Improving public financing for children
Better public spending on children is an investment in the future of the country
The challenge
Like many countries around the world, Kyrgyzstan faces significant challenges in allocating public funds towards children's well-being. A struggling economy, poor management and the interests of policymakers all contribute to low public spending on areas such as health care, education, and social protection to meet the needs of children.
One key issue is the limited availability of reliable and comprehensive data on child-related expenditure in the national budget. Planning and budgeting have focused on inputs rather than on the results to be attained. The lack of robust data about children and the major gaps that need to be addressed hinder effective resource allocation. Without the ability to plan towards results, identify funding gaps and measure the impact of investments, ministries cannot make the case for allocating scarce resources to children’s wellbeing.
The solution
UNICEF works with relevant ministries to effectively plan and budget for children, secure adequate investment in human resources and align budgets with commitments on child rights and gender equality and achievement of the SDGs.
This work includes supporting the government to develop robust systems to track social expenditure against key indicators of success aligned to the SDGs. UNICEF helps to identify gaps in funding and resource allocation. This helps to inform policy decisions and increase investment in critical areas, such as early childhood development, education, health, and social protection.
UNICEF facilitates knowledge sharing among government officials, civil society organizations and other stakeholders to ensure that plans and their budgets are formulated, executed, and monitored in the most effective ways. This includes supporting the development of child-sensitive budgeting tools and guidelines, as well as providing training on budget analysis and advocacy.