Lack of coordination hinders policy: Solomon

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IT is difficult to assess the impact of child protection in Papua New Guinea due to lack of coordination, Secretary for Department of Community Development and Religion, Anna Solomon, pictured, says.
She was speaking during the launching of the National Child Protection Policy in Kokopo, East New Britain,  last Friday.
“Most times we are working but it is not properly coordinated,” she said.
“I am not able to assess the impact of child protection in the country because it is not coordinated well.”
Solomon said the department, churches, non-governmental organisations and donor partners were all doing their bit in child protection but were not getting together to be able to report as provinces or country as a whole.
She said with the launching of the policy that has a framework and guideline to follow and see what provinces were doing, they could properly assess as a country how well they were progressing in terms of child protection. “But the big message is coordination and the policy needs a coordinated approach,” she said.
“The challenge is, you cannot have one child protection officer for the whole province, it is not enough,” Solomon said.
“We need to look at the family unit and see how best the household is protected.”’
Solomon commended child protection officers that have served throughout the country using very limited resources but with passion.