How child-friendly are

African governments?
Assefa Bequele, PhD

The African Child Policy Forum

First CSO Forum

Friday, 17 April 2009

www.africanchildforum.org
Child-friendliness: what
does it mean?

 Children’s “closeness” to
policy and political agenda

 Do we put their “best interests” as

a basis for law?

 Do they matter in money matters?

 Do we listen to them?
Measuring Child-
friendliness

 Three core principles

 Protection

 Provision

 Participation
Child-friendliness of African
governments

 Maximum effort to respect,

protect & fulfil child rights
and ensure child wellbeing

 Child-friendliness is an
aggregate measure of
governments’ performance in
child protection and provision
 Measuring Child-friendliness . .
. Cont’d

 Based on more than 40

indicators

 Covered all 52 African states

(except Somalia and Saharawi
Arab Republic)

 Assessed performance at a
point in time (2004-2005 and
1999- 2001).
I. How protective are our
governments

The report assesses government performance

in child protection by looking at:
 Ratification of international and regional
legal instruments relating to children
 Existence of provisions in national laws
to protect children against harm and
exploitation
 Existence of a juvenile justice system,
National Plan of Action (NPA) and
coordinating bodies for the implementation
of children’s rights
 Existence of a national policy for free
primary education.
How protective are African governments . .
. Cont’d

Best and worst performers in child protection

Best
performer Worst performers
s
Kenya Guinea-Bissau
Madagasca
r Swaziland
Burundi Gambia
São Tomé and
Morocco Principe
Central African
Namibia Republic 
II. Ranking of for budgetary
commitment

Indicators:
 Government expenditure on health
 Government expenditure on education
 Governments’ contribution to the EPI
budget
 Military expenditure
 Percentage change in governments’
expenditure on health
Budgets: Most and least committed governments
cont’d

Most committed Least committed

Malawi Eritrea 
Botswana  Comoros 
Burkina Sao Tomé and
Faso  Principe
Seychelles  Guinea 
Namibia Sudan 
Child-friendliness: Recall

 Maximum effort to respect,

protect & fulfil child rights
and ensure child wellbeing

 Child-friendliness is an
aggregate measure of
governments’ performance in
child protection and provision
Most child-friendly
governments
 Overall Performance
Mauritius  1

Namibia  2

Tunisia  3

Libya 4

Morocco 5

Kenya  6

South
Africa 
7

Malawi  8

Algeria 9

Cape
Verde 
10
Least child-friendly
governments

Least child-friendly governments

Country Rank

Guinea-Bissau  52
Eritrea  51
Central African Republic  50
Gambia  49
São Tomé and Principe 48
Liberia 47
Chad 46
Swaziland 45
Guinea 44
Comoros 43
Findings

It is politics, and not

economics, that matter

Two-pronged approach to public

policy:
Laws, policies based on the
Best Interests of the Child
Pro-children Budgetary Policies
Further: Priorities for
Budgetary Policy

 Combat child illness and death:

Increase Health budget to as high as
20% of government expenditure, or a
minimum of 9%

 Raising the proportion of GDP that

goes to education to as high as 13%,
with a minimum of 4.3%

 Combat orphanhood; keep parents

alive; make ART widely available
Conclusion: Three things
that matter
 An African vision based on and around
children and the primacy of human
capital

 Adoption of appropriate laws and

effective enforcement Laws that
protect children

 Pro-children and pro-poor budgets that

provide for children & their families
Final words: Three things
matter

Politics that value children

 Laws that protect them

 Budgets that provide for them.

 Thank you

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