Social policy and children in West and Central Africa

1. Anthony Hodges, Regional Chief, Economic and Social Policy, WCARO Social policy and children in West and Central Africa

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. Mixed progress in reducing income poverty (MDG1)

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

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

9. 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

10. 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

11. Poverty reduction and children • We 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

12. 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)

13. 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)

14. 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

15. 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