Introduction

World Summit: Follow-up actions

National and subnational plans and strategies

The World Summit Plan of Action called on Governments to prepare national programmes of action (NPAs) to implement the World Summit commitments in a coordinated and strategic manner. In response, as many as 155 countries prepared NPAs for children and social development, and have implemented them to varying degrees. In almost all of these plans, the World Summit commitments were adapted to reflect country-specific challenges, priorities and aspirations.

In many cases, the NPAs were incorporated into national development plans, social policies and sectoral programmes. Countries that took this approach include Botswana, China, Egypt, Ghana, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Namibia, the Philippines, South Africa and Thailand. In many Latin American countries, national action for children was pursued through child-focused social policies and budgets. In Brazil, India, Uganda and elsewhere, action plans for children have formed part of state or district development plans and programmes. In Canada, Ireland and Sweden, national strategies were developed for the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Similar processes are currently under way in Costa Rica and New Zealand.

The national plans have elevated the profile of children in international and national political agendas and have advanced the mainstreaming of children's concerns in public policies and budgets. The establishment of benchmark goals and targets through NPAs has led to better monitoring of children's situations. Planning for children has also served as a vehicle for wider coordination in the social sectors, at the national, provincial and local levels. Accountability has been strengthened, as has awareness of the problems faced by children who lack access to basic services or mechanisms to ensure the protection of their rights.

At the World Summit, leaders also committed themselves to encouraging and assisting local governments as well as non-governmental organizations, the private sector and civic groups, to prepare their own programmes of action to help implement the Declaration and Plan of Action. More than 65 countries have implemented subnational programmes for children, including through municipal authorities. These exercises have helped fuel local demand for coordinated social development, and for more coherent approaches to social service provision, especially at the point of delivery. They have also helped reinforce a sense of social responsibility for children.

In a majority of countries and especially the more populous countries, subnational and local follow-up has taken place in the context of some form of decentralization. In certain cases, decentralization has brought development administration much closer to communities, opening up greater scope for participation and local accountability. It has also provided opportunities for coordinated action through district and community development plans and activities. In other cases, however, decentralization has suffered from inadequate resource transfers from the centre, weak local capacity, lack of clarity in the respective roles of local and central government, and failure to improve equity across territorial and social lines.

Four key qualities have been present in many of the positive experiences since the World Summit in national planning for children. The first is sustained levels of political commitment. The second is broad participation, especially among subnational governments and civil society, in the preparation, monitoring and evaluation of plans. A third is the initial or eventual mainstreaming of child-focused goals, priorities and strategies into wider national frameworks for development planning, resource allocation and implementation. The fourth quality is high-level coordination and monitoring of policies and strategies for children, with technical and administrative support from clearly identified agencies. These qualities have helped generate high levels of national ownership and consistent follow-up. Where they did not exist, however, action planning for children was sometimes an isolated technical exercise without wider influence.

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