Maseru, Lesotho | 13–25 April 2026
At the 28th Session of the CSO Forum for the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC), and the 47th Ordinary Session of ACERWC, held from 13–25 April 2026 in Maseru, Kingdom of Lesotho, a central narrative emerged: the urgent need to reposition child helplines as foundational systems within Africa’s child protection architecture. Convened under the theme “Inclusion for every child: building equitable futures across Africa,” the CSO Forum brought together policymakers, civil society actors, and child rights advocates to interrogate systemic gaps affecting children across the continent.
Reframing Child Helplines as Core Infrastructure
In my keynote presentation, “EVERY CALL MATTERS: Why Child Helplines are Critical in Child Protection in Africa”, I framed child helplines not as peripheral interventions, but as frontline infrastructure within national protection systems. Speaking from a systems perspective, I emphasised that across multiple African contexts, helplines serve as the first point of contact for children facing violence, exclusion, and psychological distress.
What children share with us consistently reflects patterns of abuse in homes and schools, exclusion from education, especially among pregnant and parenting adolescents, limited access to sexual and reproductive health services, and escalating mental health challenges linked to trauma and systemic neglect. These realities demonstrate that child helplines often engage children at the point where multiple institutional safeguards have already failed.
From Service Delivery to System Intelligence
Beyond service delivery, I underscored the strategic value of helplines as data systems. Each interaction is both a cry for help and a unit of real-time evidence. This data provides demand-side intelligence that can strengthen early warning mechanisms, improve intersectoral coordination, and enhance accountability across child protection, education, and health sectors. However, this resource remains significantly underutilised in policy and reporting frameworks across many African Union Member States.
I concluded my keynote with two key recommendations to the CSO Forum: first, the institutionalisation and sustainable financing of national child helplines, including adoption of the continental 116 short code as integral components of formal child protection systems; and second, the systematic integration of helpline data into national reporting to ACERWC, as well as complementary civil society reporting processes, to strengthen accountability and visibility of children’s lived experiences.
Children rely on national child helplines as trusted, confidential, and accessible entry points for psychosocial support, counselling, information, and professional referrals.
Strengthening Through Collaboration
These themes were reinforced during a high-level panel convened by the African Population and Health Research Center, where I contributed to discussions on systemic barriers affecting adolescent inclusion in education and access to sexual and reproductive health services. We reached a shared conclusion: effective child protection requires integrated, data-informed, and child-centred national systems, rather than fragmented interventions.
Bringing the Message to ACERWC
The advocacy continued into the 47th Ordinary Session of ACERWC, held from 17–25 April 2026 at the Mathabiseng Convention Centre. Addressing the Committee on behalf of Child Helpline International, I delivered a formal statement situating helplines within the broader landscape of challenges confronting African children, including hunger, armed conflict, harmful cultural practices, climate change, and rising physical, psychological, and online violence. I stressed the mental health implications of these conditions, noting that children rely on national child helplines as trusted, confidential, and accessible entry points for psychosocial support, counselling, information, and professional referrals.
Drawing attention to scale, I highlighted that child helplines in Africa receive around 3 million contacts every year, over 8,000 distress calls from children every day, underscoring both the demand for these services and their operational significance. Yet a critical gap remains: out of 55 African Union Member States, only 31 currently have operational national child helplines, leaving millions of children without access to these essential services.
A Call to Action for Universal Access
I issued a direct appeal to policymakers: we must ensure that all Member States without functional, 24-hour child helplines urgently establish these services and adopt and maintain the continental short code, 116. I also emphasised the importance of integrating helpline data into national accountability systems, as an underutilised but critical asset providing real-time, demand-driven evidence directly from children.
In closing, I returned to a simple but urgent message:
“EVERY CHILD HAS A VOICE – BUT NOT EVERY COUNTRY HAS A NATIONAL CHILD HELPLINE SERVICE.
It’s our call to action to make sure that every African Member State has a national Child Helpline.”
Michael Marwa
Chief Executive of C-SEMA and the Regional Representative of Child Helplines in Africa
