How committed are African governments to budget for children?
Yehualashet Mekonen
Senior Programme Manager,
The African Child Policy Forum (ACPF)
NGO Group for CRC
Annual GA meeting, March 11, 2011
Geneva
Outline of the presentation The CRC and government accountability
Budgets and child wellbeing: The link
How committed are African governments to budget for children
The Scorecard
Key priority areas for action
Encouraging improvements in accountability for children and child wellbeing.
But still, many governments are not doing what they could have done.
ACPF’s Child-Friendliness Index (CFI) is a contribution to monitoring compliance and expedite implementation of the CRC.
CRC was used as a framework to identify the dimensions and indicators:
1. Legal and policy framework put in place to protect
2. Governments’ budgetary commitment to provide for
3. The efforts governments put to ensure child participation
The CRC and government accountability
The CRC and government accountability . . .
Mauritius Namibia Tunisia LibyaMoroccoKenya South Africa Malawi AlgeriaCape Verde Rwanda
Burkina Faso
Malawi Botswana Burkina Faso Seychelles Namibia Tunisia Swaziland Cape Verde Mauritius South Africa Djibouti
What else emerged from the analysis?The need for a two-pronged approach to ensure child wellbeing:
Pro-child laws and policies Adequate budgets for children
What was the result from the 2008 assessment?The most child-friendly
Countries that performed well in budgetary terms
Child wellbeing outcomes/ Delivery of
services
Efficiency and effectiveness in budget implementation
Volume and composition of
budget for children
Review of policies, economic
prospects, draft allocation
Transparency, citizen’s
participation and approval
How does budget affect child wellbeing?
BUDGETS AND CHILD WELLBEING: THE LINK
Realisation of the rights provided for in the CRC entail costs.
Budgets have greater impact on children in countries where parents have limited capacity to provide for their children.
Governments have to take a deliberate action to budget for children.
BUDGETS AND CHILD WELLBEING: THE LINK
What do we mean by budgeting for children?It refers to a budget system in which children’s best interests come first.Allocation of sufficient budgets to progressively realise child rights. It is about ensuring efficient utilisation and effective targeting to achieve concrete wellbeing outcomes?Involves creation of a space for children’s participation
Analysing budgets from a child rights perspectiveAllows examining whether governments are utilising the maximum amount of their available resources to meet their obligations to children.Four operational categories of budgets for children have been identified: budgets for child development, health, education and social protection.
How committed are African governments to budget for children?
Early childhood
Pre-school
Rat
e of
ret
urn
to
inve
stm
ent in
hum
an c
apita
l
School programmes
Job training
Pre-school Post-school Age
Investment in early childhood development (ECD) . . .Early childhood is a period when the foundations for physical and cognitive developments are laid.Deprivations during early childhood have lasting consequences on health, behaviour and learning outcomes.
From economic perspective, ECD has the highest rate of return.
How committed are African governments?
Despite these facts, ECD: Has not received the attention it deserves
in Africa. Only 20 of the 52 countries studied in
Africa had official ECD programmes. Less than two per cent of the education
budget is used for pre-primary education.
Pre-school education services, for example, are limited to urban areas and to affluent families, excluding vulnerable groups of children.
How committed are African governments?
How much is budgeted for education? . . .
Only six countries kept their promise to the Dakar commitment.
Tendency to strive to achieve education participation targets at the expense of quality.
0.31.41.4
1.7
1.8
1.9
4.2
7.1
7.2
7.6
8.1
8.7
13.3
0 5 10 15
SudanEquatorial …
Central …GuineaCongo …Chad
MEDIAN …Kenya
TunisiaSwazilandBotswana
DjiboutiLesotho
Per cent
How committed are African governments?
How much is budgeted for the health of children? . . .
Only four countries – Liberia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia - were able to achieve the Abuja target of committing 15 per cent of their budget to health in 2008.2.4
3.5
4
4.2
9.1
15.2
16.2
16.8
18.9
0 5 10 15 20
Burundi
Nigeria
Guinea-Bissau
Eritrea
MEDIAN (Africa)
Zambia
Tanzania
Liberia
Rwanda
Per cent
How committed are African governments?
Yet, many countries still have high rates of child mortality.
4947576178
6580
5754
9181
527274
107115116116117118119129141152153162164165
0 50 100 150 200 250
Congo (Brazzaville)Cameroon
ZambiaBurkina Faso
BurundiEquatorial Guinea
NigerCentral African Republic
NigeriaMali
Guinea-BissauDRC
AngolaChad
Deaths per thousand live births
Target for 2015Level in 2009
`
How committed are African governments?
Budgeting for social protection . . .
The unmet need for SP is estimated at 80%.
SP is the most neglected sector in Africa.
Most countries budget about 3% of their GDP
2.83.6 5.7 7.1 7.6 8.9
1114.1
17.9
0
5
10
15
20
Sub
-Sah
aran
Af
rica
Asia
and
the
Pac
ific
Wor
ld
Mid
dle
East
Latin
Am
erica
and
the …
Nor
th A
mer
ica
Nor
th A
frica
Cen
tral
and
Ea
ster
n Eu
rope
Wes
tern
Eur
ope
Per
cen
t of G
DP
The Scorecard
All the elements of budgeting for children were summarised into Performance Index for Budgeting for Children
The most committed governments
Country Rank
Tanzania 1
Mozambique 2
Niger 3
Gabon 4
Senegal 5
Tunisia 6
Seychelles 7
Algeria 8
Cape Verde 9
South Africa 10
What did these countries do?They allocated a relatively high percentage of their public resources to sectors benefiting children,Progressively increased these allocations over time.
The Scorecard . . .
Lower share of their budgets go to sectors benefiting children
Decline in allocation over the years.
Relatively higher expenditure for military
The least committed governments
Country Rank
Sudan 52Guinea-Bissau 51Eritrea 50Burundi 49Dem. Rep. Congo 48Comoros 47Sierra Leone 46Angola 45Guinea 44Central African Republic 43
What does the progress look like since 2008?
The Scorecard. . .
Countries with significant
improvement
Countries which declined in their
performance
Tanzania Malawi
Mozambique Burkina Faso
São Tomé and Djibouti
Benin Lesotho
Zambia Burundi
Gambia Dem. Rep. Congo
Niger Mali
Senegal Namibia
The improvements in ranking were largely due to substantial increases in:
Investment in the health and education of childrenCommitment to financing national immunisation programmes, andReduction in military spending.
The Scorecard. . .
Relationship between budgetary commitment and per capita revenue
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
0.0
0.2
0.3
0.5
0.6
0.8Li
bya
Eq. G
uine
a
Ango
la
Egyp
t
Sud
an
Mau
ritan
ia
Cam
eroo
n
Sen
egal
Côt
e d'Iv
oire
Gha
na
Ken
ya
Moz
ambi
que
Rw
anda
Tanz
ania
Nig
er
Libe
ria Sco
re fo
r per
cap
ita re
venu
e
Budg
etar
y Com
mitm
ent I
ndex
Budgetary Commitment IndexScore for per capita revenue
Higher income,lower
budgetary commitment
Low income,higher
budgetary commitment
The three key messages that emerged from the analysis:
1.The need to give priority to the rights and wellbeing of children in budgetary allocation and implementation.
2.Ensuring efficient use of resources through transparent budgetary frameworks and processes.
3.Ensuring adequate support for, and investment in, early childhood development.
Key priority areas for action
Visit our Information Hubwww.africanchild.info
or use the link
http://www.africanchildforum.org/africanreport
THANK YOU
Top Related