalised children and in civil society to monitor those indictors, with specific reference to street children and children formerly associated with fighting forces, will be required. On that basis, targets to improve the status of marginalised children must be agreed with the Government of the DRC and a resourcing strategy must be negotiated to meet those targets and ensure that they are achieved. As a result of the extreme levels of corruption and impunity, the achievements of those targets and verification of indictors must become a conditional element of the UK Government’s aid provision to the DRC. War Child will be undertaking participatory research with street children in Kinshasa by the end of this year. The learning from work of NGOs such as War Child must be channelled into the UK Government’s strategic engagement with the Government of the DRC, not least through the Foreign Office and DFID’s developing country strategy for the DRC. In that way we will facilitate a crucial element of the convention on the rights of the child by ensuring that children are listened to. Finally, the UK Government must work closely with civil society, especially local and international NGOs and Churches, with the Government of the DRC and through local business networks. That work should be the basis for the development of a national strategy that will support the development of micro-enterprise nurseries, training and practical income-generating initiatives across acutely vulnerable communities. I will conclude, because I know that colleagues want to take part in today’s debate. I look forward to the Secretary of State’s response and thank him for giving a commitment to meet a delegation from the all-party parliamentary group at the end of this month—I am delighted about that, as are my colleagues. I put on record my thanks to War Child for giving me and the hon. Member for Gainsborough the opportunity to visit the country to see the work that goes on. War Child is to be congratulated on its efforts. A major task lies before it and everyone else involved with the issue.