Organizations call for more budget for children during AU summit

A cross-regional group composed of six organizations on Monday urged African heads of state and government to allocate substantial budget for children in their development policy.

The group comprises UNICEF, WAO-Afrique, FODDET, Plan International-Togo, Terre des Hommes and BorneFonden.

Group spokesman Dr. Isselmou Boukhary, resident representative of UNICEF, said 385 million children in the world live below the extreme poverty line with less than two U.S. dollars per day, while 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 percent of GDP at the global level, while that in the Sub-Saharan Africa stood at 4.2 percent of the GDP.

Boukhary noted that public financing for children's protection reaches 2.2 percent of GDP in central Europe, while the figure is only 0.1 percent 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. Endi