Focus on child welfare

Farraja Kotta is a 16-year-old Tanzanian girl who has just finished her O-level education. But on Wednesday, she had the honour of speaking on behalf of African children in an event on promoting children's participation, held at the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children in New York. Farraja, and some 350 other children from around the world, are the first children ever to have been invited to the General Assembly to participate in the highest level of international deliberations, where, alongside international leaders, they are looking at what has been done, and needs to be done, for children. For Bjorn Ljungqvist, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) representative in Tanzania, the session needs to be more than just another three day meeting and must tackle the many shortcomings still faced by children in Tanzania, and all over the world. "On the Tanzanian side we had a series of meetings, at which the children identified what they say were the most important issues and what would be their recommendations," he told the press in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday. "The children from Tanzania will talk about education, protection, child participation and, of course, HIV/AIDS," he said. The 2001 UNICEF Situation Analysis of Children in Tanzania paints a fairly depressing picture, noting that, while the country has maintained relative stability and improved its macroeconomic performance, this has not been translated into real improvements in the lives of children. "Tanzania has not met 2000 targets, and is far from being on track to meet 2015 international development targets and Vision 2025 goals. Instead, virtually every critical measure of child well-being stagnated or declined through the 1990s," the report states. Amongst children of up to six years of age, the report highlights the worrying situation of increased infant- and child- mortality rates, resulting in the fact that "one in every six children fails to make it to their fifth birthday". Primary schooling is another major problem in Tanzania. While the government has launched its Primary Education Development Plan, the report states that the quality of schooling is "extremely poor" throughout the country, and that less than half of all children completed primary education at the end of the 1990s. As a result, Ljungqvist believes that, while the government is trying to build more classrooms, Tanzania's development is being seriously retarded. "I estimate that if you look at the number of children that have accumulated without getting a decent basic education over the last 10 or 15 years, we are talking about seven or eight million young people. "We talk about fighting poverty, but this is the core of the future of Tanzania, and without reasonable basic education, what platform do they have to stand on?" he added. The report also highlights the impact of HIV/AIDS on Tanzania's children, saying that community surveys in six districts have suggested the recent figure of 700,000 AIDS orphans may, in fact be only half the real numbers. "Children are often hit hardest, as parents fall ill and scarce resources are devoted to treatment, or expropriated by others after their parents' death," the report says. With 10 percent of those who replied to the Say Yes for Children campaign - a world-wide ballot on children - putting harm and exploitation of children as their major concern, protection of children is another issue that will be put forward by the Tanzanian delegation in New York. Confirming this, the UNICEF analysis reported that "approximately 40 percent (or 3.4 million) children and young people aged 5-17 in Tanzania were engaged in economic work" in a given period in 2000, with poverty being the underlying reason for this. According to Ljungqvist, this is a cause for concern. "If those children are not given a fair chance to learn, to complete their education, physical and mental growth before taking on a full-time heavy job, then I think their future is very bleak." Ljungqvist added that the news was not all bad, with progress being made in helping children fight malaria. Trials in Tanzania have proved that Insecticide Treated Nets can help reduce malarial cases by up to 50 percent. Meanwhile, Iodine Deficiency Disorders also seem to have been challenged effectively, and through salt iodisation - up to 80 percent in Tanzania - this is a problem that can be overcome. However, there is much to be done, and it all comes down to a question of prioritisation, says Ljungqvist. "When the needs are so many, where do you put that money when it comes available? Unless you really make sure the ones that take that final decision really know that an extra US $20 million for this project would have an impact." It is not that there is a lack of commitment, he believes, but rather the issue of children needs to be taken more seriously. "We hope that children will now be seen as an important investment. Children have always been seen as cute kids that you have to feel pity for and treat almost as a welfare issue, but if you are really serious about the future of this country you have to see that if you don't give children a chance to both survive, learn, be healthy and well-nourished, you will not have a chance to catch up," he said. In his foreword to the UNICEF report, President Benjamin Mkapa stressed that all policy should take into consideration the needs of children, "and, we need to do this not just for the children of Tanzania, but with the children of Tanzania". This week, with the participation of some 350 children at the General Assembly, seems to be the ideal opportunity.