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ChildFund International is on an exciting journey. With our newest organizational strategy, Growing Connections 2030, we look toward a future where we will not only create impact with more children and families than ever before, but we will do so through expanded partnerships and deeper relationships. As the world changes, the people and institutions focused on child well-being must rise to its new challenges and help more children connect with what they need to thrive. It is more urgent than ever that we rise to those challenges together — so that children can rise to theirs. We hope our vision for the future of our work inspires you to join us on this path. Because, to reach our ambitious goals, we need each other.

When young people are not active participants in the decision-making processes that affect their lives, they—and their communities—often suffer worse outcomes. Too often, decisions that will affect young people’s lives are made solely by parents, local and religious leaders, teachers, governments and others without the input of youth themselves. Young people who are in marginalized communities, living with disabilities, or facing unfair gender disparities face even tougher development barriers to having their voices heard. By focusing on youth agency and positive youth development, ChildFund supports the principle that young people are empowered to reach their full potential through skill-building, fostering healthy relationships, strengthening families and communities, and transforming systems.

Young people make up a huge proportion of the world’s population. Roughly 1.8 billion people are between the ages of 10 and 241, and the challenges they face today are stark: In 2020, more than 1 in five young people worldwide aged 15-24 was not employed, in job training or in school, and this has only worsened since the COVID-19 pandemic. ChildFund’s livelihood programming focuses broadly on youth work and entrepreneurial skills, employability and work readiness. Many of our programs also overlap with youth participation programming and adolescent sexual and reproductive health so we are able to holistically support youth through this life stage, properly preparing them not only for work, but for being able to stay employed, continue their education and remain safe and healthy.

This brief focuses on policy measures and gaps in policies, legislations and standards, governance structures and coordination and programmes and services related to online sexual exploitation and abuse of children in Africa, including Uganda.

This Policy Brief, prepared by ChidFund, in collaboration with the African Child Policy ForumInternational, is a succinct summary of two extended policy briefs on the scale, drivers and impact of online sexual exploitation and abuse of children and programmatic, policy efforts and gaps, respectively.

ChildFund is committed to protecting and advancing children’s and youth’s rights through policy advocacy - from pushing for holistic, common-sense solutions for issues affecting children, to working to make the internet safer, to promoting girls' empowerment – we work with a wide variety of stakeholders, including young people themselves, to demand better laws and policies to protect and support children and youth and build stronger communities at the local, national and global levels. ChildFund believes that advocating and working directly with governments to adopt child-focused legislation and programs leads to sustainable change and greater local ownership that will have impacts far beyond what we can achieve alone.

This brief, prepared by African Child Policy Forum, in collaboration with ChildFund, is the first in a series of two policy briefs. This series focuses on the nature, scale and impact of the growing problem of technology-facilitated sexual abuse and exploitation of children in Africa, including Kenya.

The internet has offered countless opportunities for children for learning, for networking and for recreation, among others. But it has also presented challenges that are very subtle, fast-evolving and hard to contain. One such challenge that African governments and other stakeholders are struggling with is the online sexual abuse and exploitation of children. This brief focuses on policy measures and gaps in policies, legislations and standards, governance structures and coordination and programmes and services related to online sexual exploitation and abuse of children in Africa.