Johannesburg, Nairobi, Dakar, Amman — UNICEF and the Learning for Well-being Institute publish new findings that suggest that key social spending in Africa predominantly prioritises older children while spending on the youngest significantly lags behind, in sharp contrast to G20 countries.
Governments in Africa overwhelmingly allocate social spending toward older children while overlooking the youngest, according to new data released by UNICEF and the Learning for Well-being Institute. These results suggest that countries are taking an imbalanced approach to developing their nation's human capital, by not investing in building the foundation required from day zero.
Based on available key social sector spending data, countries across Africa appear to spend 16 times as much on a child aged 15 as they do on a one-year-old. Of total key social spending on children in Africa, 6.5 per cent went to children aged 0 to 5 years. By contrast, G20 countries spend 28 per cent on the same age group. African governments spend the majority - 55 per cent - of key social spending on children aged 12 to 17 years. Even if the extensive data cannot capture all spending perfectly, this is a stark difference in the prioritisation of spending. "The evidence is very clear that the first few years of life provide a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to set-up a healthy adult life and give the greatest potential to boost a country's human capital," said UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Gilles Fagninou. "Even though our youngest children are at least a decade away from adulthood, this is where investments can produce the biggest impact and set children up for success."
A country's human capital is crucial for wellbeing of households and central to national economic growth and development. While much guidance to governments in the past on building human capital has focused on developing skills and education of the youth, more recent evidence demonstrates that this can only occur effectively when built on a strong foundation of investments in the early years. The education sector serves as a useful example of this - evidence shows that children who benefit from early education will do better in later years of schooling, thereby improving the efficiency of later years' spending. A key study in 2017 (Heckman) estimated a rate of return on early childhood investments of 10–14 per cent. And the World Bank found that young children who are better nourished go on to earn up to 50 per cent more than their malnourished counterparts.
These new results illustrate that social spending in Africa by age does not adequately support pregnant women, babies and pre-school children. Without such a foundation, spending in later years is unlikely to be efficient or effective in building a country's human capital.
UNICEF's Regional Director in East and Southern Africa, Etleva Kadilli said, "We know that investing in all children throughout their life is crucial for their development and that of wider society. But what we are now very clearly seeing is that spending in Africa is instead significantly skewed toward older ages, with an enormous gap in spending on the youngest. Aside from the high return to investing in young children, families need support - during pregnancy, with childcare, and cash support to raise young children – this gap must be filled if we are to realise the potential of Africa's growing child population".
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"There are very few investments that are as important and impactful as investments in early childhood development, and especially in early childhood education, because it is these investments that provide a strong foundation for later academic, social and emotional growth for children, and a catalyst for future economic growth, prosperity and development," said Adele Khodr, UNICEF Regional Director for Middle East and North Africa.
Dominic Richardson , Managing Director of the Learning for Well-being Institute said "Countries need to map and manage the child policy portfolio across the life course, from pregnancy to preschool and beyond. Knowing where the money is going empowers government to make evidence-informed decisions regarding future spending and the complementarity of multi-sectoral policy efforts for children". While many countries now track social spending by age, little evidence exists for Africa. It is critically important that African governments can track social sector spending by age as a basis to inform policy decisions that benefit child well-being and broader society.
As African economies continue to grow and develop, it is crucial that governments are aware of this skewed social spending by age and ensure that new money in the future be allocated to the youngest children to plug the gap.
