JCTR Bulletin 4th Quarter 2017

This is the final issue of JCTR Bulletin this year. We are blessed with articles traversing a wide range of issues. Arguably there is an underlying theme of active citizenship running throughout all the articles. An active citizen is a person who actively takes responsibility and initiative in areas of public concern. The articles cover a number of areas of public concern such as child protection, human rights, national budget process and investment of scarce public resources in priority areas. Some of the priority areas discussed in this edition’s articles are education, access to clean water in rural areas and policy issues relating to agriculture including irrigation, value chain, and food storage. We encourage you as a JCTR Bulletin reader to engage with the issues being addressed in the articles, as this exercise by itself is an element of active citizenship. For instance, in his article “Pilate Effect: The Dangerous Limits of Child Protection Policies”, Temple Anuforo, S.J. asks hard questions about child protection policies to challenge us in discerning and rethinking various forms of interventions or programs of action that are actually at the service of the intended beneficiaries (the children themselves) other than maintaining the status quo which entrenches the practice where organisations are preoccupied with shielding themselves from liability by making sure that the right boxes are ticked.