Executive summary
The practice-oriented certificate course in child protection was a maiden program aimed at building the capacities of in-service local government staff working with children to effectively prevent and respond to child protection concerns in their areas of work. The program sought to strengthen the local governments as part of the larger effort of building the child protection systems in Uganda’s 80 districts. The training project which is part of the SUNRISE OVC Program was commissioned by International AIDS Alliance and Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development with funding from USAID. This particular component was implemented starting June and was completed in October 2012. Participants were drawn from the 8 Technical Service Regions comprising Central Region, East Central, North East, Eastern Region, South, and South Western Region, North, and North Western Regions. Participants included Community Development Officers, Assistant Community Development Officers, and Probation and Welfare Officers. The training was delivered by Makerere University, Department of Social Work and Social Administration.
A total of 1164 local government in-service workers were trained under the project. Of the total number of trainees 511 were female, representing 43% of all participants. Participants (98 percent) felt that the objectives of the training had been achieved. Results indicate 35.4 percent knowledge again among trainees. The pre-training assessment conducted to determine the participants’ knowledge on a range of child protection related aspects prior to the beginning of the in-service training programme, indicated that the mean score for participants across the 8 region was 41.4 percent. The highest mean score was registered in West Nile (50.0 percent), while the lowest was registered in the East-Central region. Post-training assessment conducted to assess improvement in knowledge and skills amongst trainees, revealed that the means score was 77.1 percent. The highest mean score was recorded in north-central and Eastern region, while the lowest was registered in South-western region. The training was greatly successful and did not encounter insurmountable problems. Funding however for supervision of practicum assessment and data entry and analysis for the pre-post and post assessment tools ought to be increased in the subsequent phases of the training.
