Social policy and children in West and Central AfricaAnthony Hodges, Regional Chief, Economic and Social Policy, WCARO

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Overview• The political context• Economic trends• Social and demographic trends• The development policy framework• UNICEF engagement in PRSPs and budgets• Poverty reduction and children• Social protection and children• UNICEF experience and capacity for social policy

programming

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The political context• A very mixed picture• Multi-party politics, but quality of governance varies

widely• Successful elections in many countries (with transfer

of power in Sierra Leone in 2007), but some elections denounced/boycotted (e.g. Senegal & Nigeria in 2007)

• Peace agreement in Cote d’Ivoire and political agreement in Togo in 2007, and post-conflict recovery continuing in Congo, DRC and Liberia

• But continued conflict in eastern DRC, northern CAR, Chad, northern Niger, with huge population displacements, human rights violations, disruption of economy and social services

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Economic trends• Positive real per capita growth in 21 of 24 countries in

2007: over 4% in 5 countries.• Driven by partial recovery of post-conflict countries,

minerals/oil • Macroeconomic stability & lower inflation, despite rising

oil and food import prices, partly due to CFA franc appreciation against $

• Increases in government revenue, and large fiscal surpluses in oil producers, but concerns about long-term sustainability

• And low income countries still have large deficits• Benefits from debt relief tailing off and aid is growing

only marginally despite G-8 pledges

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Social and demographic trends• Mixed picture on poverty reduction (MDG1)

– Reduction in poverty in a few countries (almost halved in Ghana since early 1990s)

– Risen in conflict-affected countries– Rising inequality rather than poverty reduction in some oil

producers • Wide geographical disparities: urban/rural, regional• Emergencies (floods, epidemics)• Massive urbanization: over 40% of population in urban

areas in 13 countries, over 50% in 7 countries• Unemployment and underemployment• Youth crisis: frustration and lack of prospects, feeds

into conflict• Crime, sexual violence, drugs, clandestine migration

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Mixed progress in reducing income poverty (MDG1)

Poverty headcount in selected WCA countries

28.5

44.5

50.5

34.4

51.7

37.542.5 40.2

48.0

28.5

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Benin (2002,2006)

Burkina F(1994, 2005)

Cameroon(1996, 2003)

Cote d'Ivoire(2002, 2006)

Ghana (1991/2,2005/6)

%

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Education: Far behind all other regions in achieving universal primary education (MDG2)

Primary school net attendance ratio (2000-2006)

97

93

92

85

82

70

62

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

East Asia & Pacific

Latin America & Caribbean

CEE/CIS

Middle East & North Africa

South Asia

East & Southern Africa

West & Central Africa

%

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Child survival: Highest U5MR of all regions, with very slow decline (MDG4)

U5MR 1990-2006

165

208

79

123

55

55

53

131

186

46

83

29

27

27

0 50 100 150 200 250

East & Southern Africa

West & Central Africa

Middle East & North Africa

South Asia

East Asia & Pacific

Latin America & Caribbean

CEE/CIS

20061990

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Development policy framework• 18 countries with full PRSPs, 2 with interim PRSPs• Most focus on MDGs & child priorities under ‘pillars’ for

social services, human capital, social protection…• SWAPs in at least 10 countries (education, health and

sometimes HIV/AIDS, WES)• Reform of public administration, some decentralization,

PFM reforms (MTEFs, etc)• Increases in social sector expenditure in some

countries due to improved public finances & PRSPs• Aid alignment & harmonization, with major donors (WB,

EU, AfDB, DFID, Netherlands) providing general and sector budget support in some countries

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UNICEF engagement in PRSPs and budgets• PRSPs have become the main framework for

development planning in low income countries.• Therefore crucial for UNICEF to be fully engaged with

its partners in PRSP formulation/validation processes, which are generally open and consultative

• Also important for UNICEF to engage with governments on budget policy questions, to leverage resources for children

• Be mindful of all stages of the planning-budget cycle: PRSP formulation-MTEF-annual budget-execution-reporting/audit/evaluation

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Poverty reduction and childrenWe want to put children at the forefront of PRSPs and

budget priorities for several reasons:

• Children constitute half of the population in WCA• Children have special needs and are especially

vulnerable as the terrible U5M rates in WCA testify• Children brought up in poverty will have limited

prospects to escape poverty in adulthood• Investments in children (human capital development)

are a way to break out of poverty traps and break the inter-generational transmission of poverty

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Social protection and children

• Bottom line in WCA is adequate investment in the provision of essential services (health and education)

• But could be accompanied by social protection measures to reduce vulnerability, risk and extreme poverty among children (AU Livingstone Call for Action)

• Growing interest in social transfers (in particular cash transfers) as a means of reducing vulnerability and lifting children out of extreme poverty

• Cash transfers are also a means of overcoming demand-side barriers of access to social services (fees, transport, opportunity costs)

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Social protection and children (2)

• But many complex issues need to be addressed:– The extent of poverty and the difficulties of targeting in WCA

countries– The institutional weaknesses for administering complex

social protection programmes– Trade-offs with supply side investments in service provision

(opportunity costs and affordability)– Strategies need to be country-specific

• Also important not to forget the importance of social welfare services:– Cash can’t solve everything– Need for special programmes to protect children from

violence, exploitation and abuse (preventive and recovery)

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UNICEF experience & capacity• Nearly all Country Offices are engaged in upstream

policy work (FA5 of MTSP 2006-2009)– Direct service delivery by UNICEF makes little sense except in

failed states and emergencies– UNICEF is working for national scaled-up action to accelerate

progress towards the MDGs and fulfill child rights– Our focus is therefore on policy advice (through evidence-

based policy dialogue and advocacy) and building capacity to strengthen governments’ policies, programmes, laws, budgets and institutions, on behalf of children

– Example: the ‘investment cases’ for MDGs 4 and 5 (UNICEF working with health ministries) and policy analysis/advocacy for the abolition of primary school fees

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UNICEF experience & capacity (2)

• Challenges:– Need to go beyond sector policy work to macro-level

(development planning, budgets, social protection)– Need to build macro-level policy work into design of Country

Programmes– Need to build up staff capacity (posts, training)– Need to allocate CP resources– Need to exchange experience and deepen knowledge

• Contribution of the 3 major sets of studies• Conference planned for September 2008