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

economic rights

Prepared by: Lerato KgampheThe Children’s Budget Unit: IDASA

New Tactic in Human Rights Project, Cape Town, May 2003

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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

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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

Overview of the Tactic

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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

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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 poverty3. Review program conceptualization & design:

a. program existence and designb. budget allocations and expenditurec. 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

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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”

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• 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

CBU continuedCBU continued

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

Measure the extent of child poverty

Step 2

Source: CBU 2002

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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

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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

Program conceptualisation and program design

step 3

a research example

Using the research example of the child’s right to social

security in South Africa

Step 3 looks at:

a. Program existence and designb. Budget allocations and

expenditurec. Budget implementation and

service delivery

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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

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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

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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)o Government has not been meeting its

obligation to ensure non-discrimination against particular categories of children in budget allocations

o Time frame: Government is obliged to deliver “progressively and subject to available resources”

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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?

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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

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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

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The budget cycle

budget formulatio

nbudget

enactment

budget execution

budget auditing & assessmen

t

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Elements of a good budgeting system

a legal framework

a comprehensive budget

accurate and timely information

transparency and participation

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• 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?

Review program conceptualisation & program design

Step 3b

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A child’s right to social security (ii)

Rand million 2001\02

Budget

2002\03

Budget

2003\04

Estimate

2004\05

Estimate

Eastern Cape 261 691 1231 1337

Free State 78 140 164 176

Gauteng 191 385 582 884

KwaZulu-Natal 346 813 885 1021

Limpopo 272 546 854 853

Mpumalanga 148 309 379 488

North West 106 258 299 319

Northern Cape 31 51 63

Western Cape 75 223 241 263

Total 1508 3417 4697Sources: Estimates of Expenditure for 2001/02 and 2002/03 for KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape and provincial Social Security

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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

A child’s right to social security (ii)

Rand million 2001\02

Budget

2002\03

Budget

2003\04

Estimate

2004\05

Estimate

Western Cape 75 223 241 263

Total 1508 3417 4697

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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

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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:

One

Two

Three

Four

Five Work out the real (year-on-year and average annual growth rates

Choose a base year

I dentif y inflation rates f or the conversion

Calculate a price index and price deflators

Use the price deflators to convert nominal values to real values

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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:

2002/2003 2003\ 2004 2004/20052001/2002

1.335

CPI X 6.6 10.9 6.1 5.1

Defl ator 1.114 1.223 1.284

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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 Calculate the annual growth rate

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Rand million 2001\ 02

Budget

Provincial

% share

2002\ 03

Budget

Provincial

% share

2003\ 04

Estimate

Provincial

% share

Western Cape 75 5% 223 7% 241 5%

Total 1508 3417 4697

WC Nom Growth 197% 8%

WC Real Figures 67.32 182.34 187.69

Real YoY Growth 171% 3%

WC ann growth 200.5

AnswersAnswers

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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 beneficiariesCalculate the sustainability of the program Look at the government budget allocations versus budget expenditure, analyse

Review program concept & program design

Step 3c

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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

A child’s right to social security (ii)

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• 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

Making recommendations from using budgets as a monitoring

tool—Step 5

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– 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

recommendations

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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

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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

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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?