The experience of Promoting Investment in Children · The social stakeholders, community-based organisations, associations, unions, political parties and social movements, as well

2006 – 2012

The experience of Promoting Investment

in ChildrenAuthor: Jorge Oroza M.Technical assistance: Orlando Sosa L.

Centro de Políticas Públicas y Derechos Humanos

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Introduction

• Investment in children

• Examples of investment in children for Latin America

• A roadmap for investment in children

• Lessons learned

• Final thoughts

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INTRODUCTION

Since 1998 until now, Save the Children and other organisations have been working in the promotion of a greater investment in children and of a better use of available resources. In this effort, covering the whole Latin American region, committed with a rights-based approach, hundreds of institutions and professionals have taken part: Save the Children Sweden, Save the Children UK and Save the Children Norway (now a part of Save the Children International), the Jesuit universities Pacífico, Javeriana and Iberoamericana, the national coalitions and Redlamyc. Besides these institutions, there are also NGOs specializing in the issue, such as Cedeca Ceará, Intervida and Equidad, as well as independent consultants and members of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, such as Rosa María Ortiz, Susana Villarán and Norberto Liwsky.

In these 15 years, we have achieved a series of products or landmarks, such as the contributions to the Committee’s Day of General Debate (in September 2007) and the elaboration of a proposal of contributions to the General Comment on Article 4 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. We have also carried out 18 workshops on investment in children (13 national and 5 regional workshops, with over one thousand professionals participating) and we have made contributions on specific child-rights issues. We have also set a collective group for mutual exchange and learning, with a shared platform and agenda. Likewise, we have developed working plans for the future on long-term development issues, along with spaces for meetings, discussion and exchange. And finally, we have been developing the systematization of lessons learned, along with the development of common approaches and joint plans of action with a common purpose.

This document is precisely seeking to introduce a summary of the lessons learned and to suggest a future agenda, which we call “Roadmap”. Its contents are part of a research study carried out by the Center of Public Policies and Human Rights – Equidad, to be published shortly and summarising in detail the aforementioned experience, as well as a thesis and some suggestions for the promotion of investing in children.

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Concerning the investment in children, we can say that it is not enough to develop technical, legal and economic arguments, nor to propose public policies to manage budgets and economic policies aiming at concrete objectives related to children’s issues. We should consider a cross-cutting element, which has to do with the commitment and ethics of people and groups. And later, we should try to establish a change in the working logic and in the idea of development, which will bind us with the child rights approach.

Investment in children is based on the following statements:

• Macroeconomics can decide the fortune and fate of millions of children andadolescents.

• Thereisnoeconomicpolicyunconnectedwithchildren’srights.• Withoutresourcesitisimpossibletoguaranteehumanrights.• Childrenshouldbecomethepriorityinthepublicbudget;thisisbasedoneconomic

cost/benefit discussions, legal duties and different ethical aspects.• Issues of children can only be solved through public policies linked with the

economic policy, particularly with the public budget.• The State is the main agent to guarantee children’s rights, as established by

international and national regulations. This is part of the agreements and principles regulating modern society and international relationships.

The obligation of States parties to guarantee the promotion and realisation of children’s rights is an unfulfilled objective in almost all cases. This is why the direct support of private organisations working in favour of children is fundamental, but they cannot (nor should) comprehensively solve the major issues affecting them. This is only possible through a correct intervention of the State through mechanisms such as the public budget and the economic policy.

From a technical point of view, it is crucial to identify the critical aspects where we have to work. In this case, two of them are priorities:

1. the process of formulation and approval of the public budget at national, regional and local levels, and

INVESTMENT IN CHILDREN

Contributions for the Promotion of Investment in CHILDREN IN LATIN AMERICA

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2. the fiscal policy collecting resources from society and later redistributing them through the public budget1.

The social stakeholders, community-based organisations, associations, unions, political parties and social movements, as well as the church, the academia and civil society organisations are an active part both of the process of formulation and approval of tax policies and of the approval of the public budget. On the other hand, in recent years, businesses and unions have also participated actively.

Each social sector is affected, directly or indirectly in a positive or negative way, by this process. Just to get a picture of all this, we should consider that in Latin American economies, no less than 15% of the GDP is collected by the government in the different sector through their taxing policy, which is later assigned to the public budget. Obviously, the whole society is awaiting this process, acting or reacting according to the performance oftheState;behindallthistherearedistributionofincomeinsomesense.2 This means that, along this process, all social sectors have a voice to raise socially and politically because they are involved and affected.

According to this, we can assert that the process of collecting and approval of public budgets is the result of a balance of forces, where every sector is mobilised seeking their own interests. Objectively speaking, this is the reality and there is no use denying it.

1 Thegeneralsubjectreferstoeconomicpolicy;this involvesproductiveandfinancialaspects,thosereferringtothe labourmarket,foreign trade, etc. Budget issues and taxing aspects are only a part of that long list.

2 Professor César Peñaranda has developed a very illustrative graphic of this process: on one hand, he shows how European States collect very important amounts in relation with their GDPs and at the same time the effect of the tax policy is positive for the improvement of income distribution. On the other hand, Latin American economies collect less, while the tax policy is regressive and the total effect of the public expenditure distribution is not significant for a society with a fundamental characteristic: being unequal when distributing the income. See “Lima Chamber of Commerce”, 2010.

3 However, there are successful experiences of the formation of parliamentary groups in favour of children. The cases of Paraguay, Peru and Nicaragua stand out as case studies. In the future, the previous moments of an election should be considered in order to achieve results in the long term.

In the past, according to our point of view, children and adolescents didn’t have political operators seeking to represent or to promote their interests or the final destination of the resources

and public policies of the economy in their favour. Expressions such as “children aren’t voters” and “children are the future

of society” are the result of the perception of their minor role in thisprocess;thus,theobjectiveofpromotingtheinvestmentin

favour of children should be a part of this process, seeking to make “children come first in the formulation of the

public budget.3”


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4 Thebudgetmaymanagebetween30%and40%oftheGDP;inotherwords,itcollects15%andredistributesthatamountplustheinternal and external debts. Thus, it is an “entrance” subject for the promotion of investment in children.

5 The literature supporting this situation is large. See, for example, publications by Save the Children.

Nevertheless, the issue of the public budget (despite being the most important in economic policy) is not the only one.4 There is a series of economic policies which affect children and adolescents directly and indirectly, and which should be addressed in a long-term agenda. Among these, we have a series of issues related to the tax policy and internalandexternaldebt; inotherwords,witheverything related to sourcesoffinancing the public budget. This issue is already in the children agenda and, to dat, has some significant contributions and progress.

Next, we will briefly describe some of these extra issues:

a. Labour policies: establishing minimum wages.b. Trading policies: such as deregulating farm products for massive consumption.c. Specific tax policies: such as choosing to collect through direct or indirect taxes,

or the exceptions to the “one register” principle, establishing taxes, city taxes or contributions for set uses.

d. Financial policies: such as the establishing of interest rates for consuming or mortgages.

e. Credit policies: such as the ones multi-lateral organisations have, including “conditioned” policies.

f. Emergency policies.g. International cooperation policies for development: such as food support

programmes and the use of a percentage of the national budget for international cooperation activities.

h. Specific sector policies: such as those for medicine and subsidies to farming production, among others.

i. Other policies referred to money transfers, migration, the media, social programmes, etc.

We have confirmed that millions of children and adolescents worldwide (especially in Latin America) do not have a guarantee for the exercise of their most essential rights. This also happens in developed countries: it’s enough to point to eh American society, where more than 50 million people (over 15% of the population) have no access to anyqualityandfreepublichealthservices;whilstinLatinAmerica,80millionchildrenand adolescents live in poverty and 32 million live in extreme poverty (CEPAL). In other words, neither the capitalist economy nor the market economy can themselves assure that children and adolescents access the full exercise of their rights. Only to show the situation of children in our region, let us mention that during the first decade of the twentieth century:5


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Children’s rights, international law, and macroeconomics

On the other hand, regarding international law (and its statements), almost every country in the world has signed and ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, but after 23 years, its implementation is not progressing the way it should. A las cifras antes señaladas sobre NNA y pobreza en nuestra región, we should consider that we spend USD 73 biliion in weapons each year (see the 2011 SIPRI report).6

Our basic premises can be summarised in the following paragraphs:

• Themosteffectivewaytoguaranteeandachievetherealisationofchildren’srightsis through political advocacy for a greater and better investment in children. This should be accepted and acknowledged by organisations promoting development in order to be incorporated into their long-term working plans.

• Todothis,weshoulddevelopinternalinstitutionalcapacities,weshouldlearnfromongoing experiences, we should assign appropriate human, material and financing resources, and develop long-term working plans along with other organisations. Finally, we should redefine the relationships with other institutions and reorganize the internal operation.

• Investmentinchildrenshouldthereforeenterthefieldof“bigpolitics”,seekingto achieve changes in the economy of States parties. It should also reredirect the institutional vision linking its charisma, market niche or speciality with the process of political advocacy.

6 Source: http://www.sipri.org/yearbook/2012/2012/files/SIPRIYB12SummaryES.pdf

• Chronic malnutrition is still a serious problem.• Infantmortalityisstillinunacceptablelevels.• Anaemiaisgeneralised.• Coverageofearlychildhoodeducationisstillanunresolvedissue.• Coverageofprimaryandsecondaryeducationhasn’tbeenfullyreached.• Over30millionyouthsdonotstudyanddonotwork.• Millionsofchildrenandadolescentsdonothaveaccesstodrinking

water nor a healthy housing.• Physicalandhumiliatingpunishmentisstillgeneralised.• Publicprogrammesinfavourofchildrenandadolescentsinsituations

of greater vulnerability are almost non-existent.• Thegapbetweenchildrenandadolescentsandtherestofsociety

is larger in terms of rights.• Levelsofparticipationareminimalormarginal.


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• TheStates,attheirdifferentlevelsandinstitutionalforms,arethemainguarantorsof children’s rights.

• Our work and duty should aim for guaranteeing all the above-mentioned.Otherwise, millions of children and adolescents will still be neglected, away from the material and subjective conditions that will allow them to develop fully.

Regarding children, the subject of our interest assumes different names reflecting the approaches underlying them, and showing a path to follow. For instance: investment and children, funding and children, public expenditure and children, macroeconomics and children, among others.

By no means does this entail abandoning or setting aside the support and direct assistance for children and adolescents. On the contrary, they make sense and they are also the basis for the formulation and the design of massive public policies that should be promoted and assumed by the State.7

From a rights-based approach, we should be speaking of a National Child Protection System. In other words, we should guarantee the fulfillment of rights and prevent any violations. With this perspective, investing in children, as a concept, refers to an operating level rather than a theoretical one, which should focus on economic policies and the analysis of the public budget.

National Child Protection System8

For over a decade there have been discussion and talks on the need for a National Child Protection System. In relation to the study on violence by Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, it was recommendedthatStatesshouldassignresourcesforitsoperation;evidently,herethethematic entrance was violence.

7 It is a redefinition of the direct support to children and adolescents, in the sense of “pilot projects” or validations of programmes with a greater coverage. Thus, the question, “what do we expect to achieve as contributions to the public policies?” is one not to be missed. In addition, the systematisation, standardization, gathering of lessons learned and their dissemination are also a necessity.

8 The idea of a National Protection Systems, in several countries in the region, involves not only children but the whole population. In Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, it includes social security and the systems of resource delivery for the most vulnerable population. For institutions working in favour of children, the national protection systems refer to this age group and are part of a global system which also includes protection and prevention.

Our mission is to guarantee that this will happen, even more when all recent research studies show there are enough resources and

technical capacities to reach that goal.


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For those promoting a greater and better investment in children, the issue is quite clear: it is a matter of all economic policies. In the first stage, we have chosen to address the issue starting with the analysis of the public budget.9 In this specific field, we seek to set the proposals of public policies into programmes, results-based budgets, projects and/or activities and “budget chains” that enable the political decision of a greater investment in children. However, the agenda is much larger and involves all economic policies, such as the policy on labour and salaries, taxing policies, social policies, monetary policies, job creation policies and sector policies.

Finally, it is about building a sustainable Child Protection System in favour of children. It is under this understanding that we should rethink the budget issue.

We should note that a Child Protection System does not only involve the provision of goods and services. It should also involve aspects of prevention and compensation, and go far beyond anything traditional. With this perspective, we understand that:

a) The Child Protection System is a set of institutions, goods and services, strategies, articulationsandpracticesthatguaranteethefulfillmentofchildren’srights;

b) The main stakeholders are the State organisms, the meeting points between the State and the civil society, the very civil society or the so-called non-public sector, businesses, community-based organisations (especially those promoting children’s rights), the unions, the churches and the academia; and also the organismspromotingdevelopment—eitherpublic,non-publicorcombined;

c) The components of the Child Protection System should be visible in the operation of the State, and mainly in the public budget through lists, programmes, projects, activities, allocations and budget chains; in other words, the Child ProtectionSystems should become public policies in the field of economic policies, and particularlyinthepublicbudgets,althoughthisisnottheonlyfield;and

d) All the institutions should be led by organisms which promote inter-institutional meetings, which converge in the same direction, and which have a binding role in the definition of public policies, the use and allocation of resources. In each country, the coordination of these institutions should be assumed by a politically determined institution.

From the perspective of the promotion of investment in children, we have to redefine the vision of each component of the child protection system. In developed countries, there is a tendency to have public institutions assuming an exclusive or restricted role. Schools, for example, have the fundamental role or purpose of educating and training, promoting the basic learning and training of children and adolescents. On the contrary, in developing countries (many in Latin America), schools assume or are given roles referred

9 The analysis of the public budgets, under a child-rights-based approach started in Latin America in 1998, with the research studies by Enrique Vázquez (Universidad del Pacífico) for the Peruvian case. Likewise, in Africa Save the Children promoted a similar work with the South African NGO IDASA. This analysis process of the public budgets, known as “making children visible in the public budget”, isstillbeingperformed,aswellasotherstudiesontheissueindifferentcountries;thelatestoftheseinMexico(IdeaFoundation),Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica (ICEFI). Still pending are the complete studies in Ecuador, Brazil and Chile.


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to the promotion of basic health, protection of the environment, food education, etc. —all of this without the necessary economic resources.10

A key issue in the development of a child protection system is to know what is the government doing in favour of children, and particularly how many resources is allocating for them. Given the significant development of the Internet and information systems, one tends to think that this is simple. However, the entire budget design does not allow knowing the extent of the expenditure and its specific uses, to which we should add a serious problem of transparency regarding budget information. In the last years, this has been an issue of interest, to such a degree that some indicators of budget transparency have been developed, like the International Budget Project (IBP). Although they are not responsible for this, organisations working in favour of children have been quantifying the budget resources in favour of children for over 15 years. This task is known as “making children visible in public budgets”.

The long path of re-reading the public budgets in the region has been gone through since 1998 and, to date, the information and methodology are known and available after being successively adjusted and improved.11 In our opinion, the methodology developed by the Ideas Foundation from Mexico is the best one, for it has achieved the visualisationofchildrenandadolescentsinthepublicbudgetsforthemaindestinations;which accounts for more than 95% of investment in children. However, the final use of resources for specific programmes like working children and/or children with disabilities, the struggle against violence, etc. is still pending.12

Starting with the contributions developed by those working more seriously in the “visualisation of the investment in children”, we have determined that making children andadolescentsvisibleinthebudgetsshouldbecarriedoutina“deductivemanner”;in other words, the analysis should begin at the general components, going through the specific ones, and then to the more detailed components, programmes, projects, generic activities, and finally analyzing specific activities.

From a historical perspective, we can point out that this roadmap starts with a specific activity in favour of children (which later turns into a generic activity), then it turns into a project, afterwards in a programme, then into a sub-service and finally it turns into a public service. In other cases, it goes straight to a broader aspect as a result of the

10 The case of schools is perhaps the most illuminating. See: “Los Centros de Atención Integral a la Infancia (CAIIS)”. Jorge Oroza Manrique. http://es.scribd.com/JORGEOROZA. See also: http://books.google.com.pe/books/about/Cumplo_y_exijo.html?id=oc1QMQAACAAJ&redir_esc=y

11 As a result of our research, the pioneering work in Latin America has been carried out by Save the Children Sweden since 1998 and by the Universidad del Pacífico. See: “Los niños primero en el presupuesto público” (“Children come first in the public budget”). For further information see also the research performed by Unicef, PNUD, OEI, ICEFI, Equidad, Plan International and the Ideas Foundation from Mexico, among others.

12 The Center for Public Policies – Equidad has been developing the research on children and adolescents protection in order to fill this void.


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validation of the previous steps in other countries or by the civil society organisations and transfer to the State, making the process much quicker and cheaper.13

In the last years, a new methodology has been developed which overcomes some of the aforementioned problems. It is results-based budgeting or RBB, which gathers a series of activities, projects and programmes. The core theme is made up of the impacts on the target group, in this case, the realisation of children’s rights.14

TheNationalProtectionSystemsarenotonlymeantforchildrenandadolescents;onthecontrary, they are and should be a part of a greater order which includes different age groups, especially those in risk or vulnerable. The National Protection System should:

a. Include prevention activities and not only assistance and compensation.b. Include the awareness process and activities training in the rights-based approach,

particularly in the child-rights approach, involving government officials and the wider society.

c. Include the participation of children and adolescents and their organisations in a legal manner, institutionalized and with adequate resources.

d. Establish the intervention levels at national, subnational and local levels through decentralised public organisms; the scope should cover the executive, judicial,legislative and electoral powers.

e. Have the following basic components: • Education • Health • Nutrition •Waterandsanitation • Identity • Protection(intherestrictedsense)15

• Participationandinformationf. From the point of view of the resources, these should come from the regular income

of the country, and they should be regular and multi-annual budget allocations.g. Have systems for accountability and systems to access the budget information with

transparency.h. Have results-based budget programmes for specific groups of children and

adolescents.i. Work regularly and efficiently along with the agreements, multi-sector coordination

systems, and systems for the convergence of interventions.

13 It is worth mentioning the following experiences: the basic health care programme for mother/girl promoted by the NGO Prisma, supported by AID, and the Chicos y Chicas Chamba programme by ONG Educa.

14 In the case of Peru, the RBB started in 2008, and the first to be formulated refer to children. To date, there are ongoing programmes in Peru.

15 In other words, regarding issues of violence, child labour, sexual abuse and justice, among others. It does not include the right to education, health care, housing, sanitation, food and nutrition, and the right to an identity.


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j. The authority in the highest level should have a binding opinion or a quasi-binding opinion regarding financial and budgetary aspects, as well as an active participation in the approval of the criteria and the grounds for the guidelines needed to formulate and approve projects of public investment.

k. Likewise, it should have long-term intervention plans, where the following are determined: • Givingprioritytogroupsofmorevulnerablechildren. • Givingprioritytotheareasofintervention. • Thebasiccontents,standardsandprogrammesthathavetobeoperational. • Minimumamountofresourcesallocatedbythemes,areasandagegroups. • Afollow-upsystem,theelaborationofthebaselinesandevaluationcriteria

and guidelines to systematise experiences and gathering of lessons learned. • Theformalandinformal,face-to-faceandonlinemechanismstoexchange

experiences, as well as a system to train professionals.

The national protection system should also cover all children’s rights, grouped into four categories:16

• Survival: In this group we find all the rights seeking the preservation and enjoyment of life, beyond the preservation of the biological existence. In general terms, these rights are related to the areas of health care, nutrition and well-being, in their highest possible levels.

• Development: In this category we find children’s and adolescents’ rights related to the physical, mental, social, moral and spiritual dimensions, which play a role in the comprehensive development of their capacities and abilities to manage the different fields of life. Therefore, it includes the rights to upbringing and development by the parents, to education, top lay, to leisure, to participate in the cultural life and the arts, and to the development of their own cultural life, religion and language.

• Citizenship: In this group we find rights related to the acknowledgement of children and adolescents as citizens and subjects of rights, as well as the guarantee of the basic conditions to live in society and exercise their freedom. For instance the right to be registered after birth, having and keeping an identity, and practising their freedom of information, opinion, association and participation.

• Protection: Within this group we find the protection from all harmful situations to the integrity and dignity of children and adolescents, which demand the intervention of the State to prevent them, deal with them and restore the rule of law, the same way it does in cases of neglect, ill-treatment, abuse, child labour, sexual exploitation, kidnapping, enlistment, conflict with the law, among others. 17

16 Based on the Implementation Handbook for the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNICEF, 1998). 17 Source: Vizcaíno, Jaime: “Resources for children and adolescents: a territorial priority”. Alianza por la niñez Colombiana, p. 26.


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Assuming this new path in favour of children and adolescents does not only involve a change in the approach and the vision of the organisations working for children’s rights. In general, we are speaking of two ideas that should be assimilated:

• Witheconomicpolicies(orrather,withthemanagementoftheeconomy)thefateof millions of children and adolescents is decided directly or indirectly.

• Inordertoguaranteetherealisationofchildren’srightsaccordingtotheConvention,enough funds are required.

The first notion is the most important. It was posed by Stefan de Vylder in a 1999 document. In short, it states that those seeking the realisation of children’s rights should also worry about the economy. We share this idea, and we believe the working agenda should be based on it. From that moment, especially with the participation of the “children’s programmes managers”, we started a long and thorough work on the issue of public expenditure. In other words, within the universe of possible issues, this one became a priority and a long path started thereafter. Towards 1999, the organisations promotingchildren’srightshadstartedworkingonthepublicbudgetforchildren;Savethe Children Sweden, in that sense, had a pioneering role.18

This new path also considers rethinking the “rights-based approach”, for instance, when speaking about the totality and universality of children’s rights as opposed to the gradual nature and the respect, in a progressive manner and according to the availability and thebesteffortsoftheStates.Ourapproachismuchsimplerandoperational;itreferstothe process of social mobilization and the search for a greater and better use of public resources in favour of children through a serious, systematic and professional work of political advocacy.19

Macroeconomics and children

As we have seen, since the end of the 1990s, people began to think both in macroeconomics and in children in order to guarantee the fulfillment of children’s rights. The work by Stefan De Vylder is pioneering in this sense, although in the past, other economists have declared that investing in children has very positive returns. Under this point of view, detailed research on education, health care, food, nutrition and protection have found a big development, especially in Latin America.20

18 This involved the incorporation of economists to the team of children’s programmes managers, as well as the analysis and study of global macroeconomics (as was the case for Save the Children UK) and the promotion of research studies emphasizing issues like the returns and benefits of allocating resources for children and adolescents. It also includes the prioritization of education as a core theme for it demands a great amount of public resources.

19 The Latin American experience on advocacy and social mobilisation in favour of children shows us that achievements or concrete milestones in the process are essential, and these are like fuel for gathering strength for further achievements. It can be synthesized with the following phrase by Federico Arnillas, from the Regional Technical Group for Investment in Children (GTRII): “You cannot eat an elephant with a single mouthful”.

20 The number of studies is very big. It is worth noting the study “Comebacks of education in Peru, the cost of quality education”: FULL Equidad, Caqui and Taqui from Peru, Brazil and Colombia.


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In the past two years, the agenda has increased significantly to issues or areas closer to the budget: these new issues are related to the tax reform, for that is how fiscal resourcesareobtained; thesituationand legitimacyof the internalandforeigndebt,whichgetsconsiderablefiscal resources;aswellastheexpenditureonthemilitaryorweapons. Additionally, issues like migration, free trade agreements, and state-of-the-art social programmes (such a conditioned delivery of money) are part of the development agenda. Other issues, such as poverty and the restructuring of the social programmes, are in the process of being incorporated as well.

In that regard, the managers of children’s programmes are more aware of the urgency and the need to work the issue more thoroughly. It is worth mentioning two aspects: the definition of investment and children in the Day of General Discussion of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, and the agreement of the Latin American and Caribbean Chapter of the Global Movement for Children in order to develop technical capacities in the field.

In summary, we have very significant progress in the search for greater and better use of resourcesforchildren;however,therearestillsomeissuesawaitingfurtherdevelopment(see chapter on the future agenda).

The situation of children

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, several organisations have struggled for children’s rights. They have promoted different working forms, as well as strategies and forms of intervention. Almost a century has passed and it is convenient to resume the issue looking into what is the situation of children and adolescents regarding the possibilities and capacities of modern society.

The evidence is overwhelming: millions of children have no guarantee on their rights to survival, to human development, to protection, and to participation, among others. Our societies have not yet reached “their maximum extent”, and it is likely that this situation will last several decades more, or even worsen if a fundamental change on economic policies is not achieved. In light of that, we asked ourselves what were the best paths, strategies, and types of work that will enable such a change in the course.

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EXAMPLES OF INVESTMENT IN CHILDREN FOR LATIN AMERICA

Below, we present a list of Latin American contributions on the possible financial sources, uses of public budget resources and economic policy measures favouring children.

Financing sources for investment in children

Ingeneral,themainsourceoffinancingisthepublicbudget;inotherwords,thelegalprovision approved at the end of each year. In some countries, the fiscal year starts in October, and in others, in January. Likewise, there is a tendency to approve multi-annual budgets. We agree that it should be a permanent finance mechanism for early childhood, and it should be approved every year.

The public budget of the central government is the greatest source of income and is largely bigger than the international cooperation and the income from the non-public sector. However, this last one can be strategic, not only because of their extent, but also because of their feasible and discretionary use. In some cases, the central government’s budgets are allocated mainly to payrolls and current expenditure, while the new amounts of indebtedness or international cooperation can have an impact of the public policies in an important and strategic way. Even more when these resources usually fund high-ranking officials. Budgetary extensions should be considered with the same status of importance.

The predetermined allocations or taxes, rates, royalties, indebtedness or any other source of resources, should be treated as exceptions. Furthermore, those in existence should progressively disappear. This has been the tendency in the past few years. In other words: resources for children should come from one source alone, and allocating for children should be an exception.

Another proposal is to allocate resources for children after the budget approval. In other words, after being approved, resources should be allocated for children via budgetary extensions, unused resources should be redirected, and expenditure should be rescheduled. The lack of indicators for investment in children makes this process even more complicated and confusing. Thus, the fulfillment of the recommendation by the Committee on the Rights of the Child (if they have it, on the basis of the proposal Unicef assumed in 2007) is still very important.


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The principles or criteria to finance programmes favouring children are:

• Having a permanentmechanism according to the priorities determined by thepolitical authority in such a way that it should be approved every year in order to get financing.

• Elaboratingmulti-annualbudgets.• Creatingafundforchildren.• Developingandapplyingaresults-basedbudgetmethodologyforchildren.• Includingtheearlychildhoodpolicyasthefirstresults-basedbudget.• Creating a Multi-sector Coordination Committee to address children issues.

It should be formed by representatives from sectors such as education, health, food and nutrition, and housing, as well as other institutions working at national, subnational and local levels.

• Developing the Integrated System for Financing Management for the budgetaffecting children.

• ThecreationofbudgetarychainsbytheMinistryofEconomyandTreasury,allowingthe allocation of resources to specific areas, developed or included in programmes or projects for children. This proposal is minimum, essential, and very important to allocate funds for children.

• Implementingstrategicagreementswiththegovernmentandalltheorganisations,as well as national, subnational, and local agreements.

• Reaching an agreement with the Ministry of Economy to establish a bindingcoordination system with the authorities participating in the funding and implementation of programmes in favour of children.

In order to mobilise resources to finance the investment in the poorest children, there is enough technical and moral argument to support the option of collecting resources through a considerable increase on the income tax and on property. Nevertheless, since those measures are politically conflictive and promote opposition, proposals on tax reforms need a fiscal deal through which the main political and social forces agree on a form of financing the development priorities of the country. In any case, it is important to assess previous experiences with similar mechanisms, the taxation rate in a given country, the income that will come with the new taxes, and the political economics of the reform (see Unicef). The task of studying the different experiences in Latin America is still pending. Next, we display some of them:


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a. Bolivia: a percentage of all exchange operations is destined to children. b. USA and other countries: the Fund of the Americas (Fondo de las

Américas) (which is a debt-exchange operation, complicated in its management and origins) is assigning half of its funds for children. It works in several countries in the region.

c. Operations of debt exchange for education in Spain. In the region, there are several more experiences, including in Ecuador.

d. Peru: 30% of budget increases are assigned to children as stated by national agreement.

e. Peru: a USD 40 tax on passports is assigned to children.f. El Salvador: resources are assigned to implement the LEPINA

(Child and Adolescent Comprehensive Protection Law). g. Paraguay: an increase of 450% for the governing body on children

at the beginning of president Lugo’s administration. h. Colombia and Brazil: a fair number of legal mechanisms in favour

of children, like the elimination of a vaccine-related tax, resources on pregnant women, resources for municipalities, etc.

i. Colombia: 3% of the payroll tax goes to the Colombian Institute of Family Well-Being (over USD 600 million), known as the “parafiscal”.

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21 The roadmap is based on a monitoring proposal of the advocacy plans, which Save the Children Sweden uses since 2008. It has been expanded and reformulated by the author of this document.

A ROADMAP FOR INVESTMENT IN CHILDREN

We believe that investment in children can be worked and processed under a standard called roadmap to advocacy for a greater investment in children. This is the path an organisation or association should follow in order to achieve a greater investment in children in a sustainable manner, and which turns into a guarantee for the fulfillment and realisation of children’s rights. The responsible party in charge of implementing and setting in motion the advocacy plan, in this case, should be a civil society association which assumes this approach and processes a long-term working plan.

The roadmap should be based on a long-term advocacy plan, formulated and assumed by a collective not only based on the national or local conditions but also on the state of the art and lessons learned from other Latin American and global experiences. It should also consider a process of management and professional work of the highest technical level, with ethical spirit and with the cooperation of professionals, public and private institutions with a child-rights-based approach. With the Latin American experience over the past seven years, we have built a roadmap or a routine to follow for the advocacy work regarding investment in children, according to which each country is a guide for those choosing this path. In each of the stages we have set verifiable landmarks to achieve, and all of them can become a measure of their own fulfillment, facilitating progress and group efforts.

We suggest the following roadmap as a basis to be considered to organise the work. Each country should build their own roadmap according to their particular needs. This one is only a reference. This roadmap is made of ten stages which can happen in a consecutive or alternate manner21 and can be used for advocacy goals at local, subnational and national levels, or to develop a particular theme area such as education, early childhood, improvements of expenditure or assistance to a particular target group of children.

These are the stages:

Stage 1. Accepting that without resources there is no guarantee for children’s rights. This involves rethinking the institutional path, with a long-term perspective. The core reflection regards the incorporation of the rights-based approach and the State as


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themainguarantorofchildren’srights;thisshouldbeexpressedintheuseofresourcesfrom the public budget with an absolute priority on children. Likewise, organisations working for children should include in their working strategies the political advocacy as well as the promotion of social mobilization to achieve a change in public policies. This involves allocating resources for this line of work and including them into the strategic and operative plans.

Stage 2: Social mobilisation in favour of investment in children. An essential aspect is the participation of social organisations in this cause. This involves working with the media, public presence, the creation of steering groups, work groups, and establishing relationships of cooperation and convergence. At more advanced levels, it involves being present —in organized groups— in public and political spaces. In order to do this, we should determine:

• Theparticipantsinthesteeringgroup.• Institutionsparticipating.• Thepartners.• Themechanismsforchildrenparticipation.• Themediainvolved.• Whoistoassumethefirstleadership.

Stage 3: Knowing the problem and shaping a national steering committee. This involves the strategic decision to work systematically and regularly in order to form a specialised working team with the participation of professional economists who incorporate a rights-based approach and the Convention on the Rights of the Child as instruments of political advocacy. This team is known as the steering group. Likewise, we should consider the knowledge and development of instruments for the macroeconomic analysis,particularlythepublicbudgetsforchildren;thisinknownas“visualizing”.Thetasks should include the following:

• Makingparticipantinstitutionsincludeinvestmentinchildrenwithintheirinternalagenda and strategic plans, allocating appropriate resources for this.

• SettingtheInvestmentinChildrenBoard.• Buildingatechnicalandprofessionalbasis:forthistaskitisnecessarytosummon

a professional technical team which assumes the long-term development of theissue;itshouldbeofthehighestlevelandincludeyoungprofessionalswhoreproduce and further the analysis capacity of the priority theme.

• Conductingstudiesofchildrenvisualisationinpublicbudgets.• Conductingnationalworkshopsfortrainingandawareness-raising.• Designingalong-termworkingplan.• Takingpartinregionalworkshops.


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Stage 4: Contributing to the discussion. Contributions to the discussion on children’s rights start with the national protection system, and can be summarised under the motto: “a just and adequate investment guarantees the fulfillment and full exercises of children’s rights”.

Stage 5: Including the issue in the agenda. Civil society organisations and States parties should include this issue in the work plans, in strategic planning, in the design and advocacy on public policies, giving them the attention they deserve.

Stage 6: Advocacy on public policies decision makers. This way, concrete, objective and verifiable results are obtained, even if they are partial. It involves the approval of State policies, long-term and mid-term national plans, among others.

Stage 7: Changes in public policies: This involves the search for concrete and verifiable results or achievements for the approval of public policies, especially in the judicial period. It also involves the approval of public policies with long-term effects and financing, the approval of operating systems for implementation, and accountability and follow-up public systems.

Stage 8: Public policies to be implemented. Concrete measures should be implemented regarding management through:

• Publicpolicieswithresourcesandimpacts.• Accountabilitywithprovableindicators.• OperationsystemsincludedintheregularworkoftheStateatnational,subnational

and local levels.• Useofresourcesinanefficientandeffectivemanner,withanappropriatecost-

benefit ratio.• Improvementsinthequalityoftheexpenditure:targeting,filtering,prioritiesofthe

target group.• Specificprogrammes.

Stage 9: Changes in the lives of children: This involves:

• Improvingthesituationofwell-beingandprotectionofchildrenandadolescents.• Havingalistofprobableindicators.• Definingandassessingimpactindicators.• Assessingresultsandimpacts.• Usingparticipationsystemsformallyandregularly.

Stage 10: Sustainability: It refers to the continuity of public policies in time. It involves technical, institutional and economic-financial sustainability.

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LESSONS LEARNED

22 Norberto Liwski, September 21, 2007. Day of General Discussion Recommendations. Committee on the Rights of the Child.

In Peru, and in Latin America in general, efforts to promote systematically and consistently a greater and better investment in children is barely a decade old. Pioneer works by Stefan de Vylder and Enrique Vázquez are examples of this. In the last years, several efforts, case studies and experiences have added up. Thanks to this process, we now have several case studies, programmes, projects and successful experiences. It is our responsibility to systematise the main lessons learned and to share them.

Contributions come from Mexico to Argentina, going through Nicaragua, El Salvador, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Paraguay and Brazil, among others. In all these countries we have found many experiences and lessons learned. Knowing and learning from them is a necessary step we should follow.

LESSON 1: Without resources we cannot guarantee rights22

The Convention on the Rights of the Child was approved in 1989, and up to date, almost all the countries in the world have ratified it, creating legal frameworks which are part of national legislation. In this Convention, the commitments to be fulfilled by States parties are also stated. However, the gap between the discourse, the proposals, the declarations and the reality is too large. Most States have not performed their best efforts in order to assign resources for children. In this chapter, we do not want to give numbers on the levels of chronic malnutrition, lack of basic health care services or limitations on the coverage of education in relation with children in the region, because the literature is abundant and convincing. States parties haven’t touched their treasure according to their possibilities and potentialities, as stated in the Convention.

It is a about a vision, an approach or a perspective different from the traditional: it should not be enough to have on-paper approval of the long-term general public policies or State policies. We should ask ourselves how much is the cost to fulfill these policies, where will the resources come from, how much is going to be financed year after year, which institution is responsible for its implementation, and which are the indicators of its fulfillment.


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LESSON 2: A meeting place for the Government and the civil society is a field of work for advocacy

Traditionally, the political advocacy work implies “a distinction of fields and spaces” between the State and the civil society organisations. However, in recent years this assumption has become obsolete and the advocacy scenario has increased, posing new challenges, types of relationships, and innovative strategies. Examples of this are the Coalition Roundtable Against Poverty in Peru, the Children Alliance in Colombia, Reinsal in El Salvador, and coalition organisations in Brazil, among others.

Basically, it is a new scenario where representatives of the government and non-public institutions meet under different modalities. In some cases, the agenda of this space seeks consensus and the development of long-term State policies; in other cases, ageneral or specific theme is addressed. It deals with national, regional or local spaces.

LESSON 3: The need to plan a long-term work

The task of promoting a greater and better investment is a long-term, sensitive task, and concerns all actors and social classes, because it is about dealing with the public treasury and everybody’s pockets. Those promoting the use of the budget for the poorest children are but a few in the long list of interested parties seeking a share of the fiscal resources. We can only achieve concrete results if we gather our strength and make all the organisations promoting children’s rights participate.


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LESSON 4: High proportion of employee rotation The high number of personnel rotation and the constant changes of the public policies take their toll in the sustainability of the advocacy programmes seeking a greater investment in children. It is necessary to work with high and intermediate level staff.

LESSON 5: Resistance to address the issue of better use

There is a general reluctance to address the better use of resources currently available for children in a scenario where several practices are widespread: duplication, lack of targeting, leakages, lack of baselines and impact studies, corruption, etc. Very conventional and narrow visions still prevail regarding the priority of investments, in particular for early childhood.

LESSON 6: Multiannual programmes

We should move from the passing of laws and conventions, in some cases called long-term State policies, to the implementation of multi-annual investment programmes with corresponding regular funding, and part of the public budgets of the central, subnational, and local governments.

LESSON 7: Comprehensive planning

Comprehensive plans should be developed including the convergence and coordination of all sectors from the executive administration and the regional and local governments.

LESSON 8: Defining roles and responsibilities

Defining the roles and tasks of the different sectors, including the binding nature of the steering organism for children in the budgetary component.

LESSON 9: Multiannual Macroeconomic Frameworks

Incorporating these long-term policies into the economic and financial planning and programming systems of the State. One example is to incorporate, through the Multi-annual Macroeconomic Frameworks, a chapter on the situation of children and the investment programme required.


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LESSON 10: Broader alliances

It is possible to establish partnerships and cooperation relationships with intermediate organisations from the government in the search for more and better resources for children and adolescents, thus achieving concrete results. For example, the Alliance for Colombian Children with the ICBF (Colombian Institute for Family Well-Being) and El Salvador.

We should make partnerships, convergence and promote the participation of many institutions such as the academia, companies with corporate social responsibility, multilateral organisms, community-based organisations including child-led organisations, the international cooperation and other public and private specialised organisms.

LESSON 11: Importance should be given to political advocacy

There is a tendency to underestimate the advocacy work of many organisations working to promote children’s rights. However, some experiences are being included in their agendas, especially regarding budget and children issues. In the future, we expect a greater interest from other organisations. In that regard, Save the Children could increase its leadership and presence by sharing the knowledge developed to promote a greater and better investment in children, applicable to issues of education, health care, food and gender equality, which are not exclusive of the work on children issues.

LESSON 12: The work inside organisations

Knowledge should be managed within the organisations, for instance, through general and specialised workshops, internships, and consultancies.

LESSON 13: Meeting points between the State and the civil society

It is necessary to promote the existence of permanent meeting points between the civil society and the State, as well as systems of mutual learning.

LESSON 14: Core issues in the proposals

Including a core theme in the proposals of alternative budgets, which gives them an identity, which summons all forces, and which is appealing to the media. For example: supply schools from remote areas with running water and sewage.


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LESSON 15: Three Pareto lessons

Promotingmeasuresofmanagementpublicpolicieswithadominoor“Pareto”effect;in other words, measures that once approved have long-term effects and consequences on the financing sources, allocation and programming of the public expenditure. An example of this is the State proposal and policy to achieve a budget for education equal to 6% of the GDP. Other lessons of the same kind are the following:

• Learningfromotherorganisations(theLatinAmericanexperienceisveryenriching).• Generatingactualandvirtuallearningmechanisms.• Thinksoftheownexperiencesofdirectsupportascontributionstothemassive

public policies.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

After a long period promoting the investment in children and studying the technical nooks of the design, formulation, execution and control of the public budgets, as well as the approval process of public policies, we may conclude that the underlying problem is not technical or political, nor is it related to the lack of political managing proposals. The underlying problem has an ethical, personal and collective nature.

• LatinAmericahasenoughresourcestosolveissuesofchildrenandadolescents.• Thereisagreatdealofgatheredexperiencesofpositive,confirmed,systematised

and documented practices on how to attend and solve children’s demands and needs.

• There is awareness on the need to perform thorough tax reforms in order toimprove the unequal distribution of income in the region. We also have tax collecting systems and systems of technical, legal and administrative control in order to increase the income of the States in a significant way.

• Therearepublicpoliciesonissueslikeeducation,healthcare,foodandnutrition,water and sanitation, identity, the right to play, protection from violence, proposals for a significant improvement of the vulnerable situation of children and adolescents in situations or conditions which violate their rights.

• There is awareness on the need for an inter-sector coordination to improvepotential positive impacts on children.

• Thereisdirectevidencesupportingtherelevanceandpriorityofinvestinginearlychildhood.

• Wehavealegalframeworkandinternationalcommitmentscompellingagreaterand better investment in children, such as the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Convenants on Human Rights, international agreements on education, health care and protection, etc.

• Wehaveavailableexperiencesfromthousandsofcivilsocietyorganisationswiththe support from social organisations.

• We can access documentation, literature, videos and educational materials onthese issues thanks to the Internet.

• Thereisasocialmobilisationunderwayinfavourofchildren:nationalorganisations,the civil society, companies under the banner of corporate social responsibility, proposals from the church, plans from bilateral and multilateral financial organisms.


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It is not like there are no elements, conditions and resources to achieve significant improvements for the realisation of children’s rights. The main reason for this achievement —or the greatest progress— lies on the fact that those making the decisions, the so-called “public policies decision makers”, have no will to set the necessary mechanisms in order to invest more and better in children.

However, as long as there is no will or personal decision to work in favour of children, the legal, technical, economic and political reasons on how to act will not be heard.

It is useless to insist on this path if there are no honest, good-hearted people with a serious concern for others, and particularly for children. It is not enough to appeal to people’sconscience; that iswhy thepromotion formoreandbetteruseof resourcesfor children, especially those living in extreme poverty or in vulnerable situations, should incorporate this “speech” and this ethical and moral sense, advancing towards a social and political mobilization, in order to achieve sustainable results.

We should work in parallel on ethics and morals, and at the same time, we should accompany this process of intense “political action” expressed in child-led organisations, in the joint work between organisations promoting children’s rights, in businesses with corporate social responsibility under guiding plans of systematic advocacy and with the support of a committed media.

Centro de Políticas Públicas y Derechos Humanos

Documents

The experience of Promoting Investment in Children · The social stakeholders, community-based organisations, associations, unions, political parties and social movements, as well