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Public finance for children (PF4C)

UNICEF supports the generation and analysis of equity in public expenditure data, focusing on the distributional equity of social spending.

Children listening to their teachers.

The challenge

All countries make choices how to invest their limited financial resources, an especially difficult choice when they are faced with challenges such as declining or stagnating revenues. The decisions governments make about how to fund social policies and services are critical to children and to equitable development overall. If allocations are insufficient, concentrated on better-off groups, or used poorly, all children, and especially the most disadvantaged, risk losing access to services and programmes that essential for their wellbeing.  

In that regard, the government budget is one of the most important instruments for implementing children’s rights. It is through government budgets that policies and commitments to children can be implemented and services to children delivered.

In many instances there are considerable differences between allocations and actual expenditures on social services. Ensuring that scarce resources are used in the most efficient and effective way possible, on impactful programmes that generate the highest positive social returns for the most vulnerable people, guarantees that services are delivered to everyone in need and in the most effective manner.

The solution

Making children a budget priority! - UNICEF supports central and local governments in prioritizing spending on social services for children, emphasizing the long-term benefits of investing in children and generating evidence of the impact these investments have on human capital development.

UNICEF supports the generation and analysis of equity in public expenditure data, focusing on the distributional equity of social spending.

These analyses can help in estimating the cost of closing the gaps in public spending for children, assessing the distributive effects of public policies and public spending, and improving the targeting of public resources.  Such work also supports the financing of policies that support greater equity and inclusion, around promoting gender equality, social inclusion of children with disabilities, social protection for children and financial support to migrant and refugee children.

UNICEF’S PF4C work focuses on,

  • Supporting Data And Evidence Generation to advocate for greater and better public investments in children and inform sector reform
  • Engaging In the Budget Process to influence and support allocation decisions and improve spending performance
  • Supporting Domestic Resource Mobilization and facilitating service providers’ access to credit to expand domestic financing of services and programs
  • Empowering Citizens including children and adolescents, communities and CSOs to track spending and participate in national/local budget processes

 

UNICEF Türkiye and the Government are working together to improve child-sensitive expenditure analysis, resource allocation and public investments for children across key sectors such as early childhood interventions, education, health, child protection, and social protection. Building on the evidence generated by activities such as Budget Briefs and Child Focused Public Expenditure Measurement, this partnership focuses on demonstrating child related policy and program commitments in budgets; identifying cost-effective and equitable ways to deliver services and to make investments for children; and improving the flow and utilization of budgeted resources for service delivery at national and local level.