|
|
|
|  Executive
Speeches
Address by Carol Bellamy, Executive Director, UNICEF, to the
African-Arab Preparatory Conference for the forthcoming General
Assembly Summit on Children
Marrakech - 21 May 2001
Your Majesty, Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates:
UNICEF fully subscribes to the Secretary-General's identification
of education as a key priority in poverty eradication, and his view
that investing in education and other programmes of special importance
to children will yield vast dividends over the long run.
This is especially true of education for girls. We know from hard
empirical evidence that girls who are educated generally have healthier
and better-educated children; that they are more likely to understand
what they must do to protect themselves and their families against
HIV/AIDS and other diseases; and that they tend to have smaller
families.
That is why the UN Girls' Education Initiative is at the core
of preparations for the Special Session on Children in September,
and why - as the Secretary-General said in launching it last year
- implementing its goals will require substantial national commitments.
As the Secretary-General also indicated, these and other investments
in children require a visionary and long-term commitment, as the
experience of parts of sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia has shown.
We know that investments in children are extraordinarily productive
- but we must be mindful that returns on these investments will
materialise only if they are sustained over the long term.
Let us also not forget that investing in children is a moral and
legal obligation.
One hundred and ninety-one countries accepted that obligation
when they ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, history's
most widely ratified human rights instrument.
As a result of these commitments, the1990s were a time of notable
progress toward the goals of the World Summit for Children - including
gains in child immunisation that have now brought polio to the brink
of eradication; the widespread prevention of iodine deficiency disorders
through salt iodisation; greatly expanded access to primary education;
extensive provision of vitamin A supplements, and the promotion
of breastfeeding standards.
But for all the millions of young lives that have been saved over
the decade, and for all the futures that have been enhanced, these
triumphs fall far short of the promises that governments made to
children in 1990.
As we crossed into the new Millennium, children under the age
of 5 were still dying at the rate of more than 10 million a year,
all from preventable causes like diarrhoea, measles, and acute respiratory
infections, while 150 million children are malnourished, often at
a cost of developmental handicaps that can last a lifetime; over
100 million children, 60 per cent of them girls, never see the inside
of a school; and 1 out of every 10 children have serious disabilities.
And this toll is occurring in the face of deepening poverty and
inequity, including the burden of external debt; gender discrimination
and violence, environmental degradation and natural disasters. These
have been joined in recent years by the catastrophic spread of HIV/AIDS,
along with the proliferation of armed conflict and related problems
like anti-personnel land mines, the worldwide trafficking of small
arms, and the merciless recruitment of child soldiers, whose re-integration
into society poses immense difficulties.
Yet UNICEF believes that we now stand at the most opportune moment
imaginable for reaching the remaining goals that were set at the
World Summit for Children - and for mobilising governments and citizens
of every nation, including families, communities, and civil society
organisations, to carry the banner of a Global Movement for Children
- a worldwide campaign to build a shared sense of responsibility
for the well-being of every child on earth.
Dear Friends, we know what needs to be done - and nothing speaks
louder than financial commitments. The principal reason that so
many of the World Summit goals have gone unfulfilled is under-investment
in basic social services. However, developing countries are currently
devoting only 12 to14 per cent of their national budgets to basic
social services, while developed countries earmark only about 11
per cent of their ODA.
It is a situation that cries out for a strong and united response.
That is why UNICEF has been urging ministers of finance, from developing
and developed countries alike, to take steps to ensure the long-term
future of their countries by putting the well-being of children
at the heart of the budgetary process.
Unfortunately, commitments to reduction of infant mortality and
child malnutrition, primary education and gender equality, are often
inadequately reflected in budget restructuring and policy reforms
at the national and sub-national levels.
It has been suggested that one way to address these shortcomings
would be to create a children's budget committee. Such a committee
could be an effective lobby to defend the best interests of children
in the budgetary process and to promote assessments of the impact
on children of proposed budgetary decisions.
Essentially, the committee would function as a think-thank and
watch-dog, with a clear objective of steering public policies and
investment towards reaching the international development targets
for children. The committee would be made up of representatives
of government, parliamentarians representing various parties, members
of the civil society, academic institutions, the private sector,
children themselves and UNICEF.
In the case of Morocco, the National Child Rights Observatory
could became a "secretariat" on follow-up for the committee.
For example, such a committee could advise ministries on policies
and programmes, while building partnerships between the public and
private sectors and between government and non-governmental actors.
My Friends, I firmly believe that all of this is feasible, and
that we can put human development back on a positive track by decisively
shifting national investments to favour child well-being - and all
of us here today can help accelerate that shift as we approach the
General Assembly's Special Session on Children.
The Special Session, which will open less than four months from
today, will be the biggest and most momentous international meeting
on child rights since the World Summit for Children more than a
decade ago - and we have every expectation that national leaders
will use the occasion to commit themselves to a set of specific
actions to help the world's children in the first 10 years of this
new century.
This will require new and expanded partnership involving governments
and every level of civil society, including the business community
and private enterprise. For it is only through broad and committed
partnerships that we will reach the remaining World Summit goals;
tackle poverty, HIV/AIDS and armed conflict; and establish a comprehensive
agenda for children for the first 10 years of this new century.
To succeed, we will need to enlist not only established leaders,
but people of influence representing every part of civil society,
from non-governmental organisations, religious groups and private
enterprise to people's movements, academia and the media, community
and grassroots groups, families - and children themselves.
President Nelson Mandela and Graça Machel have already
assumed a direct and personal role in that effort, telling leaders
from every walk of life that if we want a just, equitable and thriving
world, we must invest in children now.
Your Majesty, Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates: UNICEF has
every hope that heads of State and Government will appoint Personal
Representatives to attend the final Preparatory Committee meeting
for the Special Session that begins on June 11 - and that top national
leaders will themselves come to the Special Session in September
with specific commitments, including action plans that involve civil
society, especially children and young people themselves.
My Friends, Morocco has shown an extraordinary commitment to making
the Special Session a success - and on behalf of the United Nations
Children's Fund, I want to commend His Majesty and the Moroccan
Government for their inspirational leadership.
With such commitment and vision, I have every confidence that
we will meet the goals of the World Summit for Children and the
Millennium Declaration targets - and assure nothing less than a
second revolution in child survival - a revolution aimed not only
at saving lives, but at imbuing those lives with dignity and worth,
in a world based on equity.
Thank you.
|
|
|
