Let's Set Realistic Targets For Children in the 80’s

Item

Title: Let's Set Realistic Targets
For Children in the 80’s
extracted text: SDA-RF-CH-4.15

'ntematonal'rfear
ol IhcChJd 1979

Let's Set Realistic Targets
For Children in the 80’s
Dr. Estefania Aldaba-Lim
Special Representative,
International Year of the Child
By

Nineteen seventy-nine is a year of advocacy
and action for all children, poor as well as rich.
Dr. Estefania Aldaba-Lim examines the different
emphases, and pleads for a redress of the global
balance during this Year which places the child
at the centre of the world.

Consider for a moment the facts and figures
related to the status of children in the world today. Half
of all annual deaths in the world occur in children below
the age of fifteen. In figures, this means thirty million
children a year.

The magnitude and seriousness of the situation of
children in the developing world are
dramatically
underscored by the shocking statistics available to
us, and they are all the more alarming when viewed side
by side with the situation of children in the developed
countries.

A 1971 United Nations Report on Children estimates
that out of one hundred children born every minute in
developing countries, twenty will die within the year.
Of the eighty who survive, sixty will have no access to
modern medical care in childhood, an equal number will
suffer from malnutrition during the crucial weaning age,
with the possibility of irreversible physical and mental
damage. It is now well known that among children
below the age of f ive in developing countries, malnutrition
is an important associated cause of death.

Again, according to the Gwtakin - Grant paper,
entitled. Using Targets to Help Improve Child Health, it is
estimated that of the sixteen million deaths projected for
children under five in 1978, morethan fifteen million will
occur in developing countries. Had these children been
born in developed countries, as many as twelve million
to thirteen million of them would still be alive.

Equally disturbing is the educational situation of
children in the developing world. It is estimated that in
1975 some 120 million children between the ages of six
and eleven were out of school. In the poorer countries
of Asia and Africa, only about one in every three children
attends primary school. In rural areas, the figure may
fall as low as 1O per cent. For girls, the situation is even
worse. In some countries, less than one out of ten girls
of primary school age are in school.

Children in the rich world

Although the majority of children in the developed
world are better off than children in the Third World in
terms of nutrition and physical health care,
serious
problems related to their well-being are manifested in
many ways. The priorities of developed countries with

respect to children differ somewhat from those of
developing countries.
Developed countries are paying
particular attention to the problems of children subjected
to physical abuse, children who are objects and subjects
of violence (including TV violence), children exposed to
drug addiction, delinquency, the "latch key children",
handicapped children and migrant and refugee children.
President Carter has express concern over the
mistreatment and neglect of millions of children in the
U.S. At a White House ceremony on June 28, when he
announced U.S. participation in the International Year of
the Child, he said that in the richest country in the world
there are a million children whose rights are abused. "I
don't think there is an adequate understanding yet," he
said, "in our societal structure of this devastating
demonstration of carelessness or cruelty."

Global imbalance
Given such a world picture, the International Year of
the Child is indeed a proper occasion for all of us, in
developed and developing countries alike, to re-examine
our
current priorities and preoccupations from the
perspective of the future inheritors of this world: our
children. The International Year of the Child is a Year for
all children, of the poor as well as the rich.

Children stand to benefit from the establishment
of a New International Economic Order (NIEO) that will
provide developing countries the wherewithaTto improve

the lives of their children.

The new world order which is struggling to take
shape seeks to replace charity with justice, dependence
on the goodwill of others with self - reliance and

self-respect. It is a challenge to reform a world economic
structure
that
has
perpetuated
the
economic
subordination of developing countries and crippled their
capacity to meet the needs of their children. The improved
terms of
trade,
technology
transfer,
stabilization
of export earnings and an increased share in world
industrial production for developing countries, envisaged
in the NIEO, would generate the substantial increases in
national and per capita incomes needed to fuel the drive
towards social progress in the developing world, far
beyond anything that piecemeal external assistance,
however useful, can provide.
Merchants of death

The well-being of children can be directly related to
the massive arms build-up, which consumes tremendous
monetary and manpower resources that could otherwise
be devoted to feeding, clothing, sheltering and educating
children and keeping them in good health.
It was pointed out "in the 1978 Report on World
Military
and
Social
Expenditures
that
"while
governments invested over S3 trillion from 1960 to 1976
in defence against possible attack by external enemies,
the threat of internal deterioration was on the rise
throughout the world...the number of desperately poor
had increased to more than one billion
the grandiose
weapons stockpiled for military defense were increasingly
irrelevant to the real problems of the modern world."
Channelling even only five per cent of the S400 billion
annually spent on weapons of death and destruction
to the needs of the child would release a mind-boggling
S20 billion a
year
for
immunization and primary
health care, adequate nutrition and basic literacy which
would allow children to grow into productive adults.

The satisfaction of the basic human needs of
child, however, also depends on other inter-related
[Factors, none of which can be pursued in isolation.
The
persistence ’’of disparities between the situation of
children in the developing countries and those in the
industrialized world is only one aspect of the global
imbalance in the distribution of political and economic
power among nations.
Collective effort needed

When the UN General Assembly proclaimed 1979
as the International Year of the Child, its main objective
was to focus the attention and concern of the world
community on the needs of children everywhere, and
to bring about both immediate and longterm jrnprovements in the lives of millions of children in developed'
as well as developing countries.
To those who have asked, "what are the objectives
of IYC ?", we respond that it is up to each country, and
to the participating groups in each country, to set the
priorities. Each country, naturally, will be primarily
concerned with the problems of its own children.
IYC, then, is a collective venture which seeks to
draw together the efforts of governments, the United
Nations
system,
interested
non - governmentaI
organizations, the mass media and the general public, to
strengthen local, national and global commitment to
the well-being of children, and to translate this, into
concrete actions that will have a lasting impact on
children's lives.
In contrast to many international years, IYC will
not be marked by a global conference. Its objectives
will be achieved by action at the community and country
levels. The IYC Secretariat has therefore encouraged
governments to establish National Commissions to

formulate the long and short-term measures for children
envisaged in IYC.
On the whole the response of governments has
been warm and encouraging.
The first half of the
preparatory period has been marked by the establishment

of 86 National IYC Commissions some of which
have been functioning since 1977. One hundred and
forty-one of the 153 UN Member States have written to
express interest in participating in the IYC.
Indicative of the high level of national commitment
to IYC is the fact that many Heads of State or First
Ladies
are
patrons
or
presidents
of
National
Commissions.

What are National Commissions doing ?
For example, the Swedish National Commission
for IYC will have two sub-committees. One is concerned
with improving the situation of children in Sweden.
The other is concerned with increasing the understanding
in Sweden of the special situation of children in
developing countries.
In India, the National Children's Board has been
reconstituted to make it more cohesive and manageable.
In Nigeria, IYC Committees are being established
even at state and local government levels. And the
Nigerian chapter of the International Federation of
Women Lawyers, with the Nigerian Council of Women's
Societies, is conducting a legal study of the current
status of children.

In an exhaustive programme in Tanzania, greater
emphasis is being placed, for example, on nursery
education for children to age six. Regional authorities
have been asked to find means of solving transport

problems which face children who attend day schools
in towns.
Research on the nomad child and a study on farm
collectives are part of Mali's plans.

Mexico's
National
System
for
the
Integral
Development of the Family, together with UNICEF, has
developed a preparatory programme with four basic
themes: preventive medicine, education, social promotion
and community development.
Advocacy and action
In the course of our advocacy for efforts for IYC in
various parts of the world, we have constantly urged
governments and National Commissions established
for IYC.

(1) to review the
situation of children,
including policies and legislation relating to them,
and to gather basic data and information on their
nutritional, health and educational status (especially
in developing countries), as well as all other
programme priorities such as violence and abuse
of children, drug addiction, prostitution, abandoned
children,
physically and mentally
handicapped
children, suicide, chlidren of migrant families, and
refugees;
(2)

to

review

the

outreach

of

existing

programmes for children;

(3) to
determine
priorities
and,
where
possible, to set targets that can serve as guidelines
for action and measurements of progress, not
only for 1979, but far beyond that, on
permanent basis.

a

mere

These are the starting points for the development of
action programmes that can effectively meet the basic
needs of children.
Towards this objective,
IYC is
encouraging the search and application of new and
innovative combinations of effort involving governments,
non-governmental organizations, organizations of the UN
system and bilateral aid agencies, that could help
bridge the gap between need and fulfillment, where
the development of the child is concerned. Increasing
emphasis is being placed on the mobilization of resources^
within each community for the provision of primary
health care to the rural child and the delivery of basic
services espoused by UNICEF.

Critical link
The world has failed to give attention to the
critical link between the shape of human destiny and
the care our children receive today. By failing to place
children in the position they deserve—at the top of
our social, political and economic priorities—we are
sowing the seeds of future trouble and disaster.
'
Our children do not vote and have no political
constituency. Our children have no spokesman to
champion their cause, no universal ombudsman to hear
their grievances and petitions. No universal mechanism
exists today to guarantee their survival, to ensure that
their needs are met and their rights protected.
The International Year of the Child is a unique
opportunity to focus the world's consciousness on
children. It is our once-in-a-lifetime chance to give
children the high priority they deserve in the national
and international agenda, not for their sake alone,
but for the sake of all humanity.

Media: SDA-RF-CH-4.15.pdf

Position: 1824 (5 views)