Global Study On Child Poverty And Disparities (PDF) - Social Policy ...

GLOBAL STUDY
ON CHILD
POVERTY &
DISPARITIES
The Pillars of
Child Well-being
This section discusses the ‘pillars’
of well-being for children: nutrition,
health, education, child protection and
social protection. These areas not only
provide indicators of a child’s present state of
well-being, but are also the building blocks for
the child’s future physical, emotional and social
development.
Introduction
In assessing the impact of policies, one would
like to trace a line of causality from policy,
programme design, and resource allocation
through to children’s outcomes. This is not
possible in this case, for a number of reasons. In
some instances, the scarce resources available
to Vanuatu have not yet been extended to all
pillars (for example, social security programmes
are largely absent), while in other areas, such
as health, expenditure and programme data are
not always captured in the manner that would be
required to determine causality.
In Vanuatu, education and health are the two
main sectors relevant to child well-being.
Government expenditure on education as a
proportion of the budget has been consistently
high for many years, at around a quarter of all
public spending. Nevertheless, net enrolment
rates have remained poor, even by Pacific Island
standards. Health has maintained an average
share of over 10 per cent of total government
expenditure since 2001, which is focused on
primary health care. However, health outcomes
also remain poor in comparison with some
countries with similar income levels.
Asides from these sectoral policies (discussed
in more detail below), the Government has a
number of overarching policy statements that
relate to children’s well-being in these core
areas. The Government’s strategic directions
for the country are set out in the PAA. Policy
goals and strategies have been set out further in
the Government’s Planning Long, Acting Short:
Action Agenda for 2009-2012. This document
sets out priority areas for children, namely quality
education for all, investing in a healthy Vanuatu
and strengthening security and the rule of law
(child protection).
The Government also recently drafted the
National Children’s Policy 2007–2011, which
was developed in response to the 2002 United
Nations General Assembly Special Session on
Children, where the Declaration and Plan of
Action – A World Fit for Children was adopted
(Government of Vanuatu 2007). The vision of
the national plan is to “invest in children now to
ensure communities, churches and the nation at
large can enjoy a peaceful and rewarding life so
that the future generation of Ni-Vanuatu will have
a healthy, happy and productive life.” The policy
statement outlines the Government’s support
for addressing health, education and safety
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