Social policy
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© UNICEF/EAP00025/YR |
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Increasing disparities push many families into difficult situtations in Thailand |
Rapid economic growth has transformed our region, bringing with it some remarkable social achievements. Primary education is almost universal. More and more children are being immunized and leading healthier lives. But that still leaves the poorest decile – 100 million children – stunted, not immunized or missing out on quality education or other essential services. The region’s ‘miracle of growth’ is passing them by. In response, UNICEF is helping governments develop effective social and economic policies that will sustain growth and also help people who are poor, excluded and vulnerable.
Our Social Policy support has three focus areas:
- Addressing inequalities. Children are not born with equal opportunities, and income inequalities amplify these differences. UNICEF helps governments create and implement policies to achieve universal coverage of essential services, such as health and education. Through this assistance, UNICEF helps all children come closer to having the best start to life.
- Finding the funds. Economic liberalization is increasingly associated with attempts to reduce public sector, and often social service, expenditures. Cost-sharing – the transfer of responsibility from the state to the consumer – is affecting children’s access to education and health services. UNICEF is assisting governments in developing social policies and child-friendly budgets, as well as leveraging resources from donors and international financial institutions, that improve outcomes for children.
- Supporting decentralization. Most governments recognize that decentralization provides better quality services to their citizens by enhancing local control. But initial attempts of several countries to decentralize did not build adequate local capacity to manage services, resulting in supply breakdowns, poor public response and eventual ‘recentralization’. UNICEF is helping governments, sector by sector, to create decentralization policies that will result in sustainable improvements in child welfare.
