SAVE THE CHILDREN MEDIA NOTE FOR BUDGET FY2024-25
Save the Children in Bangladesh’s study shows that only 15 % of the total budget (Taka 7,61,785 crores) supports child-focused activities in FY 2024 despite the government’s targeted allocation of 20% as of 2020.
A prosperous future depends on the government’s investment in children’s lives to ensure that they are healthy, able to learn, and protected. The national budget is an important tool to reflect this ambition supporting over 60 million children in Bangladesh. The government’s investment in the holistic development of children and promotion of their growth is dependent on how effectively these budgets address some of the most pressing challenges that hinder their development.
During the 2024 election manifesto, the government identified critical areas of health, education, and child-focused interventions to support most-marginalized groups and implement schemes that address children’s protection and safeguarding. The leaders of tomorrow must become an investment priority to ensure and build future productive leaders.
We at Save the Children in Bangladesh commend the government’s progress and look forward to cooperating in accelerating the eighth National Five-Year Plan (8FYP) to its final year (2024 – 2025).
Our collaboration with the government to monitor child rights issues, promote systemic changes, and reform is central to children’s well-being. Our regular analysis of the national budget implementation and stakeholder consultation have provided a framework for key recommendations to the government and key policymakers.
- Budget Back Better: Revitalize the children module in the Integrated Budget and Account System (IBAS ++). The system should be supplemented with a published budget document such as “Child Statement” highlighting the budgetary measures taken and the precise implications for children. That will ensure accountability toward children.
- Find the Funding: Establish a Child Financing Strategy to better implement child-focused interventions by the government. The strategy may include a Child Benefit Contingency Fund to subsidize child-focused projects facing funding shortages and to tackle urgent needs and situations.
- Transform from Within: Promote institutional reform to enhance social sector ministries’ efficacy in implementing their budgets. For example, the education ministries (MoPME and MoE) and health sector ministries used 76% and 61% in FY23, when the national average implementation rate was 83% for all ministries. Systemic change should include improved coordination of child-focused social services and separate child directorates that enhance these initiatives’ capacity.
- Ensure and Insure: Redesign the social safety net program budget to make it more responsive to children. The government should consider allocating funds to develop an inclusive databank of children that includes out-of-school children and those subject to disabilities and remoteness to enable specified targeting and efficient service delivery for demographics that need more significant support.
- Forecasting Needs: Developing new budget schemes that address the vulnerabilities of children affected by the climate crisis. The budget should identify and address the specific challenges of poor children in urban areas and the effect of climate change in these areas.
- Syllabus for Success: Allocate at least 17% of the development budget for the education sector in FY 2024 – 2025. The education expenditure in FY 2022 – 2023 was only 1.35% of the GDP, and the allocation for the sector was 11.4% of the Annual Development Programme in FY2023-2024. The government should also promote inclusive education with recommendations from relevant stakeholders in designing upcoming programs.
- Diversify the Diet: Given the recent regressive trends, greater investment is needed for nutrition-specific programs. Additionally, early childhood care and development programs should receive targeted focus and allocations to ensure access for poor children.
- Where is the Wellness: Designate budgets for primary healthcare initiatives, community healthcare endeavors, and community-based Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) programs for children. At least 11% of the total budget must be allocated to the health sector. However, only 6.2% of this budget was provided for the sector during FY2023-2024.
- Keeping up with Capacity: Commit resources for adequate staffing of teachers, child protection workers, pediatricians, nurses, and physicians at the community level and those that deliver child-related services. The government must provide adequate incentives to the existing workforce and recognize their contribution.
Shumon Sengupta, Country Director, Save the Children in Bangladesh: “We can support the government in their endeavor in all key areas. We ask the education sector to expand stipend programs for women’s education, promote STEM education, skills-focused programs, and enhance educational access to the children from poor communities, who often live in hard-to-reach areas.
We also ask that health insurance be introduced to expand and enhance health interventions and reduce out-of-pocket expenses by low-income communities and improve access to primary and family healthcare and nutrition services provided by the government.
Most importantly, any initiative is most successful when programming is designed around specific and targeted needs and participation from relevant stakeholders must support initiatives at all levels. With this consideration, we need child-focused interventions that support shelters for street, destitute, and orphan children, address child labor issues, prevent discrimination against girl children, enhance child protection, and expand support to autistic children.
We urge the government to understand climate crisis projects and expand them into existing programs and projects aimed at social and child protection. Focusing on implementing these projects with the aid components will help the government access different global climate funds and better address the impacts of the climate crisis on marginalized children and youth in Bangladesh who are one of the most affected by it. The Bonn UN conference is a landmark opportunity for an ‘expert dialogue’ on child marriage and climate change. It must be greater emphasis and understanding of the specific and disproportionate impacts of this crisis on children.”
