Poverty reduction strategies fail to address child rights

The Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) of governments in Southern Africa generally do not consider the long-term socio-economic implications of child poverty, according to the author of a review of PRSPs from the region. The review, "Children First In The Poverty Battle", commissioned by Save the Children Sweden and compiled by Shirley Robinson, critiques the PRSPs of five countries in relation to their focus on child poverty and child rights. The five countries are: Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Lesotho. The PRSPs are a prerequisite for access to developmental assistance from the World Bank for four of the five countries. Of the five, Botswana is the only country not a conditional lending participant. In her report, Robinson wrote "the southern African PRSPs do not undertake a comprehensive review of child poverty. Neither do they consider the implications of child poverty for systemic poverty entrenchment, noting how specific interventions to reduce child poverty and address children's rights, such as education, can assist in breaking the poverty cycle in low-income countries". While the PRSPs did not specifically prioritise children, they did "discuss a limited range of interventions" directed at reducing child poverty and improving future opportunities for children. "These include measures to: promote school attendance; improve access to basic health services and better nutrition; and raise family incomes or livelihoods," the report said. Robinson told IRIN that "within the demographic profile of poverty" in Southern Africa, children are "one of the most prominent groups [along] with women". "The PRSPs I reviewed did not specifically acknowledge that. Mozambique was the best in actually referring to children, but none acknowledged that children are a specific angle of poverty and a specific priority for poverty reduction," she said. Advocacy groups were lobbying for poverty to be tackled from a rights perspective. They argue that by paying more attention to the basic rights of children the systemic cycle of poverty can be broken. "Education [a basic right] creates future income earning potential and correct health [also a basic right] creates potential [for a child] to be a healthy, economically active individual, [similarly] rights to a correct shelter enables the child to be able to participate in education and social activities. So, by making an intervention in child poverty, you are making an intervention and an investment in the future, you create a higher platform for the soon-to-be adult to live off," Robinson added. However, the review notes that "even a cursory read leaves no doubt that the southern African PRSPs give absolute priority to economic growth as a means to reduce poverty". Where there was commitment to social expenditure, this was constrained by "tight fiscal policies and debt relief programmes [which] frame most of the PRSPs, as the latter are often developed in compliance with conditional lending requirements". Robinson stressed that "by breaking the cycle of child poverty you are making a proactive intervention for sustainable development". Future economic growth prospects could only be improved through "poverty interventions that the PRSPs are not adequately focussed on". "That's why you see a heavy slant in the Zambian PRSP to economic activity, with a very slim focus on social interventions, [which] completely misses the interlinkage between sustainable economic growth and interventions into poverty reduction," she added. The international debate had moved towards linking the two, Robinson noted. The review recommended that child advocacy groups at the international, regional and local level become more vocal and active in influencing the PRSP processes in Southern Africa. This would enable them to "ensure that children's rights are prioritised and appropriately resourced in the region's development planning and resource allocation processes". The full report can be accessed at: www.sarpn.org.za