Lome – A cross-regional group composed of six organisations have urged African heads of state and government to allocate substantial budget for children in their development policy.
The group that comprised UNICEF, WAO-Afrique, FODDET, Plan International-Togo, Terre des Hommes and BorneFonden, on Tuesday made the call in Lome.
Group Spokesman, Dr. Isselmou Boukhary, Resident Representative of UNICEF, observed that 385 million children in the world live below the extreme poverty line with less than two U.S. dollars per day.
He stressed that over half of them live in the sub-Saharan Africa.
“Implementation and realization of conventions and treaties about children’s rights and welfare require funding.
“Without financing, these treaties and different conventions remain empty promises,” he said.
Boukhary called on African heads of state and government to pay primary attention to a better allocation of budget to sectors that have impact on the lives of the children.
He said that, between 2010 and 2011, public budget allocated to health and social protection accounted for 8.6 per cent of GDP at the global level, while that in the Sub-Saharan Africa stood at 4.2 per cent of the GDP.
Boukhary noted that public financing for children’s protection reaches 2.2 per cent of GDP in central Europe, while the figure is only 0.1 per cent in the sub-Saharan Africa.
The advocacy was raised on the sideline of the African Union Summit that kicked off on Monday.
The summit, from Oct. 10 to Oct. 15, is expected to adopt an African chart relating to maritime security, safety and blue economy.
The side-events deal with topics such as maritime piracy and trafficking, blue economy, the challenges of maritime security and safety, maritime governance, and exchanges at judiciary and police level.
(Edited by Hawa Lawal/Julius Enehikhuere)
