Tuesday 24 / February / 2026
Muscat: Three ministries in Oman are teaming up to create a digital platform to monitor child welfare and end violence against children.
The move will see the Ministry of Social Development, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education collaborate on this together, with child welfare being one of the key objectives of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
UNICEF Oman will also be a part of this digitised system, which will alert the government to areas of child welfare which need to be addressed and which organisation will coordinate the efforts to tackle them. An experimental setup of this system will first run in several schools in the city of Nizwa and in Bausher, during the first semester of the 2019/20 academic year, which runs from September to December.
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Commenting on this, Khalfan Al Jabri, General Director of Administrative and Financial Affairs at the Ministry of Social Development and Chairman of the steering committee to oversee the preparation, implementation and follow-up of the system said, “Data analysis in 2013 and 2017 showed that some outcomes for children did not materialise because of gaps in inter-sectoral coordination at the level of service delivery that require effective referral between health, education and other social services.” “To address this, the Sultanate and UNICEF have developed a cross-sectoral system for coordination, cooperation and referral between those relevant sectors,” he added. “The case management process is designed from a common perspective between child protection, disability and early childhood development, and will provide a comprehensive approach that results in improved outcomes and user satisfaction. We will see improved quality, accessibility and efficiency in services, greater participation from beneficiaries in decisions and solutions and coordination with other service providers will be strengthened”.
A statement from UNICEF Oman said, “Currently, the Ministry of Social Development, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education are working on a cross-sectoral digitised information management system that will enable regular and robust data collection and analysis in the area of child protection so that no child is left behind.”
Child welfare is an important element of Oman’s Vision 2040 programme and is also in line with the Sultanate’s Royal Decree Number 22/2014 as well as international human rights instruments and existing cross-sectoral services and aims to address concerns raised by children and their families.
Dr Yahya bin Bader Al Mawali, Undersecretary at the Ministry of Social Development added, “The protection of children from all forms of violence requires active cross-sectoral collaboration between the Ministries of Social Development, Health and Education. It is only when we work together as government bodies that we can protect the children – the future – of Oman.”
UNICEF and the Sultanate of Oman had hosted an event which focused on ending violence against children at the recently held High Level Political Forum (HLPF) in New York. This year also marks the 30th anniversary of the Convention of the Rights of the Child.
The CRC – considered to be the world’s most ratified child treaty in history – was signed by world leaders in 1989 as they committed to protect and fulfil their rights by adopting an international legal framework – the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. “In July 2019, the Government of Oman took the next step forward with a renewed commitment to its partnership with UNICEF and working for every child by speaking out against violence in schools,” said Lana Al Wreikat, UNICEF representative to Oman.
“Ending violence against children in schools and beyond is not only critical to achieving the Global Goals, it is an investment for a better future.” “As we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Convention of the Rights of the Child, and almost 50 years of partnership between UNICEF and the Government of Oman, I would like to congratulate the government on their renewed commitment to work for every child at the 2019 High Level Political Forum,” she added.
Francesca Salem, who works as Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Assistant for UNICEF programmes is also a member of the committee for UNICEF’s Joint National Programmes with countries. Joint Programmes help to achieve greater system-wide coherence that supports national priorities and needs. The strategic intent of joint efforts is to help countries coordinate development programmes themselves. Benefitting from the UN development system and United Nations Country Teams (UNCTs), such development should be inclusive and sustainable.
“This system is designed to achieve effective participation, linking, simplifying and coordinating the intensive efforts of the three ministries, and other bodies whose work is in the interests of the child can be added in the future,” she explained. “The system will help to establish the basis for effective referral processes that provide integrated chain care starting from prevention, then follow up and monitor the cases in all sectors.”
She added: “The system will be used to coordinate the identification, evaluation and referral of children and families to the required services, will help ensure the system of follow-up processes and remedy the case permanently, and the information collected will be able to identify the resource requirements for successful implementation of the system. So, all parties involved become interrelated and work better when they are designed to deal with each other in a coordinated and strategic way.”
Dr Baby Saamuel, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Indian Schools in Oman, said, “We appreciate the efforts of UNICEF and our ministries in ensuring that sufficient focus is being given to child welfare. We, as an educational system that strives to place our children at the focal point of our decisions, definitely support this venture. The possibilities of collaboration shall of course be explored in the years to come once the initiative has been fully implemented in Oman and there is greater clarity on the scope.”
