Govt social spending needed - UNICEF

The Angolan government should increase its spending on health and education for children, urged UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director, Carol Bellamy. She called on the government to fulfil its post-war commitments by: supporting a nationwide back-to-school programme; increasing spending on education and basic health services on par with the budgets of the Southern African Development Community; and placing the respect and protection of children's rights at the top of the peace and stabilisation agenda. Bellamy made the call after the launch of a nationwide measles vaccination campaign on Monday that aims to immunise seven million children in the next four weeks, a UNICEF statement said. "We're asking the government to continue putting money where the children are. [To] give Angola a stable future by protecting her children. This will be the real peace dividend," Bellamy said. She added that the government of Angola should "harness the momentum of this massive [measles vaccination] campaign, and continue to direct that energy towards education and basic health services". "What we're seeing today are promising first steps," said Bellamy. "And this country has the potential to lead Africa by example. But one million children remain out of school. The entire health system must be strengthened and conditions established across Angola for effective delivery of routine vaccinations. If this is done, then we will look back in five years' time, when children are in school and child mortality rates [are] falling, and 2003 will be recognised as the year Angolan children were put first on the agenda." Bellamy called also for the international community to support government efforts. Children are particularly vulnerable in Angola, which ranks a lowly 161 out of 173 on the UN Development Programme's Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI takes into account factors such as life expectancy and literacy rates to award rankings to countries. UNICEF estimates that 5,000 schools and 60 percent of all hospitals were destroyed in 30 years of war. It added that 45 percent of Angola's children suffer from chronic malnutrition and the country has one of the world's worst child and maternal mortality rates. UNICEF said that more than 10,000 Angolan children die each year from measles, an entirely preventable disease.