Save the Children, a humanitarian organization for children, has urged policymakers to strengthen the allocation to implement child rights and development in the forthcoming national budget to be announced by the Bangladesh government in the upcoming fiscal year.
The organization conducted an extensive analysis of child-focused initiatives in the outgoing national budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year.
The study sheds light on the current state of child-centric allocations, distribution of financial resources, and review of relevant policies aimed at promoting the welfare, development, and rights of children in the country.
Key findings from the analysis indicate that while a significant share of the national budget is allocated to child-focused activities, there are opportunities to further improve the distribution and effectiveness of these resources.
Based on the analysis, Save the Children put emphasize on the following key recommendations and would like to draw the attention of policymakers. The recommendations are:
The national budget should inform reporting on child budgets introducing a life-cycle approach, where resources will be distributed based on children's age-specific requirements. A standard child budget framework is required to carry out the exercise. The framework may guide the development of a participatory budgetary process and ensure reporting of sectoral/ministry-wise allocations, expenditure, age-specific spending, coverage of participants, and programmatic impact.
Ensure at least 16% of the total budget (or about 2.6% of GDP) is allocated to the education sector and provide adequate allocations for the timely completion of the Primary Education Development Program (PEDP 4).
Health sector budget should earmark at least 11% of the total budget (or about 1.6% of GDP) and early childhood care and development programs should receive specific focus. New initiatives should be undertaken to strengthen community-based health services for children.
Share of schemes with 100% child-centric activities should be raised by at least 10% (currently estimated at 6.9% of the social safety net program budget for FY23) of the Social Safety Net Program (SSNP) budget.
Identifying the most vulnerable children including street children and physically challenged children groups, 100% of them should come under provisions of the SSNP.
System strengthening and coordination are required to increase the quality of child-focused social services. The establishment of a separate directorate for children may help the cause in many folds.
