DATA BRIEFS: PROGRESS AND DISPARITY Debt takes heavy toll on children's rights Out of 27 developing countries surveyed, only 9 manage to spend more on basic social services than on debt servicing, according to a recent study by UNICEF and UNDP. Six of the 12 African countries in the survey spend more than twice as much on debt as on basic social services. Such social services — including primary and reproductive health care, nutrition, safe water, adequate sanitation and basic education — are essential in safeguarding children's right to survival and development and in overcoming entrenched poverty. In nine of the countries, debt payments absorb more than 30% of the national budget, and in Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania (excluding Zanzibar) and Zambia, debt drains 40% or more of budgets. In comparison, basic social services receive, on average, only 13% of national budgets, and less than 10% in seven of the countries — Brazil, Cameroon, Dominican Republic, Malawi, Nicaragua, Philippines and Zambia. These findings indicate that world leaders need to renew the commitments made at the 1990 World Summit for Children to work for debt relief. The findings also demonstrate why debt reduction is vital for the 20/20 Initiative, supported by UNICEF and other international agencies, which urges that developing countries allocate 20% of their budgets for the basics and that donor countries also earmark 20% of their official development assistance for the basics.
** International Monetary Fund, Government Finance Statistics Yearbook, 1996, data for the same or latest available year.
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