Every 15th of May has been set aside by the United Nations as a day to commemorate the International Day of Families. The theme for the 2023 International Day of Families is ‘Demographic Trends and Families’. For us at BBFORPEACE, as we join actors all over the world to mark this day, we are x-raying the role of families in achieving the sustainable development goal 16.
Society is made up of separate but interdependent formal and informal institutions that function together for peaceful co-existence. The formal institutions comprise the various tiers of government and its agencies at the federal and subnational levels. For starters, one can point to the executive, judiciary, legislature and all its paraphernalia.
Formal structures are charged with official governance roles and are involved in the daily implementation of government policies including maintaining law and order. Beyond the formal institutions, there are also other equally important structures outside the realms of formal governance. These informal institutions comprise the family, cultural and religious organizations, civil society organisations and many more. The level of stability in any country is measured by the optimal and complementary functioning of both the formal and informal institutions of governance. Informal institutions are usually the first contact of every individual. Among the informal institutions themselves, the family comes first.
The family is the basic unit of society yet it establishes the strongest means of socialization and influence that an individual carries throughout life’s journey. It is often ritually repeated that society is the individual writ large. Consequently, the character of individual families is what conglomerate makes the character of society, as such, a society that enjoys peace, stability and development is likely one whose families have passed on such values to the individuals.
It is therefore clear that the majority of the development goals of the government will likely be achieved if families are built as important components of development. It is in this context that this piece explores the opportunities for harnessing the strengths of the family in achieving goal 16 of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Nigeria and Sustainable Development Goal 16
Goal 16 of the Sustainable Development Goals is aimed at promoting just, peaceful and inclusive societies. Nigeria is a major signatory to this global development agenda. However, the country is threatened by intractable conflict in its six geopolitical zones. Nigeria still battles with terrorism in the northeast, banditry in the northwest and northcentral, secessionist agitation in the southeast and southwest, piracy and cult-related violence in the south-south, southwest and southeast. This is in addition to the farmer-herder conflict and inter and intra-communal crisis that affects every part of the country. These are serious blockades to the attainment of sustainable development goals.
Much like the Millennium Development Goals that Nigeria arguably failed to achieve, the country is already getting negative reviews on its quest to attain sustainable development goal 16. So far, the Nigerian government has majorly adopted kinetic strategies and engaging formal structures in its quest to enthrone peace and stability. At best, it has only engaged civil society organisations but neglected the fundamental institutions that serve as the bedrock of the development of basic positive values of peace and stability like the family.
The Role of the Families in achieving SDG 16
The family is seen as the smallest unit of society, yet plays a fundamental role for the existence and building of a peaceful society. The family inculcates in the individual basic behavioural traits and even in adulthood, it still exerts considerable control over individuals.
The childhood stage of human development is the most important stage of learning. It is at this time that the child learns to differentiate what is good from bad. How well the child learns the values of tolerance, love, forgiveness, peaceful resolution of conflicts, and accommodation amongst others will determine the life choices, actions and inactions of adults.
Therefore, a society constantly at war is one that a greater number of families have likely failed to entrench good values. The basic physical, mental, emotional responses and skills are learned from parents during the first years of life. It is thus clear that the vital pre-requisites for social living are at the mercy and vagaries of family life.
It is important to note that four basic factors determine a child’s learning process which in turn determine the attribute or traits of the child in the later years. These factors include;
- The environmental factor
- Size of the Family
- Availability of social protection
- Love and affection
The Environment
The environment is one of the basic factors that affect a child’s behaviour. A peaceful environment determines a child’s understanding of how peace can be maintained whereas, an environment occupied with conflict activities will also structure the child’s ideology on conflict issues. Consequently, what a child learns in his environment determines the perception of that child when he grows up.
It is on this note that it is important for families to play good roles to making sure that they bring up their children in an environment free from war and other violent activities. From a psychological view, a child learns faster at an early age than later. This is so because children are always curious to know what is happening around them, their environment inclusive. Teaching a child about the importance of peacebuilding at that early stage of life gives the child an awareness of what society is, and what they are expected to do as individuals to make the society a better place. But once a child is not oriented but rather live in a conflict-ridden environment, that child tends to grow up with traits that promote violence or best become indifferent in the face of it.
Size of the Family
If there is anything more important in a child’s life, it’s the love and affection he gets from his family and loved ones while growing up. The rendering of love makes the child feel accepted and he reciprocates the love to others in society in a later course.
To parents, it is important to understand that the size of the family is one thing that affects a child’s behaviour. When the family is large, little attention will be given to the children or sometimes, some will feel loved more than others. That is why it is good that parents give birth to the number of children they can cater for.
To reduce the financial burdens in large families, children often the trade-offs. They are either forced into child labour or transferred as caregivers to friends and other families making them easy prey to child and drug trafficking, drug abuse and worse still they are denied education. This often results in psychopathy and sociopathy reinforces hatred in society and the quest for violence.
Availability of Social Protection
Similar to the earlier factor mentioned, the basic things a child needs while growing up, are care and love from families. The number of children parents give birth to should be equivalent to their resources so that they will look after the welfare and well-being of their children without any financial constraints and problems.
Many needs of children involve money whether it is their education, clothing, welfare, etc. Many families in Nigeria are preoccupied with subsistence farming and fishing leaving very little disposable resources to take care of the needs of children.
To meet up with their needs children resort to child labour because they have not been equipped enough in many instances to be gainfully employed they become easy recruits into non-state violent groups, ritual gangs, internet fraud and kidnapping syndicates.
Conclusion
The family is the first institution of socialisation where the individual learns the basic behavioural traits to promote peace and stability in adulthood. More so, even in adulthood, the family still provides some checks that control the character of an individual. However, the important role of the family has been grossly underutilised in promoting the achievement of sustainable development goals.
Recommendations
As we commemorate the 2023 International Day of Families, here are some recommendations:
- Government and international bodies need to focus on families and provide simplified toolkits that they can use to socialize children on achievement of the sustainable development goals.
- Government and NGOs should provide specific SDG family clubs that will bring various families together for knowledge sharing and play games aimed at learning peaceful coexistence.
- Programming and peace messaging on radio and television should be structured in a manner that simplifies and captures the roles of every individual in family peacebuilding.
- As stakeholders put in more work to ensure that families have direct access to the needed resources towards achieving SDG 16, families should also play their part by ensuring there is peace and tranquility amongst themselves. Parents should teach their children the sense of brotherhood, they themselves should ensure to be role models to their children by portraying the acts of peace in all their dealings; these and many more would make the society thrive effortlessly.
Written
Eseimokumo Albert and Anthonia Folashade
BBFORPEACE Communication