Advocacy and Strategic Planning for Children, towards Strengthened Social Policies in Mali

Transcription

1 Advocacy and Strategic Planning for Children, towards Strengthened Social Policies in Mali Note on the support of the Mali-UNICEF Country Programme

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Mali s National Social Protection Policy 3 The Mali-UNICEF Cooperation Programme 4 UNICEF s Support to the Strengthening of Public Social Policies for the Benefit of Children 6 Strengthening the knowledge base on the situation of children and women in Mali 6 Support to the improvement of the monitoring system for social sectors- Malikunnafoni 10 Prospects 11 2

3 1. Mali s National Social Protection Policy Mali has had solid family and communal traditional mechanisms for handling the vulnerable groups in the community. However, as economic pressures mount, such traditional mechanisms erode. The National Social Protection Policy is intended to serve as a framework for implementation of plans, programs, projects and strategies to ensure coverage of different categories of the population against a range of risks and evokes women and vulnerable children as specific vulnerable groups, although they lose the visibility in the programs which express policy. An element which is part of the social protection framework is the government system of social security which works relatively well albeit it concerns wage earners and their families, who represent only 10% of the Malian population. The Malian National Social Protection Policy is embodied in the PRODESS (ten year health and social development program) which is presently in its second phase. The goal of its social protection component is to provide a series of measures through which society tries to protect the individual against social risks. However, the social protection program is however mostly focused on alternative mechanisms for health care funding, leading to legislation intended to regulate and support a health cooperative assurance sector, among others. The current protection mechanisms include the following: social security, based on regimes of contributions for regular wage-earners, managed by the National Social Protection Institute (INPS) and covering family child benefits, prevention and benefits in cases of accidents and work related injuries, retirement benefits and disability payments and preventive health measures; the retirement benefits for civil service workers are managed separately by the Pension Fund. The extension of social security in 2002 includes two new mechanisms: the compulsory health insurance program (AMO) and the Medical Assistance Fund (FAM), the first aimed at extending health insurance coverage, mainly through cooperative health organizations, to 3% of the population which is able to pay for benefits, and the second targeting 5% of the poorest population of Mali, classified as disadvantaged. They are scheduled to be launched early in With such programs, there presently exists a gap in coverage for a large number among the some 60% of Mali s population living under the poverty threshold. Social welfare is defined as a series of measures which are not subject to contributions provided by the Government for its citizens based on the solidarity concept. Social action involves 3

4 a series of measures helping access to decent housing, education, fair and decent reintegration of unemployed people into production activities. There are several initiatives under this category, including a large number around the Month of Solidarity but program planning, targeting, and systematization seem weak. These two elements are also considered as part of the social protection service, which essentially reports to the Ministry of Development, Solidarity and the Elderly (MDSSPA). The activities, in addition to arrangements, include well developed traditional mechanisms of informal transfer of cash and resources among households in order to reduce risks and alleviate poverty; remittances of important sums of money by family members living abroad; and activities by foundations and other ministries, particularly the Ministry of Health (free coverage of cases of malaria for children under five years of age, free vaccination and caesarians; exploration of the costs and benefits of other free treatments). The effectiveness of the informal mechanisms suggests that the latter could be at the origin of certain advantages and greater sustainability through more formal public transfers. 2. The Mali-UNICEF Cooperation Program The Mali-UNICEF Cooperation Program is part and parcel of the Nations Master Plan of Assistance to Mali s Development (PNUAD ) and thus contributes to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals through assistance in meeting national priorities formulated in the Strategic Framework for Growth and Poverty Reduction (SFGPR ). The program activities were guided by the Convention on the Rights of Children, the goals of A child friendly world, and the UNICEF Medium Term Strategic Plan (PSMT). The goal of the program is that children and women, particularly the most vulnerable of those, fully enjoy their rights. It includes the following four components: Child Survival, Basic Education and Equity, Child Protection and Promotion of Rights and Partnership. The planned budget for the program for the five year period is US$ million

5 Mali-UNICEF Cooperation Program Child Survival Basic Education and Equity Child Protection Promotion of Rights and Partnerships Integrated and continuing care at the community level Awakening and development of young children Supporting policy and legislation Advocacy and Strategic Planning PEC of malnutrition, SONU and HIV/AIDS Basic Education Response to the needs of child victims Alliances and Partnerships for reaching results for children Water /Hygiene/ Sanitation Non-formal education Fight against harmful traditional practices Program Communication Two levels of intervention are selected for the program: At the national level, the program will strengthen the strategic partnership and the policy dialogue based on better awareness of the situation of children, through existing coordination and consultation mechanisms of the CSCRP and harmonization of aid in the framework of the Paris Declaration, in order to influence national policies and strategies. Such partnership is also intended for mobilization and well targeted use of national and external resources for the benefit of children, in order to establish productive interventions for child survival, development, education and protection on a national scale. 5

6 At the local/community level, they will help deliver quality services to the beneficiaries, particularly the most vulnerable ones, while seeing to the participation of organized and motivated communities in the planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of interventions. The synergy between the different components will be strengthened in order to improve the impact and effectiveness of the program over communities, households, and children. These interventions will be extended to 2 additional administrative regions of the country. The geographic coverage will thus involve 6 regions, namely Gao, Kayes, Koulikoro, Mopti, Segou, and Sikasso, for a target population of at least 10.6 million inhabitants (at least 5.3 million children under 18 years of age). 3. UNICEF s Support for Strengthening Public Policies for the Benefit of Children UNICEF s support in the area of strengthening public policies for the benefit of children is managed through the Promotion of Rights and Partnerships program component. This is a crosscutting component and underscores all interventions of the cooperation program in the areas of planning, monitoring and evaluation, communication, resource mobilization and partnership. Thus it underscores the collection, management and analysis of disaggregated data on the situation of women and children in order to contribute to decision making for observance of their rights. On the other hand, it will contribute to building national capacities in the area of integration of the human rights based programming approach and results based management in the formulation and implementation of national strategic documents. The expected results over 5 years The Rights and Partnerships Promotion component is meant to achieve the following results: Reliable and harmonized statistics available and accessible facilitate commitments by decision makers, technical and financial development partners, communities and civil society in the area of social policies for children and women; Rights culture for children and women is strengthened with an effective participation of children and women in decision making; Improved knowledge and practices among youth, families, communities, communes and decision makers in the area of control of HIV/AIDS and satisfaction of children s and women s rights for access to basic social services Strengthening awareness over the situation of children and women in Mali In the course of the year 2008, UNICEF was able to contribute to strengthening evidence of statistical analysis of poverty among children and social protection through the finalization of 4 6

7 strategic studies: the Study on Social Protection; the Study on Revenue Transfers and Poverty Reduction in Mali; the Study on Poverty among Children and Inequalities in Mali; and the Study on Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices in the area of the Rights of Children and Women in Mali (KAP). Such studies were very useful in launching discussions and advocacy for social policy in Mali. i. The Social Protection Study The end result of this study is to provide UNICEF and the Government of Mali with an in-depth understanding of the current and potential role of social protection systems in poverty reduction, vulnerability and risk among children in Mali. This report is one of five case studies, undertaken in Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Mali, Senegal, and Congo, in the framework of a broader study on social protection and children at the regional level (West and Central Africa WCA). The major conclusions The vulnerability of populations in the face of basic rights of survival and protection is very high with the persistence of financial barriers for accessibility to basic social services (over half the population is poor and health coverage is only 50%). In 2002, Mali adopted a Social Policy declaration and established a social protection system but with coverage limited to only 10% of the population targeting essentially the formal sector and related sectors. The cooperative experience in the health sector remains quite limited. The non abolition of school fees in primary education represents a major obstacle to meeting the education demand. The operationalization of the two new measures adopted by the Government in January 2009 concerning compulsory health insurance for the formal sector and establishment of a medical welfare fund for indigents (about 600,000 beneficiaries per year) as well as the scaling up of cash transfer programs conditioned to poor households for increased demand for basic services, are many recommendations made by this study, among others, also including national capacity building in the coordination of interventions. ii. The study on revenue transfers and poverty reduction in Mali The goal of this study, carried out under the leadership of the Ministry of Social Development, Solidarity, and the Elderly, was to seek to determine how cash transfers affect household poverty, taking into account specifically the number of children under the age of 18, women heads of households, and the age of heads of households. The major conclusions The analysis reveals that 17% of household incomes come from private transfers. They represent the third source of household income after income from the sale of agricultural products (43%) and wages and incomes from non agricultural activities (35%). The private transfers received are more beneficial for those households where the head of household is a woman. They are generally higher in urban areas and for those households with 18 children or more for 7

8 poor households. Without transfers, poverty might well increase in Mali. Such increase would be more felt in rural areas (78% without transfers against 58% with transfers). It is therefore clear that transfers contribute to cash poverty reduction. iii. The study on child poverty and inequalities in Mali This study was carried out under the national leadership of the Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Commerce in partnership with the University of Mali and other technical and financial partners. The results are a major input to Government of Mali s efforts aimed at strengthening social protection measures. Such measures are intended to institute lower school fees and health services, extension of health insurance coverage, establishment of a financial allocation program contingent on the most disadvantaged families for the benefit of children, etc. The major conclusions The scope of poverty among children is very large in Mali, with 85% of children affected by severe deprivation and 50% by absolute deprivation. Education and decent housing conditions are two major constraints for children. The study also revealed that: There is a link between household poverty and progress towards achieving the MDGs; A good poverty reduction strategy must see to the redistribution of the benefits of economic growth for the benefit of the poor; The impact of public policies on poverty reduction among children remains weak in light of the severe nature of the constraints; Inequalities in access of poor people to basic social services persist, thus illustrating the constraints of financial inaccessibility to these services by households; Initiatives to help the poor, which were tried in the regions of Kayes and Mopti, may constitute good practices to be replicated elsewhere in the framework of decentralization. The principal recommendations are the following: Make poverty reduction among children and inequalities one of the development priorities in Mali in order to gather basic conditions of growth and social progress; Integrate children s deprivation in the design and implementation of poverty reduction strategies; Undertake the effective implementation of the free and compulsory primary education policy prescribed by the School Orientation Law; Ensure the effectiveness of compulsory health insurance policies and medical welfare facilities for the poor; Promote packaged cash transfer programs for disadvantaged children, extension of school canteens into disadvantaged areas and accommodation services for secondary school students whose school facilities are located far away from their parents residence as policies of targeting high impact public interventions on child poverty reduction; Strengthen the productive sector and the Government private sector partnership in order to 8

9 generate resources likely to guarantee sustainable funding of the social sector; Build national capacities for a better inter-sectoral coordination of the effective implementation of the national policy statement on social protection aimed at universal coverage of financial accessibility by the poor to basic social services. iv. KAP Study on Children s and Women s Rights in Mali This study, carried out fifteen years after adoption of the CRC by Mali and five years after the promulgation of the Child Protection Code, intended to measure quantitatively and qualitatively the level of knowledge of the holders (children and women) and stakeholders as well as the scope of attitudes and bad practices prevailing within families against the essential rights of children and women at the national, regional and Bamako district level, including, in relation with the CRC, the Child protection Code and the CEDEF. The major conclusions: In terms of children s knowledge of their rights, it must be kept in mind that only 4 children out of 10 asked are aware of their rights, urban children being more aware (58.7%) of the existence of children s rights over rural children (35.7%), i.e., a difference of 23 points. In terms of parental awareness of the rights of children, it turns out that about 2/3 of the parents have heard about the rights of children in proportions ranging between 30.4% (Kayes) and 79.5% (Sikasso). In this domain, urban parents (75.2%), are more informed than rural ones. As far as women s knowledge of their own rights are concerned, it turns out that in Mali, women are little aware of the existence of their rights: only slightly one third, (or 35.2%) declare knowing their rights, with significant regional disparities ranging from 6.9% (Kayes) to 64.6% (Sikasso). Urban women (51.4%) are very much aware of the existence of their rights, compared to rural women (25%). Investigations dealing with men s awareness of the rights of women also reveal that less than one man out of two (48.6%) knows that the law grants rights to women. Only 12.7% of them know about the programs and projects which integrate women s rights in their village Less than half the men interviewed (43.6%) have a favorable opinion about equity between men and women. The men in Kidal are more favorable to it, with 63.7%). Household practices towards children s rights inform us that most children (91%) report that they had been victims of physical abuse. Overall, 17% of the children interviewed stated that they were victims of economic exploitation, and 8.8% of the children stated they had been victims of trafficking. Sexual exploitation is sustained by 8% of the children surveyed. According to the children interviewed, the violations of children s rights are classified, in descending order of importance, as follows: the family, the school, the learning places, the health services, the general administration, and the courts. In the face of these cases of violation of their rights, most children, 76%, state that they have not used any appeal. 9

10 3.2. Support to the improvement of the monitoring system for social sectors- Malikunnafoni In Mali the National Statistics System has developed within itself sectoral statistical production systems which generate abundant statistical data. Unfortunately, these sector-based production units do not adequately refer to the National Directorate of Statistics and Computer Science (DNSI), which is the guarantor of statistical standards and methods. The difficulties of coordination of the National Statistical System, together with the lack of a formal operational consulting framework, have led to a disparate production, not always harmonized, and nor centralized. In addition, this production is inadequately disseminated, hardly accessible and little promoted. It therefore turned out necessary to set up a national and multi-sectoral information system which helps organize, centralize, harmonize and disseminate socio-economic information. This is the context in which the Government of the Republic of Mali has chosen the DevInfo technology provided to member states by the General Secretariat of the United Nations System. DevInfo, which was initially developed by UNICEF under the designation of ChildInfo, is a Relational Data Base Management System integrating a Geographic Information System (GIS) adaptable and approvable by individual states. This tool was used to develop Mali s data base, called Malikunnafoni, in order to manage, in a modern and optimal way, the socio-economic indicators. The Malikunnafoni database was adopted in the CSCRP as part and parcel of the Statistical Master Plan (SDS) which was meant to help improve the national statistical system for monitoring the MDGs and the PRSP. The Mali Socio-economic Datatbase Project Malikunnafoni, which has been in preparation since 2003 under the Mali-UNICEF cooperation program, has entered its first active phase from June 2005 through June 2007, in the course of which phase most preparatory tasks were achieved. The project comprises four components and the results expected in the course of the second phase (June 2007 December 2009) are the following: Institutional capacity building: the project management bodies are endowed with institutional and material capacities to operate the database. Development of the socio-economic database: the data base for monitoring the country s socioeconomic development policies and poverty reduction policies is operational. Updating, quality management and updating the base: Regular updating mechanisms, vali- 10

11 dation, monitoring/evaluation and baseline securing mechanisms are operational. Dissemination of the baseline: Information contained in the initial MaliKunnafoni baseline are made available to targeted actors (decision makers, researchers, and other statistical data users), in real time. Such establishment process has led to development of two tools: the multisectoral statistical database Malikunnafoni and the electronic library Bibliostat-Mali. As of August 31, 2008, the Mali Malikunnafoni socio-economic database contains 460 indicators (including 332 informed) according to availability at the national, regional, and local level. 4. Prospects The advocacy conducted by UNICEF towards the Ministry of Social Development, Solidarity, and the Elderly, has helped secure a strong commitment on the part of the Government to develop and implement an operational plan of implementation of the recommendations from these 4 studies. An inter-sectoral working group is being set up by the Ministry of Social Development and such working group will work on development of the new Mali Social Protection national action plan integrating the recommendations of these four studies as well as lessons learned from the implementation of the social protection action plan. A national workshop on dissemination of the results of these studies will be held at the end of March 2009 to launch broad national discussions with decision makers. TFPs and Planners, Researchers, and Civil Society organizations (150 participants). To accompany this work, UNICEF will strengthen its internal high level policy advocacy capacities through recruiting a TFT-L5 in social policy (Economic and Social Development Expert) who will bring some support for the operationalization of the National Policy Statement for Social Policy adopted in 2002 in Mali, as well AMO and FAM in In addition, a national strategy of partnership and resource mobilization for reaching expected goals in the area of child survival and development in Mali is underway based on the evidence of these studies outcomes. In addition, it should be noted that UNICEF will bring technical and financial assistance to the National Directorate of Statistics (DNSI) and the CPS Santé for carrying out a multipleindicator national survey in 2009 (MICS2009) in partnership with other TFPS in order to measure the coverage and impact outcomes of the CSCRP, PRODESS, PRODEC and other national programs (sample of 11,900 households). The development of a strong partnership of bilateral and multilateral donors for supporting Government efforts in terms of strengthening social protection policies for speeding up progress towards meeting the MDGs would be quite desirable given the scope of financial poverty in a context of sharp rise in prices of food commodities and international financial crisis. 11

12 Photos: Giacomo Pirozzi United Nations Children s Fund Niamakoro, Route de l Aéroport BP 96 Bamako, République du Mali Téléphone (223)