The African Report on Child Wellbeing 2011

The African Child Policy Forum has released its second ‘African Report on Child Wellbeing 2011’ in a series of reports published biennially. The report updates many of the issues discussed in the previous edition and monitors the degree of progress made; but at the same time it is also unique, in that it singles out an important theme – ‘budgeting for children’. ‘The African Report on Child Wellbeing 2011: Budgeting for Children’ reviewed the budget performance of 52 African governments focusing on spending in sectors that most directly impact on children.

It explores in greater depth the obligations of African countries to invest in their children, the arguments for doing so – from a moral, social, political, and economic perspective – and, the importance of the national budget
•    positively impacting upon the wellbeing and quality of life of children, through budget allocations to sectors that most impact upon children’s lives;
•    representing an effective barometer of true government commitment to the rights of the child.

The report lays down recommendations for the African countries to comply with. They need to:

1.Make budgets more ‘child-friendly’

• Reviewing budgets to ensure that priority is given in budgetary allocation and implementation to the realisation of chilren’s right and wellbeing

• Putting in place participatory and transparent budget frameworks and processes to ensure efficient use of resources

2. Prioritise early childhood development including investing at least 6% of their education and health budgets in early childhood development

3. Monitor Africa’s budgetary commitment - ACPF has developed a Performance Index for Budgeting for Children that uses indicators to compare and categorise countries performance in terms of their commitment to utilise the maximum amount of available financial resources in sectors that benefit Children

4. Expand health facilities making them widely accessible to all children and mothers as well as ensure investments in health are translated into health outcomes by improving efficiency and addressing issues of governance, resources, accountability and systemic factors that affect the effective utilisation of health budgets.

5. Invest in secondary education as an integral part of their educational policy and national education budgets, and tackle issues around girls education as in most countries in Africa girls have a lower completion rate than boys

6. Align social protection to their policies on education, health, housing and food security

7. Invest in the sectors and programmes that impact on children and to continue to build on the momentum of the past decade e.g. UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Dakar Declaration and other

Click here to access the full report  

The African Child Policy Forum is a leading, independent, not-for-profit, pan-African centre of policy research and dialogue on the African child. ACPF was established with the conviction that putting children first on the public agenda is fundamental for the realisation of their rights and wellbeing and for bringing about lasting social and economic progress in Africa.