Child rights governance and poverty reduction measures: what are the connections? By Frances Sheahan August 2011

Transcription

1 Child rights governance and poverty reduction measures: what are the connections? By Frances Sheahan August 2011

2 1. Introduction Children constitute 34% of the global population, and in many developing and low-income countries, children make up 50% of the population 1. A large number of the world s children are poor - according to UNICEF, over half of children in the developing world live in poverty 2 and yet this level of child deprivation is not often taken into account, by states or by donors, in discussion of how countries should define, plan, implement and evaluate their poverty reduction efforts. This may in part be explained by the fact that children lack a recognised voice and vote in political affairs and their rights and interests often have to compete for attention with more outspoken and powerful constituencies such as the private sector. As a result of this lack of voice, children who are living in poverty are very reliant on appropriate systems of governance to deliver results for them. Child rights governance means governance which is essentially about the recognition of children as citizens and rights holders. Fundamental to this recognition is state action to respect, protect and fulfill children s rights by having in place all appropriate legislative, administrative and other measures needed for the rights in the CRC to become a reality. 3 Also fundamental is for states to increase awareness and capacity amongst civil society and children to promote children s rights and hold duty bearers to account. This study takes the view that child poverty is a multi-dimensional phenomenon which becomes entrenched in contexts where governance is ineffective and unresponsive to children. For example, corruption amongst public officials can result in children being unable to access essential services such as education and health; inadequate taxation regimes can fail to maximise public resources that should be invested in reducing child poverty; where social protection programmes lack transparency, are weakly monitored, mis-managed or are inappropriately discretionary, the outcomes for children are worse than they should be; and an unregulated private sector can violate children s rights in myriad ways including with regards to the use of child labour. Childhood is a relatively small window of opportunity; missed years of education may not be made up later and lack of vaccinations or access to health services can be fatal. Poverty reduction programmes need to be properly regulated and well-resourced. Those in charge of implementing them need to be fully accountable if they are to have an impact on child poverty. Furthermore, it is important to ensure that the beneficiaries of such programmes, including 1 Figures cited in Children and Good Governance Policy Brief Save the Children (2010) p1 2 UNICEF (2005), The State of the World s Children 2005 Childhood under Threat, UNICEF, New York 3 Article 4 of the CRC: States Parties shall undertake all appropriate legislative, administrative, and other measures for the implementation of the rights recognized in the present Convention. With regard to economic, social and cultural rights, States Parties shall undertake such measures to the maximum extent of their available resources and, where needed, within the framework of international cooperation. 2

3 children from disadvantaged and marginalised populations, are consulted and involved in decisions about their design, implementation and monitoring. This study is a contribution to the Child Rights Governance Initiative recently established by Save the Children International 4 and examines the relationship between child rights governance, child poverty reduction and the emerging social protection agenda. It argues that child poverty cannot be addressed in a sustainable and holistic manner unless a state has in place effective, transparent, and accountable governance mechanisms which act in children s best interests. 2. Child poverty and child rights 5 The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) does not contain an explicit right to freedom from poverty, but if child poverty is defined as being a multidimensional phenomenon, then all of the rights contained in the CRC are relevant to a greater or lesser extent in any response to child poverty. Child poverty is intimately linked with inadequate access to income and poor access to essential services in the realms of housing and environment, education, health care, social welfare services and social security. It is linked to discrimination where certain children are more likely to be poor, to social isolation and exclusion and also to limited developmental and participation opportunities in all areas including recreational and cultural activities, political arenas and household decision making. Child poverty is compounded by exposure to violence and exploitation whether as a result of violence in the home, homelessness, trafficking and sexual exploitation, child labour or migration. It is aggravated when children live in institutions such as care homes or orphanages or experience ill-health or disability. It is also worsened by armed conflict and disaster. Children experience poverty differently and it is vital to understand the centrality of children s agency in responding to their circumstances, how their capacity to respond changes and evolves over the course of their lives, and how violation of their right to participation both at home and in the wider world can be both a cause and effect of poverty. The CRC refers to the conditions of material, social, economic, civil and political deprivation underlying poverty in a number of different Articles including: the right to non-discrimination, life, survival and development, social security, an adequate standard of living, education, family relations and parental guidance, birth registration, protection and participation. Addressing child poverty therefore requires a focus not just on raising family incomes or on improving access to health and education services but also on the multi-dimensional components of child poverty envisaged in the CRC: equity, discrimination, participation and protection. 3. Child poverty and social protection 4 Please see the Save the Children Resource website for an introduction to the Child Rights Governance Initiative at [accessed 6th June 2011] 5 See Save the Children Sweden (2010) Hands, minds and hearts: An examination of the relationship between child poverty, child rights and inequality for an overview of different ways in which child poverty has been defined and measured by different organisations. 3

4 There is lively debate about the relative importance of different kinds of interventions and their different contributions to the overarching objective of poverty reduction. For decades poverty reduction has focussed on improving a state s supply of goods and services as a means of poverty reduction. However, in recent years there has been growing interest in the possibilities of transferring resources directly to poor people as an instrument of social protection 6. For the purposes of this study, the term social protection is understood as a set of public actions that address poverty, vulnerability and exclusion and provide means to cope with life s major risks throughout the life cycle 7. This definition has the benefit of including transformative aspects of social protection which address vulnerabilities arising from social exclusion and discrimination 8. The obligation on states to implement social protection policies for children flows directly from a number of human rights, in particular the right to social security and the right to an adequate standard of living, which are enshrined in the CRC and other key international human rights instruments. 9 Social protection measures can include transfers of cash to individuals or households. This might be wholly unconditional or linked to certain activities. Conditional cash transfers (CCTs) link cash transfer with the obligations of recipients to participate in work, training, education, health, nutrition, or other services or activities such as an obligation to register children at birth. They are utilized with two main objectives: to provide poor households with a minimum threshold of income (reduce poverty in the short term) and to improve the accumulation of human capital for the next generation (reduce poverty in the long term). In addition to cash transfers and CCTs, a number of countries, such as Chile, have introduced more wide-ranging integrated poverty reduction programmes which include elements of cash transfer, conditionality and efforts to prevent discrimination and social exclusion 10. Virtually every country in Latin America has such a programme. Elsewhere, there are large-scale integrated poverty reduction 6 For a comprehensive overview of the evidence of the impact of cash transfers see DFID (2011) Cash Transfers Evidence Paper Policy Divison April Definition for social protection given in (2009) Joint Statement on advancing Child-Sensitive Social Protection UNICEF et al 8 Devereux, S and R. Sabates-Wheeler Transformative Social Protection IDS Working Paper No See Universal Declaration of Human Rights (articles 22 and 25), the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 102 (1952) on Social Security (Minimum Standards), articles 9, 10 and 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, article 5 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, article 11 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, article 27 of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, article 26 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and article 28 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 10 The Brooks World Poverty Institute at the University of Manchester has developed a database of social protection interventions in developing countries They organise interventions using the following typology: pure income transfers; transfers plus interventions and integrated poverty reduction programmes which not only combine a wider range of interventions than conditional cash transfer programmes but also have the distinctive feature that the income transfer is not the dominant component of the programme. 5.pdf [accessed 5th June 2011] 4

5 programmes in Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Turkey, and pilot programs in Cambodia, Malawi, Morocco, Pakistan, Egypt and South Africa, among others. 4. Child poverty, social protection and effective governance The CRC provides states with a coherent framework for child poverty reduction and its virtual universal acceptance and holistic approach make it an ideal tool for bringing poverty to an end. States may fulfil their obligations to address child poverty in a wide variety of operations, ranging from the provision of public services to the creation of social protection programmes. For such poverty reduction measures to be effective, states must have in place effective, transparent, and accountable governance mechanisms which act in children s interests. This means mechanisms for all appropriate legislative, administrative and other measures needed for the rights in the CRC to become a reality. 11 It also means mechanisms to increase awareness and capacity amongst civil society and children to promote children s rights and hold duty bearers to account. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has elaborated on the measures states must take to realise children s rights in its General Comment No. 5 (2003) 12. These measures (referred to as the General Measures of Implementation) provide us with a blueprint for child rights governance and include legislative reform, the establishment of coordinating and monitoring bodies governmental and independent comprehensive data collection, awareness-raising and training and the development and implementation of appropriate policies, services and programmes. They also place obligations on states to allocate maximum available resources to address poverty and to consult civil society and children in all decision making. In this way, child rights governance helps to establish pathways of accountability between states and children by developing children s and their representatives ability to hold them accountable. The following are some governance measures which should be taken into account when considering how to address child poverty: Legislative framework A state must have in place a legislative framework which helps rather than hinders efforts to reduce child poverty. For example, economic, social and cultural rights such as the right to an adequate standard of living should be incorporated into domestic legislation in such a way that children have effective legal remedies for their violations. Social protection programmes will be protected and more sustainable if they are part of a legal framework rather than the subject of discretionary policy. Key legislative provisions to protect children from exploitation are also essential in addressing child poverty; for example, the right to non-discrimination in all aspects of accessing services such as education and health as well as proscribing the minimum age children can work in line with the relevant ILO Conventions. 11 Article 4 of the CRC: States Parties shall undertake all appropriate legislative, administrative, and other measures for the implementation of the rights recognized in the present Convention. With regard to economic, social and cultural rights, States Parties shall undertake such measures to the maximum extent of their available resources and, where needed, within the framework of international cooperation. 12 Committee On The Rights Of The Child, General Comment No. 5 (2003) General measures of implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 4, 42 and 44, para. 6) 5

6 Independent child rights institutions The development of independent institutions that can hold governments to account for their obligations to address child poverty represent a significant step forward in advancing child rights governance. Such institutions include Ombudspersons or National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) and they can play a very important role at a domestic level in reducing poverty. Their functions can include advising governments and recommending policy or legislative changes in line with the CRC; handling complaints of violations of children s rights including those related to poverty; carrying out investigations; ensuring that the CRC is implemented; monitoring implementation of poverty reduction programmes on behalf of children; conducting research and assessment into child poverty; speaking out on behalf of poor children and providing training and public education on children s rights. NHRIs can adopt a holistic, multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary approach which is essential when addressing issues of child poverty. States should establish NHRIs which have an explicit mandate to address child poverty as well as sufficient financial and human resources to fulfil their role. They should be accessible and userfriendly for poor children in particular; for example, are they located in urban centres or do they have outreach into rural areas as well? They should conduct awareness-raising programmes about their work and in particular their complaints procedures so that poor children know how to access them and they need to be independent so that they can challenge the state s efforts at reducing child poverty irrespective of political considerations. Comprehensive and appropriate strategies, policies, services and programmes States have the discretion to formulate policies to address child poverty that are most appropriate for their circumstances. However, they must ensure that international human rights obligations are taken into account when designing, implementing and evaluating policies related to child poverty such as in National Poverty Reduction Strategies. Child rights standards therefore provide an important normative framework that can assist states in designing and implementing effective policies to reduce poverty. Effective structures and coordination Poverty constitutes a denial of children s rights and there should be strong coordination between the various governmental agencies engaged in implementing the CRC and those planning and implementing poverty reduction programmes. The ministry or department responsible for implementing the CRC needs to have political weight, a clear mandate and adequate resources and to work closely with other ministries who are working on issues relating to the reduction of child poverty. In particular it needs to have influence within the ministry concerned with finance and also health, education, social welfare, justice, water and sanitation and housing. These bodies need to work effectively together to reduce child poverty. Monitoring the situation of poor children There are persistent knowledge gaps about how macro development and poverty-reduction policies affect children s experiences of poverty at ground-level, and the extent to which poverty 6

7 is perpetuated from generation to generation. For child rights governance to be effective in addressing child poverty, governments and citizens need to know why children are living in poverty, who they are and what steps can be take to address their situation. They need to collect reliable, accurate, comprehensive data which is disaggregated and reflects the multi-dimensional nature of child poverty. Such monitoring could help to clarify how child poverty relates to family and household deprivations, how child and family deprivations are linked to weaknesses in public policies, and how local or region-wide constraints could best be addressed at the national level. Child poverty and allocation of resources Because resources are always limited, states need to prioritise. While they are entitled to decide where and how they allocate their resources, when they ratify the CRC, states assume obligations that limit their discretion in prioritisation. Article 4 of the CRC states With regard to economic, social and cultural rights, States Parties shall undertake such measures to the maximum extent of their available resources and, where needed, within the framework of international cooperation. This wording is similar to that of article 2(1) of the IESCR. 13 It allows for the fact that full realisation of these rights can only be achieved by states progressively over time where sufficient human, technical and economic resources are available (including international cooperation and development aid). It is important to point out that states have legal obligations towards children living in poverty that relate to a whole range of civil, economic, political, cultural and social rights. Yet the historical division between civil and politicial and economic, social and cultural rights has created a situation where state obligations are viewed differently and implementation of economic, social and cultural rights is viewed by many states as part of discretionary and distinct administrative initiatives that fall into the realm of social policy rather than enforceable law 14. This is in part born of the fact that under Article 4 economic, social and cultural rights are subject to progressive realisation and to resource availablility. However, a depiction of child poverty as a failure to realise only economic, social and cultural rights omits crucial dimensions of how children experience poverty: it does not reflect the centrality of children s agency in responding to their circumstances, how their capacity to respond changes and evolves over the course of their lives, nor how violation of their right to participation both at home and in the wider world can be both a cause and effect of poverty. It does not reflect the importance of protection issues nor how birth registration and having an identity can go some way to mitigate the effects of poverty. It does not give sufficient focus to the question of how discrimination engenders and perpetuates poverty. 13 Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to take steps, individually and through international assistance and co-operation, especially economic and technical, to the maximum of its available resources, with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of the rights recognized in the present Covenant by all appropriate means, including particularly the adoption of legislative measures. 14 Protecting The World s Children Impact of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Diverse Legal Systems Savitri Goonesekere UNICEF (2007) 7

8 A failure to allocate adequate resources can result in ever diminishing prospects for addressing child poverty in the future. Without knowledge of how much is being invested, both in financial and human terms, it is difficult to track progress or ensure accountability for reducing child poverty. States need to have budgets specifically targeted at reducing poverty which are defined and protected even in situations of economic crisis or emergency. It also needs to track the budget from a child rights perspective. Capacity building, training and awareness-raising Training and awareness-raising about the CRC, which emphasizes that children are rightsholders and that states have a legal obligation to ensure their right to an adequate standard of living can play an important role in transforming public and governmental attitudes towards child poverty so that high levels of poverty are no longer tolerated or perceived as an inevitable part of life. It should include developing capacities within ministries regarding policy formulation, improved legislation, giving children a voice, analyzing budgets etc. Awarenessraising amongst children themselves can encourage them to advocate with the state to reduce child poverty. Other bodies which may be called upon to exert significant influence could include the private sector, media, parents, teachers and social workers. Collaboration with civil society including children There is growing but still limited evidence of children s direct engagement with the development and implementation of poverty reduction programmes. There are very few examples where children have been asked directly about the impact of any cash transfer or other social protection scheme on their lives or have been consulted directly on the development of poverty reduction strategy papers. There is a need to ensure that poverty reduction programmes are informed by children s perspectives and experiences (and those of their parents/care givers as well) so that government and civil society can act on evidence provided by girls and boys themselves. General Comment No. 5 recognizes that responsibilities to ensure the rights of children extend in practice beyond the State and State-controlled services and institutions to include children, parents and wider families, other adults, and non-state services and organizations. The state should involve civil society in research, policy formulation, monitoring and evaluation of the CRC and of child poverty reduction programmes. Donors should also ensure that children are a prominent priority in the development of poverty reduction strategies, sector-wide approaches to development and social protection mechanisms and these should reflect children s rights principles, with a holistic, child-centred approach recognizing children as holders of rights. There is a clear obligation on the part of donors to include and to prioritise child poverty reduction within their international development assistance to countries. Donors should consider whether their development assistance does in fact focus sufficiently not just on health and education services and infrastructure but also on the broader components of child poverty envisaged in the CRC: equity, discrimination, participation and protection. They should also determine if they can even identify the contribution their development assistance 8

9 makes to reducing child poverty and in particular whether it addresses the social and structural determinants of child poverty. 5. Corruption, taxation and the private sector: some specific aspects of child rights governance 5.1 Child poverty and combating corruption Corruption hurts the poor disproportionately by diverting funds intended for development, undermining a Government s ability to provide basic services, feeding inequality and injustice and discouraging foreign aid and investment. Corruption is a key element in economic underperformance and a major obstacle to poverty alleviation and development 15. For the purposes of this study corruption is defined as the misuse of power by public officials 16. Corruption is not often discussed within the framework of child rights governance. However, it is an important issue since it can undermine efforts to address child poverty and can impact heavily on children s ability to escape poverty both now and in the future. Corruption can increase the overall cost of providing public services such as education, water and health thereby lowering their quality and at times restricting coverage for the most marginalised communities. Indirectly corruption can limit a country s development, growth and investment. Corruption often targets those without power and can reinforce exclusion and discrimination. Corruption can affect all sections of society however it is likely to affect the poor disproportionately and poor children are more likely to be targets of extortion, bribery and intimidation as well as to be more vulnerable to a lack of access to services. According to Transparency International s Global Corruption Barometer (2010) which measures petty corruption, young people (under 30) report paying bribes the most frequently among all the age groups surveyed 17. Corruption is frequent in the education sector. In most countries, educational institutions occupy a large place in the public sector. This creates many opportunities and incentives for corruption to take place including: rigged tenders and bids; embezzlement of funds; illegal registration fees; absenteeism; and examination fraud 18. In Bangladesh, surveys show that nearly one-third of girls 15 Kofi Annan in the Foreword to the UN Convention against Corruption adopted by the General Assembly by resolution 58/4 of 31 October There is of course an important debate to be had about private sector corruption and its impact on child poverty reduction. However, for the sake of brevity this review does not explore the private sector s responsibility to respect children s rights by working against corrupt practices and this should be the subject of another inquiry. 17 Transparency (2010) Global Corruption Barometer [accessed 10th June 2011] 18 For more information on corruption s impact on the right to education see International Council on Human Rights and Transparency International (2009) Corruption and Human Rights: Making the 9

10 trying to enrol in a government stipend scheme for extremely poor students had to pay a bribe, while half had to make a payment before collecting their awarded scholarship 19. By reducing children s ability to access good quality education, corruption can reinforce the cycle of poverty since lost schooling can often never be made up. Health care is another sector where poor children are likely to be affected by corruption with devestating and long-lasting consequences; missed vaccinations or lack of access to health services can be very damaging if not fatal. The affordability of health services is affected by corruption when, for example, health officials request fees for drugs that have been provided free of charge by pharmaceutical companies or donor organisations, or demand informal payments for treatment. The World Bank has drawn a correlation between levels of child survival and levels of corruption: it estimates that infant mortality rates are about three times higher in high corruption countries than those with low to medium levels of corruption 20. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has noted that corruption reduces the resources available to implement economic, social and cultural rights under Article 4 and has suggested that states in which corruption is widespread cannot comply with their obligation to implement the economic, social and cultural rights of children. There are many steps which states can take to prevent corruption from undermining efforts to reduce child poverty. One important aspect is to professionalise the civil service by for example, improving wages, working conditions and merit-based promotions. Freedom of information laws can help to increase citizens access to information and increase the transparency of government operations. Open and transparent budgets of government income and expenditure and ensuring there are competitive, open bidding processes for obtaining government contracts can also help to prevent corrupt practices. Anti-corruption measures should target areas where the rights of children living in poverty are most likely to be violated; for example in relation to education, health and social protection. Such measures can be punitive in nature, focusing on legal prosecution for crimes committed, or, preventive, focusing on making sure that corruption does not happen in the first place through practices like implementing accounting controls and regular audits. Both of these are covered in the UN Convention against Corruption, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2003, entered into force in 2005, and currently has 140 signatories. This legally binding instrument requires states to develop independent anti-corruption bodies and transparent procurement systems, criminalizes certain offenses, and puts measures in place for states to cooperate more closely with each other on fighting corruption. There are also a variety of similar agreements at regional and global levels, including the African Union, the Organization of American States and the OECD. Connection pp56. See also Bettina Meier and Michael Griffin (ed.), Stealing the Future: Corruption in the Classroom Ten Real World Experiences, Transparency International, Berlin, Example cited in International Council on Human Rights and Transparency International (2009) Corruption and Human Rights: Making the Connection and taken from TI Bangladesh (2005) Presentation on Corruption and Human Insecurity in Bangladesh, National Press Club, World Bank Introduction to Corruption [undated] [accessed 10th June 2011] 10

11 Corruption and the allocation of budgetary resources Concern is also expressed at the widespread practices of tax evasion and corruption which are believed to have an effect on the level of resources available for the implementation of the Convention...The Committee recommends that the State party undertake all appropriate measures to improve its system of tax collection and reinforce its efforts to eradicate corruption. Source: Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child: Georgia. 06/28/2000 CRC/C/15/Add Child poverty, maximising revenues and taxation Many companies advertise their philanthropic contributions such as building a school in a developing country if that same company is avoiding paying taxes that could have built 50 schools in the same country then something is wrong 21. States have an obligation to provide maximum available resources to addressing child poverty. Child rights governance focuses on how resources are allocated however, logically an important element of this obligation is to ensure that states are also maximizing revenues and collecting taxes efficiently whether this be through tax on individuals income, corporate tax, death duty, capital gains tax, property tax or a tax on customs and excise. Social protection programmes in particular require resources as well as administrative capacity and political will. With any social protection programme it is crucial to ask, how much will it cost? Is this affordable? Who will pay for it? A significant barrier to universal social protection programmes in many countries is the lack of a tax base and in many low-income countries the majority of social protection programmes are financed with the support of donors. Establishing effective social protection systems is a slow and long-term enterprise and they need to have long time windows for piloting, design and implementation in order to have an impact on children. Many donors have short time windows and this may prove to be a limiting factor and in the long run, the sustainability of social protection programmes needs to rely on governmental funding. Tax evasion and tax avoidance by the private sector can harm a government s ability to provide the services and structures required to address child poverty. Tax evasion is clearly an illegal and illegitimate business practice and states must ensure it is strictly regulated. Tax avoidance is a more complex area and the dividing line between legitimate minimising of taxes and unfair tax avoidance is not always easy to define. By avoiding paying a fair share of taxes, royalties, duties and other payments, especially in developing countries, through the use of tax havens, subsidies, loopholes, creative accounting practices, transfer-pricing, etc and other legal tax avoidance strategies, companies deprive governments of revenues they need to deliver social protection programmes and basic services such as health, education, housing, access to water, law 21 Chris Avery (2009) Tax avoidance and Evasion [accessed 7th June 2011] 11

12 enforcement and justice. A closely-related problem is that many companies fail to disclose the tax and royalties they pay in each country. In order to have the maximum resources required to sustainably address child poverty, action is needed by governments, individually and collectively, to address tax evasion, loopholes, tax havens, etc, through improved laws and enforcement. Christian Aid argues that tax avoidance by large corporations in particular must be challenged and the permissive regulatory climate surrounding global transfers of cash into jurisdictions offering financial secrecy ( tax havens ) must be stopped. They also argue that international businesses can too easily exploit the limited capacity of domestic tax authorities 22. Fair and efficient corporate taxation regimes can provide the revenue needed to put in place the services and structures needed to address child poverty. They are also necessary as the basis for a successful economy through regulation, administration and investments in infrastructure. Fair and efficient taxation regimes can also play a crucial role in cementing the social compact in turn leading to enhanced state accountability and strengthened child rights governance. 23 By paying taxes, people not only contribute to building a strong state that can address child poverty but they also become agents in the process of development. If they pay direct taxes they are more likely to hold governments to account for the way the money is spent and this, over time, can support the emergence and strengthening of democratic structures. Others have argued that increased revenue generation only leads to improved development outcomes if the new revenue is actually translated into productive public expenditure 24. To achieve this demands that governments and donors consider revenue generation and improved public spending as two sides of the same coin: if tax reform is undertaken in a way that promotes greater responsiveness and accountability, alongside improvements in state capacity, then tax reform can become a catalyst for broader improvements in government performance Child poverty and the role of the private sector The primary obligation for respecting, protecting and fulfilling children s rights lies with the state. However, business responsibility to respect human, including of course children s rights has been widely accepted by governments, civil society and the business community itself. It is reinforced in the three-part framework and Guiding Principles produced by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Business and Human Rights, which has been welcomed by the UN Human Rights Council. It is also recognized by nearly every voluntary business initiative and is stipulated in soft law instruments such as the ILO Tripartite Declaration, the OECD Guidelines on Multi-national Enterprises and the UN Global Compact. 22 Christian Aid (2008) Death and Taxes: the True Toll of tax dodging 23 Alex Cobham, Taxation Policy and Development, Oxford Council on Good Governance Economy section, project paper, 2005 cited in Christian Aid (2008) Death and Taxes: the True Toll of tax dodging 24 Prichard, W. (2010) Taxation and State Building: Towards a Governance Focused Tax Reform Agenda Wilson Prichard May 2010 IDS 12

13 The private sector can have a wide impact both positive and negative - on the communities in which they operate through providing jobs, resources and services that affect peoples lives. Their broad reach into society means that companies products and practices can be associated with a variety of children s rights issues which impact on child poverty. For example, business can play an important role in reducing poverty by introducing children who have reached the minimum working age into decent work. If parents and care-givers have good working conditions and benefits, including access to good quality health-care, they will in turn be better able to care for their children. Paying a living wage should mean that families can survive without recourse to child labour. The role of business in the provision of public services such as detention facilities, energy, education, transport or water remains contentious and children are at risk when services are not delivered in an equitable and universal manner 25. Poor children are particularly at risk of not having access to utilities such as water as they often live in areas where establishing infrastructure is physically and financially challenging and this lack of provision can entrench their poverty further. Critical services must be provided by the private sector in compliance with children s rights, and in particular in a manner that is culturally appropriate and in which availability, accessibility and quality are guaranteed for all. Given the huge impact that business can have upon child poverty, it is important that states regulate and control corporate activities through, for example: Legislation proscribing the employment of children under a certain age; Social and environmental regulation and law; Minimum wage legislation; Improving regulation so that foreign and domestic investment through private and state business is mindful and responsive to child rights; Supporting NHRIs in their mandate to protect children s rights from corporate violations; Providing children with effective remedy against business when their rights have been violated; Introducing mandatory corporate reporting which includes children s rights; Using voluntary initiatives to incentivise business to respect children s rights; Ensuring that all businesses within a state s jurisdiction have a clear understanding of their responsibility to respect child rights wherever they operate; and Ensuring that children and their families have a clear understanding that business has a responsibility to respect child rights where-ever they operate. 6. Some implications for Save the Children States in both developed and developing countries routinely fail to meet their international and domestic legal obligations to respect, protect and fulfill the rights of poor children. It could be 25 This issue was discussed by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2002: See: [accessed 15 August 2011] 13

14 argued that this doesn t happen by accident but is in fact a response to political pressures which overlook the rights of poor children and which characterise poor children and their communities as less deserving than other sectors of society. The African Child Policy Forum has developed a child well-being index to evaluate the performance of governments in Africa and concludes that it is political will rather than economics which determines a state s commitment to children s rights 26. There is great potential for these political pressures to be challenged and for Save the Children s existing work on child poverty reduction to be enhanced and strengthened by looking at child poverty from the perspective of governance. In practice this could mean: - Assisting states and others (such as academic institutions) with gathering reliable data on which children are poor, where and why; - Working with partners to track the amount of governmental spending allocated specifically to child poverty reduction; this has the dual purpose of determining if maximum available resources are being allocated but also of encouraging governments to be publicly accountable to children by promoting participatory budget analysis, social auditing and other innovative mechanisms; - Encouraging civil society to use international mechanisms such as the Universal Periodic Review and CRC reporting procedure as a way of holding states accountable for their obligations to address child poverty; - Supporting the development and work of independent NHRIs which have a clear mandate to examine child poverty and to monitor implementation of poverty reduction programmes; - Working with children in the poorest communities to raise awareness of their rights; - Ensuring that poverty reduction programmes and strategies, including social protection mechanisms, have an explicit focus on child rights and poverty; - Encouraging litigation of economic, social and cultural rights as a means of promoting accountability and policy change; - Conducting further research on the impact of corruption on state efforts to reduce child poverty taking into account work already done and being done by important actors working in this field internationally and nationally 27 ; - Conducting further research on how improved taxation regimes could strengthen government s ability to deliver governance for children living in poverty and what they would need to do to achieve this. - Looking in more depth at how Save the Children can support the state s ability to regulate and control the private sector and how Save the Children itself can work with the private sector to address child poverty. 26 African Child Policy Forum (2011) The African Report on Child Wellbeing 2011: Budgeting for Children 27 Important actors are: the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) which has a Global Programme against Corruption and has acted as a catalyst, helping countries to implement the United Nations Convention against Corruption; Transparency International; Global Integrity; Global Witness; the Revenue Watch Institute; Tiri; and the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption. In addition, a large number of anti-corruption organisations are doing significant work at national level. 14