III. Actions that can change the world
Investing in children is, quite simply, the best investment a
government can make. No country has made the leap into meaningful
and sustained development without doing so.
Strategic leadership
Decisions by political leaders have profound effects in the private
lives of families in the years from the prenatal development of
the baby through school age; in the years of primary school; and
the adolescent years, when the child is grappling with the full
complexity of the world.
ECD
High-quality care in early childhood is a prerequisite of healthy
human development. It is also a fundamental human right. The world’s
leaders must ensure that every child, without exception, has their
birth registered; that they start life safe from violence or abuse;
that they have sufficient nutrition, clean water, proper sanitation
and health care. And just as importantly, communities must ensure
that the emotional needs of children are being met; that they
are given the requisite intellectual stimulation and early learning
opportunities; and that their parents and other primary caregivers
receive enough support and information to provide a nurturing
and enriching environment. If national and local governments do
not deliver these things, they will be making a costly mistake
– as well as failing their moral and legal obligations as
set forth in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Good ECD programmes encompass all of the child-survival goals
with which UNICEF is traditionally identified: maternal health,
safe childbirth, regular postnatal check-ups, immunization, growth
promotion through breastfeeding, complementary feeding, provision
of micronutrients and parental education about nutrition and health.
But they extend also into the mental, social, emotional and spiritual
development of children in their early years: both the physical
and psychosocial care they receive and the stimulation they enjoy.
Basic education
The case for investing in basic high-quality education –
particularly in the education of girls – has been well established.
It enhances life and expands opportunities for all and its benefits
can be seen across the board.
Girls given the opportunity to go to school tend not just to
improve their own life chances and potential but those of their
future children and families – and of society as a whole.
Girls’ education has been proven to reduce child mortality,
improve child health and nutrition, improve women’s health,
and to reduce population growth – given that educated women
tend to marry later and have fewer children. Societies that invest
in educating girls and boys equally reap huge development dividends.
Adolescence
Governments that have ratified the Convention on the Rights of
the Child must accept that adolescents have inalienable rights.
Adolescents have the right to relevant and reliable information
from a variety of sources, including parents, teachers, the media
and peer educators. They have the right to be taught the life
skills they need for the teenage years when they are exploring
their own identity and independence – skills in negotiation,
conflict resolution, critical thinking, decision-making, communication
and earning a livelihood. Securing and guaranteeing these rights
would not only help young people, it would help human society
as a whole.
Leadership responsibilities without borders
All countries have economic incentives to invest in children.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child stipulates that ratifying
governments must implement all of the children’s rights recognized
in the Convention “to the maximum extent of their available
resources” and have accepted the legal and moral obligation
to use the best interests of children as the mediating principle
when tough economic decisions have to be made. National and state
level finance ministers and financial institutions must accept
their responsibilities for the ways in which countries use the
public purse to invest in children.
The Convention does add a rider, however, stating that “where
needed,” the resources should be sought “within the
framework of international co-operation.” Developing countries
must do all they can, but it is abundantly clear that most of
them will fall short of the 2015 targets reaffirmed by the international
community at the Millennium Summit unless there is a significant
increase in external assistance – and a major infusion of
the resources from debt relief.
The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, which
was painfully slow and circumscribed at first, is finally starting
to kick in. By early 2000 HIPC had provided debt relief to only
four countries: Bolivia, Guyana, Mozambique and Uganda. Now, the
‘enhanced’ version of HIPC has at last begun to make
a difference, and 22 poor countries receive varying amounts of
relief that should eventually amount to around $34 billion. This
should help reduce their debt to one third of what it was at the
start of the process.
Another extremely welcome development has been the announcement
by the G7 countries that they will forgive 100 per cent of the
bilateral debt owed them by HIPC-qualified countries.
Nations that claim leadership of the global economy must set
behind them the broken promises of the last century and respond
to the call by the Managing Director of the IMF, Horst Köhler,
for “a campaign to mobilize public support for action by
all OECD governments and parliaments to reach the 0.7 per cent
target within this decade.” That public support should not
be difficult to enlist: A recent poll in the United States found
that respondents believed their Government to be spending well
over 20 per cent of the federal budget on foreign aid. When asked
what they considered to be an appropriate level of foreign aid,
the answer averaged out at 14 per cent of the budget.
An encouraging event took place in London in February 2001. The
UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, and International
Development Secretary, Clare Short convened a one-day conference
on International Action against Child Poverty that marked a notable
change of emphasis. Finance ministers from many parts of the world
were invited, along with the heads of the World Bank and IMF and
delegations from key UN agencies and NGOs. It was a recognition
that the development goals that the international community has
undertaken to meet by the year 2015 have little chance of being
met unless all parties work together with markedly more commitment
than has been shown hitherto – and most particularly unless
the finance ministers and international financial institutions
that control the resources are on board.
Speaking by satellite link at the event, Nelson Mandela challenged
those in the audience, “We must move children to the centre
of the world’s agenda. We must rewrite strategies to reduce
poverty so that investments in children are given priority.”
The Special Session on Children
The UN General Assembly’s Special Session on Children, the
culmination of years of work by literally thousands of organizations,
was scheduled to be held in New York in September 2001, when it
was postponed following attacks at the World Trade Centre. It
is to be rescheduled for early 2002. The ground had been prepared
for it, as with any major UN conference, by a series of preparatory
gatherings at which key issues were debated and explored, and
guiding principles and targets to which national governments will
be asked to commit themselves had been painstakingly drafted and
revised.
The widest possible range of civil society organizations working
with and for children played an active part in the debate from
the start. Representatives of NGOs had broad access and made significant
contributions to both the process and the draft documents. They
created an alliance aimed at ensuring that the world takes seriously
the idea that children have fundamental human rights, that they
must have the first call on our energy, commitment and resources.
It is an alliance, moreover, which did not just aim to represent
children’s needs and concerns but was founded on their participation.
So it was that in Jomtien, Thailand, in April 2001, there was
an unprecedented gathering of children aged between 11 and 18
from countries all over East Asia. In the same month, children
from 27 countries across Europe and Central Asia met in Budapest
to work on a Young People’s Agenda for Europe and Central
Asia. There was a similar Regional Youth Forum in Amman, in November
2000, involving children from the Middle East and North Africa,
while in April 2001 in Kathmandu, a group called The Change Makers,
with children from the eight countries of South Asia, presented
their own vision of the future to corporate leaders from the region.
A world fit for children
When it is finally held, the Special Session will be a unique
opportunity for the world’s nations to make a clean break
with the tradition of leaving hundreds of millions of children
abandoned in poverty or exploited in labour, condemned to everyday
hunger or denied the benefits of learning.
We have learned a great deal over the decades of development
about the way in which promises are discarded or evaded –
always leaving children to bear the brunt of the betrayal. We
have learned that targets and goals have to be specific, timebound
and measurable – and that progress towards them has to be
carefully monitored and reviewed.
Now it is the turn of those who hold in their hands the greatest
power – and the greatest responsibility – to bring about
change. As Nelson Mandela has said: “Any country, any society,
which does not care for its children is no nation at all.”
Those who would call themselves leaders must give all that is
needed – no less will do – to create a world fit for
children.
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