STATEMENT BY SADIG RASHEED, DIRECTOR, PROGRAMME DIVISION, UNICEF
TO THE 3RD UN CONFERENCE ON THE LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
(ON BEHALF OF CAROL BELLAMY, UNICEF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Brussels -15 May 2001 (PM Session)
(Check Against
Delivery)
Mr.
President, Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates:
The
Executive Director of UNICEF, Carol Bellamy, regrets that she cannot be here
today. But if she were, she would reaffirm UNICEF's firm commitment to children
in the least developed countries and in Africa, and share our vision of a world
fit for children. On her behalf, I want to describe that vision - and what we
must do to make it a reality.
In finalizing the new Plan of Action for the Least
Developed Countries we should recall the African proverb: "The world is
not left to us by our parents: it was lent to us by our children."
In the LDCs, children make up nearly half the population,
and the population growth rate is nearly double the world average. LDCs represent
one-tenth of the world's population, but they account for about one-fifth of
the annual number of births: an estimated 24 million babies each year, mostly
born to impoverished families. Indeed, three-quarters of the population of the
LDCs live in abject poverty, struggling to survive on less than $2 per day.
Eradication of the worst manifestations of poverty
is not only a moral imperative. It is a practical and affordable possibility -
and it starts with investing in children. The physical, emotional and
intellectual impairment that poverty inflicts on children can mean a lifetime
of suffering and want - and a legacy of poverty for the next generation. That
is why no effort to reduce poverty can succeed without first ensuring the
well-being of children and the realization of their rights.
Mr. President, UNICEF is firmly committed to
supporting the implementation of the International Development Targets and the
Millennium Declaration Goals, many of which focus directly on the realization
of child rights. In a $30 trillion-plus global economy, it is clear that
meeting those objectives is well within our means.
More
importantly, it is a solemn obligation - for in ratifying the Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 191 countries committed themselves to take all appropriate
measures, using all available resources, to ensure the survival, protection,
and full development of every child.
Thanks to
the Convention, there is now widespread recognition that every child, no matter
how poor or otherwise marginalized, is the subject of fundamental rights - the
right to health and nutrition, to a primary education of good quality,
especially for girls; to clean water and adequate sanitation, to gender
equality; and to freedom from discrimination, exploitation and abuse.
Moreover,
the Convention sets out the right of children to have a name and a nationality
as well as to express themselves freely - and, in line with their evolving
capacities, to participate in decisions that affect them.
Mr.
President, the child survival and development goals that were set at the World
Summit for Children in 1990 represent the single most important international
initiative in support of the implementation of the Convention. Governments
around the globe, in collaboration with civil society and other development
partners, have recently taken stock of a decade's worth of progress toward
those goals - and the overall record is impressive, thanks in large part to
firm political commitment and supportive development partners.
In some
LDCs, the progress has been remarkable. Bangladesh, for example, reduced its
under-five death rate from 144 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 89 in 1999 -
and by the late 1990s, more than 80 per cent of the country's boys and girls
were enrolled in primary education. Malawi and Uganda are among the LDCs that
have made notable progress in expanding access to primary education. These
gains for children over the last decade are a testament to what can be done
when commitments are matched by resources and political will.
But for
all the millions of young lives that were saved in the 1990s, and for all the
futures that have been enhanced, we have failed to reach most of the key
survival and development goals that were set at the World Summit. Indeed,
during the past decade, the disparity in infant mortality rates between LDCs
and other developing countries has widened. In 1990, a baby born in an LDC had
about twice the risk of dying as that of an infant born elsewhere: at the close
of the decade the risk had risen to 2.3.
Mr.
President, we live in a world where more than 10 million children die annually
from mostly preventable causes, most of them in poor developing countries;
where more than 110 million children are out of school, 60 per cent of them
girls; where over 2.5 billion people lack sanitation and/or clean drinking
water; where over 200 million children are still malnourished; and where some
50 million to 60 million children are engaged in intolerable forms of child
labour.
Many of
the World Summit goals have gone unfulfilled because of under-investment in
basic social services. It was to address this under-investment that the 20/20
Initiative was adopted to ensure universal coverage of basic social services of
good quality.
However,
developing countries are currently devoting only 12 to 14 per cent of their
national budgets to basic social services, related in part to the crippling
weight of their debts. Gender-based violence and discrimination, environmental
degradation, natural disasters - and the devastating spread of armed conflict
and HIV/AIDS magnify the effects of these under investments in children.
Investing
fully in children today will ensure the well being and productivity of future,
generations for decades to come, and UNICEF is convinced that education -
especially education for girls - is the number one prerequisite for achieving
the International Development Targets and the Millennium Declaration Goals.
We know
from hard empirical evidence that girls who are educated generally have healthier
and better-educated children; that they are more likely to understand what they
must do to protect themselves and their families against HIV/AIDS and other
diseases; and that they tend to have smaller families.
But
girls' education is more than a cost-effective investment; more than an
economic issue; more than a desirable aspiration that societies should try to
provide. Education is a human right. Yet there are many obstacles to girls'
education, including gender discrimination, child labour - and the HIV/AIDS
pandemic, which is affecting children and women in alarmingly disproportionate
numbers as it simultaneously destroys the educational infrastructure of many
countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.
Despite this, a number of countries, including Malawi,
Mauritius and Chad and others in sub-Saharan Africa, have given us outstanding
demonstrations of how, despite such obstacles, it is possible to make
significant progress in educating girls. Their example proves that we do not
need new studies. We do not need new institutions. And we do not need
impossible amounts of new resources. They also illustrate why implementing the
goals of the UN Girls' Education Initiative, for which UNICEF has been
designated the lead agency by the Secretary-General, will require substantial
national commitments - and the involvement of all stakeholders. These themes
will be taken up tomorrow at the Education Thematic Session jointly supported
by UNICEF and UNESCO.
Mr.
President, we know that investments in children are extraordinarily productive
- but we must be mindful that returns on these investments will materialize
only if they are sustained over the long term. Countries that have achieved
significant human development in the span of one generation have recognized the
essential role of sustained economic growth, but did not simply wait for that
growth to occur. They took deliberate public policy actions to make social
investments a priority. This is why UNICEF urges ministers of finance, from
developing and developed countries alike, to take steps to ensure the long-term
future of their countries by putting the well-being of children at the heart of
the budgetary process.
For the
fact of the matter is that most developing countries will fall short of the
2015 targets unless there is a significant increase in external assistance-and
a major infusion of debt relief. By last December, 22 countries, including 16
LDCs, had qualified for debt relief under the Enhanced HIPC Initiative. This is
an encouraging sign of forward momentum and it must be sustained and translated
into timely and adequate relief, and, in turn, should generate resources for
national poverty reduction strategies. The poverty agenda is broad, but its
principal focus must always be on human development.
Distinguished Delegates, the
adoption of a new agenda for children for the 21st Century at the UN
General Assembly Special Session on Children four months from now will
reinforce the commitments made at this Conference towards achieving the
International Development Targets and the Millennium Declaration Goals.
Within
this framework, four areas of focus for children have been proposed for this
new decade: ensuring a good start in life for every child; providing a basic
education of good quality; protecting children from abuse, exploitation and
violence; and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other infectious diseases and the
risks they pose to the fulfillment of children's rights.
What we need now is action on a new level to reach the
goals that were set at the World Summit for Children - and to turn the
principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child into measurable
benefits for children. For UNICEF believes that we are at a moment in history when
the world may finally be ready to alter the course of human development by
decisively shifting national investments in favour of children.
But action of that magnitude requires leadership -
leadership that can inspire and broaden the alliance of those working to meet
children's basic needs and realize their rights.
Building alliances for children means enlisting the active support not only of established leaders, but also of people of influence representing all of civil society, from NGOs, religious groups and business and private enterprise to people's movements, academia and the media, community and grass-roots groups, families - and children themselves.
That is
why UNICEF has begun working with all our partners to help mobilize a Global
Movement for Children - a worldwide campaign to build a shared sense of
responsibility for the well-being of every child on earth.
For
it is only through broad and committed partnerships that we will reach the
remaining World Summit goals; tackle poverty, HIV/AIDS and armed conflict; and
establish a comprehensive agenda for children for the first 10 years of this
new century.
To this end, UNICEF is working with all our partners to
help mobilize a Global Movement for Children - a worldwide campaign to build a
shared sense of responsibility for every child on earth.
President Nelson Mandela and Graga
Machel have already assumed a direct and personal role in that effort, telling
leaders from every walk of life that if we want a just, equitable and thriving
world, we must invest in children now.
Mr. President,
Excellencies, and Distinguished Delegates: With your leadership and commitment,
we can make it happen - for every child.
Thank you.
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