UNICEF chief urges African leaders to use child well-being as gauge of progress

The head of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today called on African leaders to embrace child-centred standards as the primary indicator of progress across their continent.

“We all agree that in order to sustain human progress, a government must invest in its children,” Executive Director Carol Bellamy told leaders attending the Africa Economic Summit in Durban, South Africa. “Doing so is both a moral and an economic imperative. Thus, the well-being of your children should become the most important standard for measuring your individual achievement as leaders.”

The summit, attended by over 600 high-level political, business and civil society participants from more than 40 countries, is a platform for effective dialogue and networking to marshal private sector inputs in implementing the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) initiative.

The Summit aims to build on last year’s emphatic endorsement by the business community of NEPAD, the World Economic Forum said. It will also develop the innovative partnerships and joint action plans needed to engage business in its effective implementation.

Arguing that no single measure of development predicts the future as reliably as the well-being of a nation’s youngest citizens, Ms. Bellamy urged African nations to focus their limited resources on investments in health, education, equality and protection for children. She told them not to be shy about comparing their progress against other nations of similar economic strength.

Africa accounts for only 12 per cent of the world’s population yet is the home of 43 per cent of the world’s child deaths, 50 per cent of maternal deaths, 70 per cent of people living with HIV/AIDS, and a staggering 90 percent of the children orphaned by AIDS.

“No continent with such unfavourable indicators of child well-being can achieve real development or stability,” Ms. Bellamy stressed. “Only by improving the immediate prospects of children can we break out of poverty toward true progress for Africa.”

Ms. Bellamy’s proposal was presented to Summit attendees in the form of a 50-page white paper entitled, “The Young Face of NEPAD.” Founded last year by African leaders, NEPAD seeks to assert local accountability for the continent’s destiny.

Members include the African Union as well as the Africa Economic Summit, which is part of the World Economic Forum.