The African Report on Child Wellbeing 2011

This report is a sequel to The African Report on Child Wellbeing 2008. It updates many of the issues discussed therein and monitors the degree of progress made; but at the same time it is also unique, in that it singles out an important theme - 'budgeting for children'. A national budget is a powerful economic policy instrument, offering a major opportunity for governments to influence income distribution and address the causes and impact of poverty - and of course, ensure child wellbeing. African governments, like other governments, must protect the millions of children who run the danger of falling into cracks between policies and budget priorities. The African continent counts millions of such children, living on the streets, orphaned, working under exploitative and hazardous conditions, affected by conflicts and/or living in abject poverty without adult care and support. While recognising the efforts of some governments in developing and adopting a number of important policies and with hundreds of millions of dollars being committed to the benefit of children, many African countries still run the risk of failing to achieve many of both continental and global commitments. This is due to limited capacity of budget implementing agencies, lack of timely, reliable and sustainable flow of funding, rampant resource leakages and corruption. Hence it is crucial that governments and development partners put more emphasis in capacity building and putting in place a proper and functional budget regulatory framework. Ce rapport est egalement disponible en francais.