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TANZANIA: Focus on child welfare

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

DAR ES SALAAM, 10 May (IRIN) - Farraja Kotta is a 16-year-old Tanzanian girl
who has just finished her O-level education. But on Wednesday, she had the
honour of speaking on behalf of African children in an event on promoting
children's participation, held at the United Nations General Assembly
Special Session on Children in New York.

Farraja, and some 350 other children from around the world, are the first
children ever to have been invited to the General Assembly to participate in
the highest level of international deliberations, where, alongside
international leaders, they are looking at what has been done, and needs to
be done, for children.

For Bjorn Ljungqvist, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF)
representative in Tanzania, the session needs to be more than just another
three day meeting and must tackle the many shortcomings still faced by
children in Tanzania, and all over the world. "On the Tanzanian side we had
a series of meetings, at which the children identified what they say were
the most important issues and what would be their recommendations," he told
the press in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday.

"The children from Tanzania will talk about education, protection, child
participation and, of course, HIV/AIDS," he said.

The 2001 UNICEF Situation Analysis of Children in Tanzania paints a fairly
depressing picture, noting that, while the country has maintained relative
stability and improved its macroeconomic performance, this has not been
translated into real improvements in the lives of children.
"Tanzania has not met 2000 targets, and is far from being on track to meet
2015 international development targets and Vision 2025 goals. Instead,
virtually every critical measure of child well-being stagnated or declined
through the 1990s," the report states.

Amongst children of up to six years of age, the report highlights the
worrying situation of increased infant- and child- mortality rates,
resulting in the fact that "one in every six children fails to make it to
their fifth birthday".

Primary schooling is another major problem in Tanzania. While the government
has launched its Primary Education Development Plan, the report states that
the quality of schooling is "extremely poor" throughout the country, and
that less than half of all children completed primary education at the end
of the 1990s.

As a result, Ljungqvist believes that, while the government is trying to
build more classrooms, Tanzania's development is being seriously retarded.
"I estimate that if you look at the number of children that have accumulated
without getting a decent basic education over the last 10 or 15 years, we
are talking about seven or eight million young people.

"We talk about fighting poverty, but this is the core of the future of
Tanzania, and without reasonable basic education, what platform do they have
to stand on?" he added.

The report also highlights the impact of HIV/AIDS on Tanzania's children,
saying that community surveys in six districts have suggested the recent
figure of 700,000 AIDS orphans may, in fact be only half the real numbers.

"Children are often hit hardest, as parents fall ill and scarce resources
are devoted to treatment, or expropriated by others after their parents'
death," the report says.

With 10 percent of those who replied to the Say Yes for Children campaign -
a world-wide ballot on children - putting harm and exploitation of children
as their major concern, protection of children is another issue that will be
put forward by the Tanzanian delegation in New York.

Confirming this, the UNICEF analysis reported that "approximately 40 percent
(or 3.4 million) children and young people aged 5-17 in Tanzania were
engaged in economic work" in a given period in 2000, with poverty being the
underlying reason for this.

According to Ljungqvist, this is a cause for concern. "If those children are
not given a fair chance to learn, to complete their education, physical and
mental growth before taking on a full-time heavy job, then I think their
future is very bleak."

Ljungqvist added that the news was not all bad, with progress being made in
helping children fight malaria. Trials in Tanzania have proved that
Insecticide Treated Nets can help reduce malarial cases by up to 50 percent.

Meanwhile, Iodine Deficiency Disorders also seem to have been challenged
effectively, and through salt iodisation - up to 80 percent in Tanzania -
this is a problem that can be overcome.

However, there is much to be done, and it all comes down to a question of
prioritisation, says Ljungqvist. "When the needs are so many, where do you
put that money when it comes available? Unless you really make sure the ones
that take that final decision really know that an extra US $20 million for
this project would have an impact."

It is not that there is a lack of commitment, he believes, but rather the
issue of children needs to be taken more seriously.

"We hope that children will now be seen as an important investment. Children
have always been seen as cute kids that you have to feel pity for and treat
almost as a welfare issue, but if you are really serious about the future of
this country you have to see that if you don't give children a chance to
both survive, learn, be healthy and well-nourished, you will not have a
chance to catch up," he said.

In his foreword to the UNICEF report, President Benjamin Mkapa stressed that
all policy should take into consideration the needs of children, "and, we
need to do this not just for the children of Tanzania, but with the children
of Tanzania".

This week, with the participation of some 350 children at the General
Assembly, seems to be the ideal opportunity.

[ENDS]

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