Using government budgets as a monitoring tool to advance child socio-economic rights

1. Using government budgets as a monitoring tool to advance child socio-economic rights Prepared by: Lerato Kgamphe The Children’s Budget Unit: IDASA New Tactic in Human Rights Project, Cape Town, May 2003

2. Presentation outline • Overview of the tactic • 5 steps of the tactic approach • Brief background of The Children’s Budget Unit • Research example using the tactic • Group experiential exercise

3. Overview of the Tactic Tactic • Using government budgets as a monitoring tool to advance child socio-economic rights Strategy • Hold government accountable to stated commitments to realise children’s socio-economic rights Target • Government child specific programmes

4. Why use budgets as a monitoring tool? • Govt. must provide programmes, as per legal obligation • Govt. programs must be budgeted for (i.e. budget allocation) • Programs must account for the expenditures • Budgets are instruments that facilitate the monitoring of govt. service delivery and policy implementation • Budget reforms can specifically relate to “transparency, effectiveness and efficiency” • To advocate for policy reform • Budget analysis makes it possible to provide concrete recommendations for government programme evaluation and improvements

5. 5 Steps of Tactical Approach 1. Determine the nature of government legal obligations to advance child-socio economic rights 2. Measure the extent of child poverty 3. Review program conceptualization & design: • program existence and design • budget allocations and expenditure • budget implementation and service delivery 4. Analyse govt. national and provincial budgets 5. Make recommendations of how government can better fulfill its obligations to advance child rights

6. Brief Overview of the Children’s Budget Unit Mission Statement “to contribute to child rights realisation and child poverty reduction by conducting research, training and information dissemination on government’s budget allocations and service delivery in relation to legal obligations”

7. CBU continued • Was there a need for the tactic? • Yes due to the political transformation in South Africa • How was this verified? • the new government committed to child right and poverty reduction through: • Ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child • Certification of the new Constitution, which includes civil, political, socio-economic and cultural rights • Policy and legal reform to reinforce the Constitution • Budget transformation process

8. Determine the nature of government’s legal obligationsStep 1 As described in the following: South Africa Constitution United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) Africa Charter

9. Measure the extent of child povertyStep 2 Source: CBU 2002

10. Child poverty in SA • OHS: 14.3 million poor children under 18 in South Africa • 11 million children under 18 are desperately poor, living below the poverty line of R200/month per capita in 1999 • 5.2 million children under 7 live below the poverty line of R400/month per capita (in 1999, Rands) • The distribution of poor children are unevenly spread across the country, but concentrated mainly in KZN, EC, Limpopo, NW • The level of child poverty continues to be high, exacerbated by the impact of HIV/AIDS • the child poverty rate is probably much higher using OHS 1999. Does reflect increase in child poverty, but also perhaps underreporting of household income

11. Roleplayers in the implementation of child rights • a country’s government • a country’s parliament • human rights commissions • parents • civil society • research organisations • the international financial community • UN committee on the CRC • children

12. Program conceptualisation and program designstep 3 a research example

13. Using the research example of the child’s right to social security in South Africa Step 3 looks at: • Program existence and design • Budget allocations and expenditure • Budget implementation and service delivery

14. Definition of social security A non contributory income support paid by the state to citizens in order to help ensure that everyone has enough income to meet their basic needs

15. A child’s right to social security a. Programme existence and design • Has government put in place a programme (or programmes) to give effect to the right? • Answer: Yes • Child support grant* • Foster care grant • Care dependency grant

16. If yes, is the scope of the programme such that there is non-discrimination and does the time-frame envisage rapid roll out of services to all children in need? • Findings from the 2001 study “Budgeting for child socio-economic rights” (Cassiem, Streak:Idasa) • Government has not been meeting its obligation to ensure non-discrimination against particular categories of children in budget allocations • Time frame: Government is obliged to deliver “progressively and subject to available resources”

17. IF... • If there no programme in place… or • If the programme design is such that the programme (perhaps due to resource and time constraint arguments) does not cater for all children and envisages slow rollout of services… THEN… • What is government’s plan for extending the programme to ensure all children can be reached quickly in future?

18. A look into budget allocation and expenditure First a very brief overview of… • What is the budget? • What is the budget cycle? • Elements of a good budgeting system

19. The budget “The budget is government’s operational plan to deliver a better life for our people. It sets out what you will pay in taxes, how we will spend that money, and what we will deliver. It is a synthesis of all our government policies. The budget is our contract with the nation.” Trevor Manual, South African Minister of Finance 1998 Budget Review

20. The budget cycle budget formulation budget auditing & assessment budget enactment budget execution

21. Elements of a good budgeting system a legal framework a comprehensive budget accurate and timely information transparency and participation

22. Review program conceptualisation & program designStep 3b • Program implementation questions b. Budget allocation (budget input) questions How much has been allocated to the Child Support Grant programme on an annual basis since 1999 and what is allocated for future years?

23. A child’s right to social security (ii)

24. A child’s right to social security (ii) • What proportion of total budgeted expenditure has been allocated to the programme each year? • Shows how big a slice has been allocated from the total budget • e.g. what is the Western Cape’s % share

25. A child’s right to social security (ii) • What is the trend over time (growth rates year on year and annual average) in the nominal and real budget allocations to the programme? • year on year growth is how much the size of the budget allocation has grown from one year to the next growth rate = (year 2 - year 1)/year 1 * 100 • annual average growth rate is the sum of yearly growth rates, divided by the number of years

26. Understanding Budget terminology • Nominal amount: the actual monetary value in terms of purchasing power i.e. without taking inflation into account • Real terms: the nominal amount adjusted for inflation over time • Five steps to follow when adjusting nominal budget allocations:

27. Understanding Budgets (#4 & 5) 4. & 5. Using the deflators to convert nominal into real: • Real budget allocation = nominal deflator • Growth rates calculation • growth rate = (year 2 - year 1) x 100 year 1 • Calculated deflators 2003:

28. Lets Try It! Using Western Cape Allocations • Calculate the provincial percentage share for every year • Calculate the nominal year on year growth rates • Determine the real amounts • Calculate the year on year growth rates for the real amount • Calculatethe annual growth rate

29. Answers

30. Review program concept & program designStep 3c Questions to ask if there is a program. c. Budget implementation and service delivery • Are the funds allocated to a programme reaching its intended destination and what proportion of the budget allocated to the programme is being spent? • Look at the intended number of beneficiaries • Calculate the sustainability of the program • Look at the government budget allocations versus budget expenditure, analyse

31. A child’s right to social security (ii) • What is the quality and efficiency of service delivery in the programme and have quality and efficiency been improving over time? • What type of service delivery problems (financial and non-financial) need to be dealt with in future • Does government’s plan for programme development and implementation deal with the problems

32. Making recommendations from using budgets as a monitoring tool—Step 5 • Recommendations in the 2001 study: “Budgeting for child socio-economic rights” • There is urgent need for data of the following variety: • income status breakdown of the CSG • whether the amounts of the CSG is enough • how the target population is spread across the provinces • the real demand for the grants

33. recommendations • maintain the real value of social security grants • child support grant age limit is expanded beyond the age of 6 • division of growing resources be distributed indiscriminately • government allocate resources to effective distribution channels for child security in remote rural areas • how the total provincial budget allocations in each province is spread across the different districts

34. What progress have we made? • Children’s well-being is being framed more and more in terms of “children’s rights” and obligations to protect, promote, fulfill and respect these rights • Budgeting framework from a child rights perspective demands thinking about interdependence between different children’s rights and links between the broad definition of child poverty and children’s rights • There has been an extension in the Child Support Grant to all children under 14

35. Difficulties faced • Providing timely, credible information • Lack of child poverty indicators to measure and monitor child well-being • Lack of child well being indicators • The content of child socio-economic rights is not very clear • There are many programs that need to be monitored but there is limited capacity/skills

36. Transferability • Why do you think this is a good tactic for others to use? • Who do you think can use this tactic? • Do you think there are any conditions that would make it impossible to use budgets as a monitoring tool? If so, what would those conditions be? • Must people be able to do ALL 5 of your steps in order to use budgets as a monitoring tool? If not all five, what would be the key steps to ensure the usefulness of the tactic? • What words of wisdom would you provide to those interested in implementing this tactic?