Speech

7 July 2004

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Building a better future for orphans and vulnerable children

by Hilary Benn at UNICEF UK Annual Lecture, King's College London

I am very honoured that you have invited me this evening to deliver the UNICEF UK Annual lecture, not least because I follow in the footsteps of some distinguished predecessors in delivering this speech; Clare Short, Sue MacGregor and Martin Bell to name a few.

It is also a pleasure to be here alongside Lord Putnam, the President of UNICEF UK, and I want to begin by commending the outstanding work that UNICEF-UK does to build support in the UK for the lives and future of children across the world.

Yours is a voice for children everywhere - from villages to the far corners of the world - and we in DFID value our partnership with UNICEF immensely. We are proud of our work together and we remain committed to strengthening it further.

Throughout the world, too many children are finding it more and more difficult to live freely and to enjoy the health and well-being that we would want for them in the same way that we wish it for our own children. Poverty is one cause of this. But there are many others, which also systematically violate the rights of children.

The scale of the problem is best told by the simple but devastating figures:

Every day 30,000 children die in developing countries and some 183 million are malnourished; the don't have enough to eat. Over half of Africa's children live in absolute poverty; and in Ethiopia, just under half 47% of children below the age of five are underweight.

By 2010, over 20 million children worldwide will have lost one or both of their parents to AIDS; and so will face a future of discrimination, poverty and ill-health.

In the last decade of the 20th century, 2 million children were killed, 6 million children were injured or permanently disabled, and 12 million children left homeless as a result of conflicts. Half of the children who do not attend school live in countries in crisis or emerging from conflict.

About half of the world's 21 million refugees are children. They have no homes and are often forced to live in refugee camps, where they struggle to receive adequate education and health care.

The global movement of trade and people has benefited many, but it has also led to increases in child migration and the illegal trades in child pornography, child prostitution and trafficking. The UN estimates that 1.2 million children are trafficked annually. And every year over a million children enter the sex trade. In South Asia alone there are currently one million children involved in the sex industry, some younger than 10 years old.

Children work long hours in unacceptable conditions. In Rwanda, 37% of children between the ages of 4 and 14 are working. There are 179 million children worldwide involved in the worst forms of child labour such as prostitution, warfare - it is estimated that there are 350,000 child soldiers - and work that damages their health, safety and mental well being.

These figures are shocking in themselves, but they do not truly reflect the suffering of these children or the extent to which it has robbed them of one more thing. A thing that every child should have. The right to a childhood.

My first ever visit to a developing country was to Malawi, where I saw how AIDS is wiping out a whole generation of teachers, with devastating effects on their communities and on children. We know that one of the most effective ways of eliminating poverty is to educate girls. Why? Because girls who go to school are more likely to make informed choices about health care, have less children, enjoy greater opportunities for employment and educate their children in turn. How can children receive an education, and the opportunities and benefits that this brings if there are no teachers in the classroom?

Children orphaned by AIDS suffer the terrible emotional distress of losing the two most important people in their lives - their Mum and their Dad - from an epidemic that is characterised by stigma. They lose their childhood to become adults before their time. They have to care for their brothers and sisters, and find ways to support their remaining family. With little choice and few opportunities, orphans often find themselves working in hazardous circumstances and are at risk of exploitation. In Zambia, for example, the majority of children in prostitution are orphans.

Children in conflict are at the forefront of suffering. Some participate as child soldiers or sex slaves; I met both in northern Uganda recently. Others witness first hand the impact of war on their relatives. I recently visited Darfur in Sudan, which is home to the most severe humanitarian crisis in the world today. I spoke to groups of women who told me they had been forced to flee their homes with their children. They described being attacked from the air and then the militias came on camels and horses, sometimes in cars, looted their villages, burned them, shot some people dead. These women and children are now living in refugee camps, dependent on the humanitarian effort for basic services such as food, water and shelter. The rains will start soon which will deepen the humanitarian crisis further. Unless the peace process succeeds in Sudan, there is little prospect of these women and children ever returning home. What kind of life and prospects will these children have?

The picture I have just painted is depressing. But we are not helpless bystanders. We can do something. Progress is possible. There are many examples of positive changes. Recent figures show that fewer children are now dying before their fifth birthday. In the last 40 years, infant mortality in developing countries has more than halved. Each year, the lives of more than 3 million children are being saved thanks to the spread of basic immunisation. We are close to eradicating polio.

There is evidence that more girls and boys are enrolled in school. Since 1970, the percentage of children enrolled in primary school in developing countries has doubled.

UNICEF's work, along with the work of many other organisations, has been fundamental in making such progress possible for millions of children.

But, the scale of the problems faced by children in developing countries remains enormous and we have to make a concerted effort to redress these injustices, to change their lives, to give them hope.

And there are new threats to progress. Despite the decline in child mortality, these gains are sadly being reversed, partly because of the impact of HIV and AIDS. As an international community we already know that we won't achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The 2003 Human Development Report says that it could take until 2165 for the region to cut child mortality by two thirds, on current progress.

This is not what we all signed up to at the Millennium Summit in 2005. Our international commitment was to reduce child mortality by two thirds by 2015. We cannot stand by and watch progress happen 150 years too late.

The challenge is huge. The impact on orphans and vulnerable children is huge. The question remains - what can we do? I think there are 3 priorities for us all:

We must concentrate on achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

We must make sure, the work we do makes a difference to chilren's lives.

We must learn to listen to the children whose lives we seek to improve.

So first, 2005 will be an important year for the MDGs. The UN review of progress on the MDGs and the UK Presidencies of the G8 and the European Union offer us an opportunity not just to ask ourselves the question ' how are we doing ?', but also to renew our commitment to reducing child poverty and vulnerability throughout the world.

All of the Millennium Development Goals are relevant to children. Access to primary education, increased opportunities for girls, improved maternal and child health and nutrition - all of these are essential if we are to change children's loves for the better.

Thanks to the leadership of UNICEF and the support of the international community, the Convention on the Rights of the Child established the vision for eradicating child poverty. It sets out a framework for ensuring that children can achieve their civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights. Almost all the countries of the world have signed it. We need to work together to help all signatories implement the Convention and to provide them, where we can, with the financial resources to make this possible.

Secondly, we need to make a difference. DFID is working with our partners to help them make health and education systems function better and to support countries to devise their own plans for reducing poverty. We are using research programmes to find solutions to problems. We are working to strengthen international partnerships and improve the effectiveness of aid. I visited a health care centre in Mekene Salam in Ethiopia in February. It was built by a well meaning donor with state of the art technology. However, it has never been used. Why? Because it has no doctors and no drugs. Why? Because it did not connect with the Ethiopian Government's own health care system.

In Rwanda, one of the seven goals of the Rwandan Government's education policy is to 'eliminate all the causes and obstacles which can lead to disparity in education be it by gender, disability, geographical or social group.' DFID is supporting the Government's Education Sector Support Programme with £10 million. The programme includes a strategy for special needs education and gives greater opportunities for children with disabilities to participate in education.

Since May 2002, DFID has worked with UNICEF to help children affected by Armed Conflict. We know that problems do not end when conflict stops. It is very, very difficult for children who have spent time with an armed group to reintegrate back into society, or for girls who have been sexually exploited to reintegrate into their communities without suffering from stigma and trauma. Without help children may never be able to adapt to a stable life. However, we do not always have sufficient information on children affected by armed conflict. That is why we are funding research through UNICEF into these issues to help our understanding and ability to monitor progress against the MDGs. We see UNICEF and the other UN agencies as important partners in advocating for the rights of children in armed conflict and in reconstruction.

Later this month, the United Kingdom will publish its new strategy on HIV and AIDS. With the Prime Minister's leadership, we will make HIV and AIDS a centrepiece of our Presidencies of the G8 and the EU in 2005. The UK Government has also endorsed UNICEF's 'Strategic framework for the protection, care and support of orphans and children made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS.'

The new UK strategy will take young people and the communities in which they live as a central focus. It identifies that improving education for children, especially girls, has a major impact on reducing vulnerability. This is particularly important for orphans or children made vulnerable by AIDS, who often forfeit their education to look after their sick relatives or find a job to feed their younger brothers and sisters. Through local governments, national poverty reduction strategies, and partner organisations we must support communities to better care for their vulnerable members and reduce the unfair burden placed on them. We must ensure that legislation and services are in place to provide protection to children, families and communities when necessary.

In addition to its programme work, DFID has for many years been working closely with civil society organisations and more specifically with children's organisations. We have partnership agreements with Save the Children, Action Aid, OXFAM and CAFOD to name a few who all work with children. Let me take the opportunity to thank again all those working to improve the lives of children both in peace and conflict situations.

Thirdly, we must work together to make progress There are many problems and they cannot be tackled by any one organisation alone. For example, we still see competition amongst UN agencies. We need to increase efforts to work more closely together, to avoid duplication and improve our effectiveness.

We must all coordinate our efforts and ensure that we address children's poverty in a way that represents their lives as a whole, and not as a set of isolated problems.

Why? Because children cannot be seen in isolation from the rest of the communities in which they live. They are an inherent part of every society. Children care for younger children and older relatives. Older people provide health care and education for children. Striving for gender equality and women's rights also has an impact on children. Mothers do not willing choose put their children in vulnerable situations. But if their opportunities and choices are restricted, and no alternative is available, they may be forced to do so.

In Uttar Pradesh, India, where a lot of children work in the hazardous glass bangle industry, DFID has funded Save the Children with a local organisation to establish children's groups, self-help groups for women and village cooperatives for adults. The scheme offers children and women the chance to learn new skills and to leave the glass bangle industry. The organisation finds markets for the goods and commissions the children to make them at a higher rate of pay, while the women are better able to provide for their families.

In the UK, DFID is funding a Save the Children Fund project called 'Young Lives'. This is a study which looks at the lives of children from four developing countries - Peru, Ethiopia, India and Vietnam - over a 15 year period. It aims to track the progress of children born in 2000 to understand the changing nature of childhood poverty, collect data and encourage Governments to take children seriously in policy making. The project is already producing useful information. One of the preliminary sets of results told us that there was a surprisingly high correlation between poverty and high levels of mental health. Young Lives in Peru is also contributing to debates on the inclusion of appropriate policies under the Peruvian Government's National Plan for Action for Children. In the first phase of the project, the Young Lives team built up a close relationship with the Parliamentary Group for Children in order to facilitate future advocacy and presented preliminary findings in the National Congress in August 2003.

Fourthly, we also need to listen to children themselves. For the past few years, DFID has been working with UNICEF to help develop a rights-based approach to development work. It helps poor people, those living in remote areas beyond the normal reach of development and the socially excluded to benefit from programmes. UNICEF calls this "reaching the unreached." This is especially important for children, who are so often invisible to the eyes of aid officials and outsiders.

A rights-based approach means that we also have to develop more inclusive development policies which recognise that many people are excluded from development because of ethnicity, gender, religious identity, class, disability or HIV status. Or because they are from a migrant or refugee family or an indigenous community.

The rights-based approach also focuses on obligations and responsibilities. Families and communities have responsibilities to care for children. But the state also has obligations to provide health and education services. In many countries we are working with governments to develop systems that enable people to hold governments accountable and exercise their rights. For example, we have worked with Save the Children to help develop children's budgets. This has helped to increase funding for programmes that directly target children.

And then there is the participation of children. Some of you have been talking to us about this recently.

We also share your views that children should be given a voice in the decisions that affect them. They are not just passive victims but are increasingly heading households and earning money to keep their families together.

The UK Government is also committed to ensuring that children and young people in the United Kingdom have a say in policies that affect them. DFID has recently produced an Action Plan to help bring this about. I will personally be taking a close interest in how we take forward the commitments and aspirations set out in this Action Plan. Again, I would like to emphasize UNICEF's key role in combating child poverty and the challenges associated with children's vulnerability. It has a clear global mandate and a strong comparative advantage in helping governments to increase child survival rates. UNICEF globally has for many years been a strong advocate for those children who might otherwise be hidden from our "view". UNICEF is trusted by many of our partner governments. Where necessary it has been willing to criticise abuses of children's rights.

For these reasons, DFID considers UNICEF to be a vital partner in protecting children from poverty, exclusion and further vulnerability. We will be agreeing a new 4 year Institutional Strategy Paper (ISP) with UNICEF, to begin in 2006. The promotion of children's participation in the planning and delivery of policies and services that affect them will be central to this agreement.

In conclusion, we all need to use the opportunities provided by 2005 to ensure that vulnerable children and orphans are kept high on the agenda. Action is needed rather than words. Accelerating progress to achieve the Millennium Development Goals is essential. We need to work together to become more effective. We can work to implement international conventions and agreements on rights and take a rights-based approach to our programmes.

It makes sound economic sense to invest in children. They are the future. But children also have the right to grow up healthy, hopeful and educated so that they can realise their own potential. Breaking the cycle of child poverty will benefit the global community as a whole. Children are the future for all of us. We need to work with them not just for them.

This is the challenge we take forward together in our efforts to achieve the eradication of poverty and the promotion of social justice, and in seeking to build a better future for orphans and vulnerable children. I look forward to working with you to achieve this.

I visited Ghana in March this year. I went to Nima, one of the poorest areas of Accra, where I spoke to a little girl. When I asked her why she wasn't in school, she said she had been sent by her mother to collect water. I asked her what would happen if she arrived late at school. She said the teacher would beat her. She didn't think that was fair, and neither do I. We can see here how important it is to tackle the problems she faces in a joined up way if we are to stop passing on the problems of poverty from one generation to the next. Clean water, health, nutrition and education all go hand in hand.

And finally, if there ever was an age when we could close the curtains, shut the doors and wish the rest of the world could go away; the events of the last few years have shown us that this is not possible. Apart from the moral argument for reducing poverty, injustice and inequality, people now believe that it is in their own self-interest to do so. Events in one country do impact on others. I firmly believe that tackling poverty, injustice and inequality on this small and fragile planet that we share is one of the greatest challenges that we face. I look forward to working together with you all to do this.