Effects of Drought on Child Protection in Hard-to-Reach Communities in Kenya

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This is an important, comprehensive contribution to the literature. It is clear and well-reasoned. I would suggest more references to studies in Kenya and elsewhere on these issues. Tell us how Kenya is doing, and why. Who is at fault for the limited services? What can be done politically? Provide parents' rationale for circumcision of daughters. Are older girls not circumcised? Explain why children are at special risk when a nonrelative male is in the house; see Daly & Wilson's Homicide. Explain maslaha. Explain why striking a child is harmful and ill advised.

The authors need to improve their written English. Learn the use of the colon and comma. Break up long sentences. Avoid unnecessary words. Be concise. Learn what parallelism is.

Specific comments:

Line 6--adolescents

7f--the likelihood...families in parentheses

9--informing, not to inform

10--adopted

11--omit study....a survey

15--were not was

21--ditto....strengthening, not the need to strengthen

22--sensitizing, not sensitize

23--strengthening, not strengthen

38--are, not is

41--or exploitation

49--caretakers not carers

52--omit The

55ff--reword and break up sentence

75--heightening not heightened

82--omit with the ongoing drought

84--omit formed of

86--semicolon before unprotected

88--a likelihood

99--are not is

112--omit The

113--of which not whereby

114--in this area

117--omit and before fodder

119--is to...studies not study,,,.omit on before of

121--on how to

123--omit that before and

127--ensures that

131--omit them

137--adolescents

141--and the capacities

145--adolescents

148--omit presence of

153--adopted a

154--which a...omit the before primary...omit currently done

157--of not with

216--purposely

238--a majority

239--the majority

241--ditto

243--including grandparents?

248--colon not semicolon

266--transition?

268--another

271--comma after animals

274--engage

275--no comma after included

286--commas before and after in girls

289--the majority

290--and taking

291--were not was

313--incidents

317--ditto

327--omit and substance abuse

330--offenses prevailed

332--omit reported...were not being

337--mainly not majorly

339--colon not semicolon

343--and substances

344--fathers not male parents 

346--omit semicolon

353--omit materials

355--having access to phones to view pornography, not the availability of

359--omit ever been

370--commo before which

372--other relatives

384--were reported

390--were not was

400--comma before thus...are not is

401--colon not semicolon after are

407--mainly

420--The majority

427--to not in

430f--informal

434--comma not semicolon

441--of not on

448--While

463--the main

465--were not being

467--comma before some

468--children under

474--of not on

506--cater to

509--aides

513--to not on

Comments on the Quality of English Language

See above. 

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thanks for the feedback. We have addressed all the comments that you raised. In addition We have improved on the language, breaking down long sentences and properly uses the commas and colons from line 6 to the end. The revisions are highlighted in red in the revised manuscript.

Please see my comments below

This is an important, comprehensive contribution to the literature. It is clear and well-reasoned. I would suggest more references to studies in Kenya and elsewhere on these issues. Tell us how Kenya is doing, and why. Who is at fault for the limited services? The Government lacks capacity to employ adequate social workfrce  due to limited budget and competing demands, the  referral pathways are not strong enough to address child protection risks, this may be as a result of poor coordination by the Government and adhoc response by some partners. What can be done politically? Lobby national and County Government to allocate resources for child protection including support for community volunteers to bridge the gap in sical workforce for service delivery. Provide parents' rationale for circumcision of daughters. A girl who is not circumcised will not find a suitor and will bring shame to the family and the entire clan Are older girls not circumcised?  Older girls and women will still be circumcised so as to fully belong to the community however the practice is to undergo the right at the age of 14/15 years when they start menstruating as a sign of maturity and ready to be married off.  see Daly & Wilson's Homicide. Explain maslaha. Maslaha entails the male elders in the community sitting under a tree to resolve a conflict between the affected families. This is a form of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) which is mostly used to resolve conflicts that arise between members of the same or different clans( The standard Media, Kenya) Explain why striking a child is harmful and ill advised.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Clear introduction that right away sets out the problem and contextualizes it—engaging and very readable.

Line 55 “The Minimum Standard for Child Protection Humanitarian Action”—more information would be helpful. Who generated this? Year? Use? By NGOs? UN? States?

Line 66—not sure what the word “dekad” is—explanation would be helpful.

Methodology—explain what is meant by a “non-experimental design”. The meaning and relevance of this to the study is not clear. More explanation on what the particular design for methodology was selected would be helpful—what informed the choices about the selection of the methodology design, and what information was it hoped would be elicited from these approaches? Are these the same or different than similar research (if there is any)?

Line 156—it says that an “extensive literature review was conducted.” But no further information is given on this. A section on the results of the literature review would be helpful.

Line 303—on the occurrence of FGM during drought and necessity for marriage—are these findings from the study? If so, this should be made more clear. If from other sources, that should also be made more clear.

Line 326—Drug and Substance Abuse

Are these statistics from your study or another source? More information and clarity is needed on this.

This article covers an important and compelling area, and the recommendations are thorough and balanced. However, more attention is needed to some detail within the presentation of the results and engaging with other research literature.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thanks for your feedback. We have addressed the comments raised in the revised manuscript. The changes are highlighted in red.

Line 55 “The Minimum Standard for Child Protection Humanitarian Action”—more information would be helpful. Who generated this? Year? Use? By NGOs? UN? States?

A set of essential guidelines adopted by Counties for protection concerns faced by children in humanitarian contexts. They were developed by the Alliance for child protection in humanitarian actiion

Line 66—not sure what the word “dekad” is—explanation would be helpful.

10 days especially of rainfall

Non- experimental Design

This design approach involves random sampling of the study participants that are not controlled. This helps to reduce the bias and ensure that all participants have equal chance of being selected in the study. This was the most appropriate  design; its more authentic in understanding the behaviour of the different study participants (men, women, children) in the context of drought

Line 156—it says that an “extensive literature review was conducted.” But no further information is given on this. A section on the results of the literature review would be helpful

 Notably, Literature review has been captured in the in the introduction and Context sections. we have included additional review highlighted in red

Line 303—on the occurrence of FGM during drought and necessity for marriage—are these findings from the study? If so, this should be made more clear. If from other sources, that should also be made more clear.

These were findings from the study. There was close linkage between FGM, child marriage and teenage pregnancy as a result of drought in the study areas.

Line 326—Drug and Substance Abuse

Are these statistics from your study or another source? More information and clarity is needed on this.

This has been revised. The statistics were obtained from the government children offices but were not very clear.

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The revisions to the article are helpful, and now it reads in a much more clear and informative manner. A few issues remain as set out below:

Some repetition on lines 149-160 and 179-189. This should be edited to remove repetition.

Methodology—there is still the need to explain what is meant by a non-experimental design. There is still a reference to an extensive literature review, but without referring to the review within the article—this needs to be clarified, if in fact the literature review within the article is part of the methodology of the experiment.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

There is the need for some editing, to check for grammar in places. This is minor but is in need of editing attention.

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

Thanks for your comments. They have been addressed below;

Comment 1: Some repetition on lines 149-160 and 179-189. This should be edited to remove repetition.

The repeated section (179-189) has been removed

Methodology—there is still the need to explain what is meant by a non-experimental design.

By non-experimental design, this means that we randomly sampled and studied the participants and how they drought affected child protection concerns. We did not control for any variables as it is the case with in experimental designs such as random Control study designs (RCTs). 

There is still a reference to an extensive literature review, but without referring to the review within the article—this needs to be clarified, if in fact the literature review within the article is part of the methodology of the experiment.

The literature review is mentioned as part of the methodology used in the study besides field data collection. The review done was captured in the background and context sections, and mainly focused on the status and challenges of the child protection in the country not review of the methodology. I hope this clarifies.