CHRISTINE MUHIGANA: Towards a central place for children in the budget

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child stipulates that children should not merely survive, but must be given the opportunity to grow, develop and thrive. While this noble aim is widely supported, it is far harder to put such goals into place in unequal societies, or societies that struggle with serious resource constraints. This makes the national budget all the more important in its ability to direct resources to the neediest and most vulnerable children.

As we reflect on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic it is hard not to think about the extent to which services for children have been negatively affected, both globally and in SA. This includes children not returning to school, missed vaccinations, lost livelihoods and economic strain affecting food security and access to child healthcare services.

The government’s medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS) has to navigate and respond to the broad ranging fallout from Covid-19. Mitigating the pandemic’s after-effects and the rising costs of living while assessing the damage done to key child services budgets due to the urgent need to divert funding to address the pandemic, resulted in perhaps the most challenging balancing act yet.

So how well has the MTBPS 2022 done in addressing the needs of children in SA? Government is doing well in addressing enabling factors that affect the wellbeing of children. This includes additional resources dedicated to address the water crisis in SA, which should have a positive effect on access to clean water in schools, early childhood development centres and public clinics.

The MTBPS also sets aside resources to repair rural bridges and given the vast distances that rural learners have to cover and the inherent dangers in crossing rivers and dams in parts of the country, this development should be welcomed.

Government’s intention to repair the rail infrastructure promises to alleviate some of the transport costs and pressures that poor households endure, which is particularly important in the context of rising energy costs. This is encouraging, as reliable and safe public transport will help improve children’s access to education and health facilities.

The good story also continues in the MTBPS proposal to increase the number of children qualifying to access the school nutrition programme, increased funding for early childhood development centres and proposals to reduce class sizes over the medium-term. Finally, significant amounts of money will be set aside to deal with the floods that hit KwaZulu-Natal in April, and children will benefit directly from the repair of destroyed infrastructure.

These positive developments must however be seen against a background of tough expenditure cuts in the social sectors during the last six years. These cuts eroded the baseline budgets of many key departments and the MTBPS 2022 only moves partially to repair the funding reductions to basic education, health and social development.

Government has announced that by 2024 most cuts will be stopped, but it is not clear whether it would reactivate a level of spending that is necessary for quality services for children. Due to the need to maintain the special Covid-19 grant, the monetary value of other grants, including child grants, has been eroded. In the context of the rising cost of living, such decisions simply transfer further pressure to households that are struggling to survive. The burden will be doubly felt in female-headed households, which have larger families dominated by children. 

The MTBPS has extended the special Covid-19 grant to March 2024, and while this is good news there is no further commitment to finance this beyond the first quarter of next year. This renders government’s finance projections less predictable and also affects poor households’ ability to plan for important child expenditures in the future.

On the face of it, the MTBPS attempts to remove several stumbling blocks that impede children in their daily environment, whether it is lack of water, inadequate transport or access to nutritious food through the school nutrition programme. However, it does not provide sufficient clarity on how the challenges within the various sectors that serve children will be addressed through the budget.

The UN International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) SA looks forward to working with sector departments and the National Treasury to ensure these challenges are addressed. We owe this to the children of SA.

• Muhigana is Unicef SA country representative.