At a glance: Guinea-Bissau

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With three successive governments in place since the legislative elections in 2004, Guinea-Bissau’s chronic political instability has greatly impeded development efforts. However, recent efforts by the government to impose greater transparency, rigor and discipline into the country’s fiscal practices have been rewarded by renewed financial support by various other governments and the World Bank – leading to increased global investment in Guinea-Bissau, where almost two thirds of the population lives below the poverty line.

Issues facing children in Guinea-Bissau

• Non-payment of salaries has led to waves of strikes by teachers and health workers, resulting in the loss of months of school for children and the shutdown of health services.
• Infant mortality (per 1,000 live births) has risen 80 per cent since 2000. Malaria, acute respiratory infections, diarrhoea and malnutrition remain the major killers of children.
• Only 39 per cent of children under five years of age sleep under insecticide-treated mosquito nets to prevent malaria. Four per cent are severely malnourished and 19 per cent suffer from moderate malnutrition. Less than 1 per cent of households consume adequately iodized salt.
• Some 3.8 per cent of the adult population is infected with HIV/AIDS. Thousands of pregnant women are HIV-positive, raising the risk that they will transmit the virus to their babies.
• Child trafficking is common between Guinea-Bissau and Senegal, where borders are poorly guarded. The majority of children brought into Senegal from Guinea-Bissau – as many as 100,000 – end up as ‘talibés’, forced to beg on the streets in return for an education by religious leaders known as ‘marabouts’. These children do not have access to school and heath care.

Activities and results for children

• To coincide with the International Day on Violence Against Women, UNICEF helped organize a Consultation on a National Strategy for the Abandonment of Harmful Practices. The first such event to be organized in a decade, it was intended to raise awareness of the effects of female genital mutilation/cutting.
• As a result of UNICEF-supported training sessions, child trafficking has been openly recognized by local and central authorities as a serious problem. Dozens of children have been saved from exploitation, and trafficking and a number of trafficking networks of ‘talibés’ have been exposed and disrupted in north-eastern Guinea-Bissau.
•  During a UNICEF-supported national campaign to reverse malaria, children under the age of five were provided with long-lasting, insecticide-treated bed nets.
• UNICEF assisted in developing training programmes for teachers on behavioral-change themes including hygiene, water, sanitation and the correct use of latrines.
• As part of the same programme, some 15,000 adolescents from 140 schools were provided with information on HIV prevention, birth registration and the use of impregnated mosquito nets.
• UNICEF supplies all vaccines for Guinea-Bissau’s routine immunization programme. Recently, a special campaign reached children nationwide with polio immunizations and vitamin A supplements.
• In three disadvantaged regions, the Accelerated Child Survival and Development Initiative has reduced under-five mortality by 14 per cent through immunizations, vitamin A supplements and other health interventions. Some 20,000 families have attended training sessions on keeping children healthy.