Child Rights Budgeting Initiatives in Southern Africa: Experiences

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Child Rights Budgeting Initiatives in Southern
AfricaExperiences Lessons

• Mario Claasen
• Idasa, South Africa
• Addis Ababa, IPC, 13th May, 2008

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Overview of Presentation

• Brief overview of the Imali Ye Mwana Network
• Framework of Child Rights Budgeting (CRB)
• Five Case Studies on CRB Initiative
• Childrens Participation in Budget Process
• Challenges
• Lessons Learnt

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Imali Ye Mwana (Money for Children) Network

• Established in December 2004 after Global Seminar
  on Child focused Budgeting
  
• Network aims to advocate for increase efficient
  use of public resources for fulfilment of
  childrens socio-economic rights
  
• Membership includes South Africa, Zimbabwe,
  Zambia, Swaziland Botswana child rights CSOs
  
• Three year Strategic Plan with specific focus on
  childrens right to education
  

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Framework of CRB

• Not advocating for a separate child budget
• Rather advocate government policies budgets to
  reflect in priority, allocations expenditure
  for the advancement of child rights
  
• Key human rights principles related to budgetary
  issues progressive realisation maximum extent
  of available resources in CRC
  
• CRB framework provide tools to monitor
  governments policy, budget implementation
  commitments to realise childrens socio-economic
  rights

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CRB Methodology applied to right to education

• Step One Define the right to education in
  international, regional conventions national
  legal instruments
  
• Step Two Describe the education situation faced
  by children
  
• Step Three Identify if national education
  policies address the situation of children
  
• Step Four Examine status of government
  programmes, capacity to implement, challenges to
  beneficiaries in access

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CRB Methodology applied to right to education
(continued)

• Step Five Determine how much money is allocated
  spent for each of the programmes
  
• Step Six Determine the impact of the programme
  and the spending
  
• Step Seven (an overarching step) Establish the
  involvement of children throughout the budget
  process

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Case Studies South Africa

• Childrens Budget Unit in Idasa conducts research
  on child rights budgeting training and
  capacity building technical assistance
  advocacy
• Project on childrens participation in local
  budget processes
  
• Research is linked to advocacy campaigns in
  partnership with other CSOs like ACESS
  
• Child Support Grant Campaign by CSOs like CBU
  ACESS
  
• Resulted in real increase in the CSG age limit
  for eligibility increased to 14 years
  

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Case Studies Zimbabwe

• NANGO undertook Child Friendly National Budget
  Initiative (CFNBI)
  
• Conducts research lobby policy budget makers
  at national district level network build
  alliances
  
• CFNBI work has resulted in Early Childhood
  Education included in the primary education
  sector
  
• Decentralisation of child birth registration
  issue of certificates
  
• Greater inclusion of district based communities
  in national and local budget processes
  
• Established Zimbabwe Child Youth Budget Network
  (Z-CYBN)

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Case Studies Zambia

• ZCEA Child Budget Project
• Use strategies of research, capacity building
  coalition building
  
• Undertook first a situational analysis study of
  child rights budget allocations
  
• Used for advocacy with government officials
  policy makers
  
• Advocacy resulted in priority of childrens
  programmes in national budget info on
  disaggregated budget allocations in education,
  health welfare
• Established child rights clubs in schools

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Swaziland Botswana

• Swazilands child rights budgeting led by Save
  the Children Swaziland CANGO
  
• Partners undertook study on OVC Education Bursary
  Fund (main social security programme)
  
• DITSHWANELO- Botswana Centre for Human Rights
  started in 2007 with first child budget study
  
• Results of both countries research outputs will
  be used for advocacy purposes

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Childrens Participation in Budget Process

• CBUs Children Participating in Governance
  Project (CPG)
  
• Four existing childrens organisations in four
  provinces of SA
  
• Used peer facilitator model of training children-
  selected 20 peer facilitators who in turn trained
  child budget monitors in their respective
  organisations
• Fortaleza, Brazil Learning Exchange in 2005
• Training changed childrens perceptions of
  themselves, I learnt that children do have a
  voice and that there are people willing to listen
  to usI learnt to use my power I have as a child
  and Ive become confident around a lot of
  people.

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Childrens Participation in Budget Process

• NANGO establish childrens clubs use local
  government junior councils
  
• Trained children on their rights, national
  local government budget processes advocacy
  strategies
  
• Children held district based forums with district
  policy makers. Children started the Zimbabwe
  Children Youth Budget Network
  
• Held in 2007 National Childrens Conference on
  the Budget.

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Challenges in Child Rights Budget Work

• Lack of reliable disaggregated information on
  children budgetary expenditures
  
• Expanding CRB in other CSOs not easy as its not
  mainstreamed in these organisations
  
• Mistrust between CSOs government officials in
  Zimbabwe in particular

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Overall Lessons Learnt

• CRB is more successful when linked to a broader
  advocacy campaign, not just for academic
  purposes
  
• Capacity building initiatives should target both
  beneficiaries decision-makers
  
• Networks and alliances are important to have
  advocacy impact
  
• Mainstreaming of CRB in a CSO ensures
  sustainability
  
• Child participation unlocks the potential of
  children make policy makers aware of the needs
  of children