Lack of funding and inadequate staff in key government departments handling different cases of Gender Based Violence (GBV) and child abuse have been singled out as some of the contributing factors to the delay of cases in the courts.

These sentiments come as government departments which deal directly with various cases of GBV and child abuse such as district social welfare office and police are grappling with challenges of inadequate staff and funding for their operations in the various districts of the country.

According to Executive Director for Youth Net and Counselling (YONECO) MacBain Mkandawire, these are some of the factors which have negatively affected progress of various cases of abuse for instance which are still hanging in these offices.

“Having fewer social workers means that a lot of cases will be pilling and that will have an impact to the delivery of services to the children, it is important for government to ensure that they have adequate social workers for them to be able to provide the service they are supposed to provide,” said Mkandawire.

He further said inadequate funding for social welfare and other government departments heavily affects various child protection interventions such as reintegration of children and following up of cases.