1. Public Policy and Child Wellbeing Reflections on good practices and the child- friendliness of African Governments Assefa Bequele, PhD The African Child Policy Forum First International Conference on Child Poverty and Disparities Cairo, 19 January 2009 www.africanchildforum.org

2.  Slowly but surely Africa is changing  Considerable progress In health expenditure  Public health coverage considerably expanded  Result: Lower child mortality rates  Impressive progress in education State of child wellbeing in Africa

3.  Widespread poverty & deprivation  Conflict and war  Exclusion from basic services  Orphanhood  Disability State of child wellbeing in Africa…cont’d But, still problems, problems and

4. Measuring Child-friendliness  Three core principles Protection Provision Participation

5. 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).

6. How protective are African governments... Cont’d Best and worst performers in child protection Best performers Worst performers Kenya Guinea-Bissau Madagascar Swaziland Burundi Gambia Morocco São Tomé and Principe Namibia Central African Republic

7. Ranking of governments for budgetary commitment... cont’d Most committed and least committed governments Most committed Least committed Malawi Eritrea Botswana Comoros Burkina Faso Sao Tomé and Principe Seychelles Guinea Namibia Sudan

8. Child-friendliness of African governments The whole picture  Maximum effort to respect, protect & fulfil child rights and ensure child wellbeing  An aggregate measure of governments’ performance in child protection and provision

9. Child-Friendliness: Categories  Most child-friendly  Child-friendly  Fairly child-friendly  Less child-friendly  Least child-friendly

10. Most child-friendly governments  Overall Performance

11. 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

12. Country CF ranking relative to GDP capita  Countries that moved up in ranking MalawiUp 38 th place Burundi30 th Burkina Faso25 th Mali21th Kenya18th 

13. Country CF ranking relative to GDP capita  Countries that moved down in ranking  Sudandown 17 th place  Gabon18 th  Angola19 th  Swaziland33th  Equatorial Guinea37th

14. Findings  It is politics, and not economics, that matter  Two-pronged approach essential: Laws, policies based on the Best Interests of the Child Pro-children Budgetary Policies

15. Three things that matter  Politics that value children  Laws that protect them  Budgets that provide for them.