FAITH Based organisations want to see less power given to the Director in the Child and Family Welfare Bill 2016.
They raised their concerns when they appeared before the Bills and Legislation Committee in Parliament on Wednesday.
The groups, which included Family Support Centre, Christian Care Centre, and Solomon Islands Christian Association, thought there should be a board in the Act to advice the director to avoid dictating the role.
Anika Kingmele, National Child Protection Officer of UNICEF Pacific office in Honiara, told the Committee that the duty of the Director is to have control and coordination over the service providers.
Mrs Kingmele said there was a clause in the Act that covered Faith Based organisations.
“The faith based organisations have already do work on the ground but it’s only a matter of recognizing their work in the law,” she pointed out.
“Things are already happening on the ground, but it just given it legal mechanism to establish the system.”
Furthermore, Mrs Kingmele said in terms of resources, we need to start small.
She said it’s a three tier system, so start small and scale up.
“The idea behind the bill is to do implementation incrementally, then allow capacity to make the system work.
“The underpinning idea behind the development of associated documents depends on resources, therefore incremental roll out,” she said.
Mrs Kingmele said they will try out the idea in Western province and Isabel and next year move on to cover the whole nation.
THE Child and Family Welfare Bill aims to protect and support victims of violence and not to punish offenders.
The Committee hearing on other bill continues today.
By EDDIE OSIFELO
