Poor countries such as Kenya and Malawi are more child-friendly than many richer nations, said a new report launched in Nairobi on Thursday.
The report said the new league on child friendliness showed how committed individual governments are to children by assessing how well they protect children through laws and policies; budget allocations and their achievement of good outcomes for children in health, education among others.
The report by the African Child Policy Forum (ACPF), an independent Pan- African policy and advocacy center based in Addis Ababa, scores and ranks the performance of African governments in terms of their efforts to improve child well-being.
"For the first time we can assess the behavior and performance of African governments systematically and transparency using the child-friendly index and by so doing, hold these governments more accountable for their children's well-being," Dr. Assefa Bequele, ACPF executive director told journalists in Nairobi.
"We will be able to monitor progress and failings more easily by using this powerful instrument which is the first of its kind in Africa and to our knowledge, the first of its kind anywhere," he said.
The report on Child Well-being 2008: How child-friendly are African governments? Noted that African governments have an impressive record in their formal accession to relevant child-focused international treaties.
But the extent of their commitment to children's issues varies widely, and the gap between promises and reality remains wide in many countries.
"We are convinced that the report is a significant contribution to public policy. It is an African report on African children by an African organization," said Dr Salim Ahmed Salim, former Tanzanian prime minister and a three-term former Secretary General of Organization of African Union.
The report which ranks 52 African countries using an index of more than 40 indicators, found that some of the poorest nations are the most child-friendly because they have put in place appropriate laws and policies to protect child rights and effectively target their limited resources to provide basic needs for their children.
Some wealthier African nations languish at the bottom of the league for failing to protect their children against exploitation and harmful traditional practices.
"This is a meticulously researched and evidence - based report, and the first of its kind on the subject in the region," said Prof. Jaap Doek, former Chair of UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
Mauritius and Namibia are rated the most child friendly nations in Africa. The other 'most children friendly' governments on the index include both relatively rich countries -- Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, South Africa and Algeria -- and relatively poor countries, Kenya, Malawi and Cape Verde. Rwanda and Burkina Faso are in the 11th and 12th position despite their economic status.
"Poorer countries should take heat from our finding that political will and enlightenment play bigger part in determining children's well-being than economic status or wealth. It is politics and not economics that accounts for differences in performance among African governments," said Bequele.
Source: Xinhua
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