The Economic Burden of Violence Against Children
Data on economic burden of Violence Against Children (VAC) in Nigeria with the associated budgetary implications are required for planning, investment and other actions aimed at improving the prevention of VAC.
Highlights
Data on economic burden of Violence Against Children (VAC) in Nigeria with the associated budgetary implications are required for planning, investment and other actions aimed at improving the prevention of VAC. This will contribute towards improved child protection system in Nigeria; design, agenda setting and adequate budgetary allocations for optimal system operations.
Data from the National Violence Against Children Survey of 2014 were analyzed to provide the magnitude of losses due to violence against children. The impact on selected health and education outcomes were considered The analysis was done in four steps:
I. Estimation of the national prevalence of violence against children;
II. conducting regression analyses to estimate violence against children outcome relationships;
III. establishing the Population Attributable Fractions (PAFs) for specific outcomes and effect that are linked to violence against children and
IV. developing a costing model to estimate the economic burden of violence against children for various health outcomes based on PAFs calculated in step three
The study revealed that about half of Nigerian children reported some form of physical violence by a parent, adult relative, community member or intimate partner prior to attaining the age of eighteen. The study also revealed that the cumulative loss of earnings as a result of productivity losses across different types of violence against children was 967 billion Naira (US $6.1 billion) accounting for 1.07 per cent of Nigeria's GDP.
In summary, this report provides the evidence, especially the economic justification that is needed to prioritize child protection services, especially those that will lead to elimination of violence against children, recognizing the need to arrest the build-up of risks and vulnerabilities throughout the life cycle as associated with the adverse health, education and productivity effects of VAC
