Transcript Social policy and children in West and Central Africa Anthony Hodges, Regional Chief, Economic and Social Policy, WCARO.

Social policy and
children in West and
Central Africa
Anthony Hodges, Regional Chief,
Economic and Social Policy, WCARO
Overview
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The political context
Economic trends
Social and demographic trends
The development policy framework
UNICEF engagement in PRSPs and budgets
Poverty reduction and children
Social protection and children
UNICEF experience and capacity for social policy
programming
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The political context
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A very mixed picture
Multi-party politics, but quality of governance varies
widely
Successful elections in many countries (with transfer
of power in Sierra Leone in 2007), but some elections
denounced/boycotted (e.g. Senegal & Nigeria in 2007)
Peace agreement in Cote d’Ivoire and political
agreement in Togo in 2007, and post-conflict recovery
continuing in Congo, DRC and Liberia
But continued conflict in eastern DRC, northern CAR,
Chad, northern Niger, with huge population
displacements, human rights violations, disruption of
economy and social services
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Economic trends
• Positive real per capita growth in 21 of 24 countries in
2007: over 4% in 5 countries.
• Driven by partial recovery of post-conflict countries,
minerals/oil
• Macroeconomic stability & lower inflation, despite rising
oil and food import prices, partly due to CFA franc
appreciation against $
• Increases in government revenue, and large fiscal
surpluses in oil producers, but concerns about longterm sustainability
• And low income countries still have large deficits
• Benefits from debt relief tailing off and aid is growing
only marginally despite G-8 pledges
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Social and demographic trends
• Mixed picture on poverty reduction (MDG1)
– Reduction in poverty in a few countries (almost halved in
Ghana since early 1990s)
– Risen in conflict-affected countries
– Rising inequality rather than poverty reduction in some oil
producers
• Wide geographical disparities: urban/rural, regional
• Emergencies (floods, epidemics)
• Massive urbanization: over 40% of population in urban
areas in 13 countries, over 50% in 7 countries
• Unemployment and underemployment
• Youth crisis: frustration and lack of prospects, feeds
into conflict
• Crime, sexual violence, drugs, clandestine migration
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Mixed progress in reducing
income poverty (MDG1)
Poverty headcount in selected WCA countries
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51.7
50.5
50
44.5
37.5
%
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30
42.5
48.0
40.2
34.4
28.5
28.5
20
10
0
Benin (2002,
2006)
Burkina F
(1994, 2005)
Cameroon
(1996, 2003)
Cote d'Ivoire
(2002, 2006)
Ghana (1991/2,
2005/6)
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Education: Far behind all other regions in
achieving universal primary education (MDG2)
Primary school net attendance ratio (2000-2006)
West & Central Africa
62
East & Southern Africa
70
South Asia
82
Middle East & North Africa
85
CEE/CIS
92
93
Latin America & Caribbean
East Asia & Pacific
97
50
60
70
80
90
100
%
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Child survival: Highest U5MR of all regions,
with very slow decline (MDG4)
U5MR 1990-2006
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CEE/CIS
53
27
Latin America & Caribbean
55
29
East Asia & Pacific
55
2006
1990
83
South Asia
123
46
Middle East & North Africa
79
186
West & Central Africa
208
131
East & Southern Africa
165
0
50
100
150
200
250
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Development policy framework
• 18 countries with full PRSPs, 2 with interim PRSPs
• Most focus on MDGs & child priorities under ‘pillars’ for
social services, human capital, social protection…
• SWAPs in at least 10 countries (education, health and
sometimes HIV/AIDS, WES)
• Reform of public administration, some decentralization,
PFM reforms (MTEFs, etc)
• Increases in social sector expenditure in some
countries due to improved public finances & PRSPs
• Aid alignment & harmonization, with major donors (WB,
EU, AfDB, DFID, Netherlands) providing general and
sector budget support in some countries
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UNICEF engagement in PRSPs
and budgets
• PRSPs have become the main framework for
development planning in low income countries.
• Therefore crucial for UNICEF to be fully engaged with
its partners in PRSP formulation/validation
processes, which are generally open and consultative
• Also important for UNICEF to engage with
governments on budget policy questions, to leverage
resources for children
• Be mindful of all stages of the planning-budget cycle:
PRSP formulation-MTEF-annual budget-executionreporting/audit/evaluation
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Poverty reduction and children
We want to put children at the forefront of PRSPs and
budget priorities for several reasons:
• Children constitute half of the population in WCA
• Children have special needs and are especially
vulnerable as the terrible U5M rates in WCA testify
• Children brought up in poverty will have limited
prospects to escape poverty in adulthood
• Investments in children (human capital development)
are a way to break out of poverty traps and break the
inter-generational transmission of poverty
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Social protection and children
• Bottom line in WCA is adequate investment in the
provision of essential services (health and education)
• But could be accompanied by social protection
measures to reduce vulnerability, risk and extreme
poverty among children (AU Livingstone Call for Action)
• Growing interest in social transfers (in particular cash
transfers) as a means of reducing vulnerability and
lifting children out of extreme poverty
• Cash transfers are also a means of overcoming
demand-side barriers of access to social services (fees,
transport, opportunity costs)
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Social protection and children (2)
• But many complex issues need to be addressed:
– The extent of poverty and the difficulties of targeting in WCA
countries
– The institutional weaknesses for administering complex
social protection programmes
– Trade-offs with supply side investments in service provision
(opportunity costs and affordability)
– Strategies need to be country-specific
• Also important not to forget the importance of social
welfare services:
– Cash can’t solve everything
– Need for special programmes to protect children from
violence, exploitation and abuse (preventive and recovery)
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UNICEF experience & capacity
• Nearly all Country Offices are engaged in upstream
policy work (FA5 of MTSP 2006-2009)
– Direct service delivery by UNICEF makes little sense except in
failed states and emergencies
– UNICEF is working for national scaled-up action to accelerate
progress towards the MDGs and fulfill child rights
– Our focus is therefore on policy advice (through evidencebased policy dialogue and advocacy) and building capacity to
strengthen governments’ policies, programmes, laws, budgets
and institutions, on behalf of children
– Example: the ‘investment cases’ for MDGs 4 and 5 (UNICEF
working with health ministries) and policy analysis/advocacy
for the abolition of primary school fees
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UNICEF experience & capacity (2)
• Challenges:
– Need to go beyond sector policy work to macro-level
(development planning, budgets, social protection)
– Need to build macro-level policy work into design of Country
Programmes
– Need to build up staff capacity (posts, training)
– Need to allocate CP resources
– Need to exchange experience and deepen knowledge
• Contribution of the 3 major sets of studies
• Conference planned for September 2008
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