Zambia's commitment to children's rights - the budget perspective

Through an analysis of budgetary allocations, this study analyses the extent to which the Government of Zambia has attempted to realise its formal commitments to child rights. The analysis covers budgetary allocations and expenditures over a period of eleven years from 1991 to 2001, focusing on six sectors: education, health, child affairs, social welfare, juvenile justice and recreation.

The report analyses the situation of children in Zambia, government structures committed to implementing children’s programmes, legal measures undertaken to implement children’s rights, and the process by which the budget is formulated.

It finds persistent underfunding during the whole period of the study. This is due in part, the authors suggest, to insufficient government domestic revenue and unreliable donor support, but also to weaknesses in the budgeting system and a lack of prioritisation of child rights within the budget. An additional problem identified is the lack of data on expenditures on child-related activities.

The authors offer the following recommendations for policy makers, government and donors:

• to refocus domestic resources toward poverty reduction by deepening structural, planning and budget reforms
• to ensure a more efficient and transparent utilisation of public resources
• to harmonise government structures to avoid a duplication of functions and thus improve the application of meagre resources on child programmes
• to establish dedicated units or “desks” for child rights in the Ministry of Finance and National Planning
• for the government to set a minimum country standard to reflect the worst-case scenario for social, cultural and economic rights – ie the level that cannot be justified
• for donors to fulfil their pledges of budgetary or project support for child-related programmes
• for the government to continue replicating the pilot juvenile reforms across the country
• to budget for recreational infrastructure development under the Ministry of Local Government and Housing, since local authorities have not prioritised this function
• for government to take serious steps to address the problem of orphans and children living and working on the streets

Appendices present departmental budget information, information about similar studies in other countries, trends in social expenditures, as well as data on child stunting, underweight and wasting, and education attendance and progression rates.