By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 14 1999 (IPS)

A new UN survey on social spending reveals that only three countries in Africa are allocating more than 20 percent of budget funds for use on basic health care, education and nutrition – the goal set by the 1995 Social Summit in Copenhagen.

The survey, conducted jointly by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), shows that Namibia spends about 30 percent of its national budget on basic social services, Mali about 23 percent and Kenya 20 percent.

The rest of Africa’s poorer nations, including Cameroon (8.0 percent), Ivory Coast (9.0 percent), Tanzania (10 percent) and Benin (18 percent), spend less than 20 percent on education and health – far below target.

The so-called “20/20 Initiative” – adopted unanimously adopted at the Copenhagen summit – urges industrial nations to devote at least 20 percent of their aid budgets to basic social services, while developing nations are asked to set aside about 20 percent of national budgets.

The social services include reproductive health, primary education, nutrition, safe water supply and sanitation.

UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy says the 20/20 Initiative also a recognises the fact that the issue of development and development aid is not just a matter of concern only to the world’s wealthier donor nations.

“Even the poorest nations should make some commitment to provide basic social services to their people,” Bellamy says. “Realistically, however, this is not happening.”

Bellamy concedes, however, that most of the poorer nations of the world now are forced to spend more on debt-servicing than on health and education.

“This is the stranglehold that debt has on these countries and it virtually precludes 20/20 from having an impact,” she told IPS.

A 45-page UN report released in April says that, statistics from some 30 countries shows that governments allocate on average only about 12-14 percent of their budgets to basic social services which is below what is needed to reach universal coverage of basic social services.

In its annual report for 1999, UNICEF says that during the 1990s a broad understanding was reached that access for all, to basic social services, is vital for reducing poverty.

Yet millions of children still are being deprived of their right to education, health care and nutrition, reducing them to a life steeped in perpetual poverty, UNICEF says.

The annual report notes that levels of aid to basics services can also vary widely over time. In Niger, for example, the share rose from 6.0 percent in 1992 to 18 percent in 1999 while in Peru it dropped from 22 percent in 1994 to 5.0 percent in 1996.

Addressing a meeting of the UN’s Economic and Social Council in Geneva last month, Secretary-General Kofi Annan focused specifically on the deteriorating economic and social conditions in Africa.

Annan says that there are a number of priorities to achieve social development, particularly an increase of enrollment in primary education, which is still too low in at least 16 African countries, and an improvement of the overall health situation in Africa “which still gives cause for concern.”

“Financing Africa’s development is crucial” to win the fight against poverty, he says.

Annan says that 44 percent of all Africans – and 51 percent of those in sub-Saharan Africa – live in absolute poverty, less than one dollar a day.

Meanwhile, Africa’s debt stock has increased from 344 billion dollars in 1997 to 350 billion dollars in 1998, and is equivalent to more than 300 percent of exports of goods and services.

Official development assistance to Africa continues to decline, falling from its peak of 23 billion dollars in 1992 to 18.7 billion dollars in 1997, Annan says. Additionally, foreign direct investment to Africa amounts only to some 4.7 billion dollars – about 3.0 percent of global flows.

Growth rates, which during the mid-1990s reached more than 5.0 percent annually, have now declined. Growth was 2.7 percent in 1997 and 2.5 percent in 1998 but is expected to rise to 3.0 percent in 1999 and to 3.5 percent in 2000.

Annan says that halving poverty by 2015 will require a 7.0 percent growth in gross domestic product (GDP) per year for Africa as a whole until that date.

“The overview of the present situation shows that internal resources of the continent would not be sufficient to reach this goal,” he adds.

Excerpt:

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 12 1999 (IPS)

A new UN survey on social spending reveals that only three countries in Africa are allocating more than 20 percent of budget funds for use on basic health care, education and nutrition – the goal set by the 1995 Social Summit in Copenhagen.

The survey, conducted jointly by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), shows that Namibia spends about 30 percent of its national budget on basic social services, Mali about 23 percent and Kenya 20 percent.

The rest of Africa’s poorer nations, including Cameroon (8.0 percent), Ivory Coast (9.0 percent), Tanzania (10 percent) and Benin (18 percent), spend less than 20 percent on education and health – far below target.

The so-called “20/20 Initiative” – adopted unanimously adopted at the Copenhagen summit – urges industrial nations to devote at least 20 percent of their aid budgets to basic social services, while developing nations are asked to set aside about 20 percent of national budgets.

The social services include reproductive health, primary education, nutrition, safe water supply and sanitation.

UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy says the 20/20 Initiative also a recognises the fact that the issue of development and development aid is not just a matter of concern only to the world’s wealthier donor nations.

“Even the poorest nations should make some commitment to provide basic social services to their people,” Bellamy says. “Realistically, however, this is not happening.”

Bellamy concedes, however, that most of the poorer nations of the world now are forced to spend more on debt-servicing than on health and education.

“This is the stranglehold that debt has on these countries and it virtually precludes 20/20 from having an impact,” she told IPS.

A 45-page UN report released in April says that, statistics from some 30 countries shows that governments allocate on average only about 12-14 percent of their budgets to basic social services which is below what is needed to reach universal coverage of basic social services.

In its annual report for 1999, UNICEF says that during the 1990s a broad understanding was reached that access for all, to basic social services, is vital for reducing poverty.

Yet millions of children still are being deprived of their right to education, health care and nutrition, reducing them to a life steeped in perpetual poverty, UNICEF says.

The annual report notes that levels of aid to basics services can also vary widely over time. In Niger, for example, the share rose from 6.0 percent in 1992 to 18 percent in 1999 while in Peru it dropped from 22 percent in 1994 to 5.0 percent in 1996.

Addressing a meeting of the UN’s Economic and Social Council in Geneva last month, Secretary-General Kofi Annan focused specifically on the deteriorating economic and social conditions in Africa.

Annan says that there are a number of priorities to achieve social development, particularly an increase of enrollment in primary education, which is still too low in at least 16 African countries, and an improvement of the overall health situation in Africa “which still gives cause for concern.”

“Financing Africa’s development is crucial” to win the fight against poverty, he says.

Annan says that 44 percent of all Africans – and 51 percent of those in sub-Saharan Africa – live in absolute poverty, less than one dollar a day.

Meanwhile, Africa’s debt stock has increased from 344 billion dollars in 1997 to 350 billion dollars in 1998, and is equivalent to more than 300 percent of exports of goods and services.

Official development assistance to Africa continues to decline, falling from its peak of 23 billion dollars in 1992 to 18.7 billion dollars in 1997, Annan says. Additionally, foreign direct investment to Africa amounts only to some 4.7 billion dollars – about 3.0 percent of global flows.

Growth rates, which during the mid-1990s reached more than 5.0 percent annually, have now declined. Growth was 2.7 percent in 1997 and 2.5 percent in 1998 but is expected to rise to 3.0 percent in 1999 and to 3.5 percent in 2000.

Annan says that halving poverty by 2015 will require a 7.0 percent growth in gross domestic product (GDP) per year for Africa as a whole until that date.

“The overview of the present situation shows that internal resources of the continent would not be sufficient to reach this goal,” he adds.

Excerpt: