The views expressed in this presentation are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the

views or policies of the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), the

Asian Development Bank (ADB), its Board of Directors, or the governments they represent. ADBI does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this paper and
accepts no responsibility for any consequences of their use. Terminology used may not necessarily be consistent with ADB official terms.

Investment in Children in the Pursuit of

SDGs
Jun Fan, Regional Social Policy Specialist, UNICEF EAPRO

ADBI and ESCAP Workshop on

Fiscal Governance for Sustainable Growth and Development in Asia and Pacific Region

Bangkok, 25 April 2018

High return of investment in early years

Source: Heckman,
2008

Source: Heckman 2007

Child interventions are highly cost-effective: example of nutrition

Cost-effectiveness ratios for selected nutrition interventions (USD per

DALY saved, global estimates)
Community nutrition programmes for behaviour change
53-153
Vitamin A supplements
3-16
Therapeutic zinc supplements
73
Micronutrient powders (zinc)
12
Iron-folic acid supplements
66-115
Community-based management of acute malnutrition
41
Source: Horton et al, Scaling Up Nutrition, What Will It Cost? World Bank, 2010
Child interventions are highly cost-efficient: example of nutrition

Micronutrient powders Benefit-cost ratios

and salt iodization 45 37 38 39
40
30
have benefits that
35
30 24
25
are > 30 times 20
15 8 7
greater than their 10
5
6
costs 0

powders (iron)

Iron fortification

India

Kenya
Salt iodization
Deworming

Ethiopia

Bangladesh
Micronutrient
The BCR for the Lancet

of staples
package as a whole is
also very high (e.g.
24:1 in Ethiopia)

Individual interventions Lancet package as a

(global) whole
Sources: Horton et al, Scaling Up Nutrition, What Will It
Cost? World Bank, 2010; Hoddinott et al, Copenhagen
Consensus, 2012
 Tackles poverty and inequality Goals 1, 10

Childhood Investment and the SDGs

Strengthens food security and nutrition Goal 2
Improves health and cognitive
development Goals 3, 9
Strengthens education outcomes Goal 4
Promotes gender equality Goal 5
Household-level environmental
management Goals 6, 13
Strengthens social inclusion and cohesion Goals 11, 16
Fosters inclusive growth, decent work and
more productive employment
Goal 8
Improves macroeconomic resilience Goal 12
Development partnerships Goal 17
How does UNICEF engage in budget advocacy for children in relation to SDGs
Support evidence generation to
advocate for greater and better
public investments in children
and inform sector reforms
Empower citizens, and
communities to track spending
and participate in national/local
budgeting processes
Engage in budget processes to
influence and support
allocation decisions and
improve spending performance
Support domestic revenue
mobilization and facilitate
service providers’ access to
credit to expand domestic
financing of services and
programs
UNICEF China: translating evidence to public expenditure for children with MOF

Study on cost of orphan’s allowance 500-600% budget increase

Study on equitable allocations to Substantial funding increase

MCH and primary health nationally in MCH

Study on efficiency and effectiveness Relocation of funds from

of street children centers
Study on affordability & sustainability
of basic public services with NDRC
infrastructure to child protection
services
Inclusion of child services in national
plan for provision of basic essential
services
UNICEF Myanmar: strengthening social budgets by linking inputs to outcomes and
performance

Introduction of social cash transfers (universal MNCH program); expansion of social work case management

- Evidence to link
- Very low social sector
sector budget budgets to child - 14,000 beneficiaries
allocation deprivation Three-fold by 2018
- Policy advocacy increase - 26 more townships
- Weak with a range of in budget covered under case
capacity of stakeholders allocations to management
social welfare social
- TA to Ministry of
ministry to protection,
social welfare
child protection Improved funding and
plan and (budget submission,
programs effectiveness of
spend funds sector PFM capacity,
spending on social
effectively expenditure
welfare
tracking tool)
 Public Finance for Children in Cambodia
Early stage of engagement (2012)
• Research on social budgeting in collaboration with
Cambodia National Council for Children (CNCC)
Formalization of partnership (2013- 2014)
• UNICEF and MEF signed a partnership agreement
covering the key areas of collaborations:
o Capacity building of MEF and line ministries for
implementation of programme-based
budgeting to link child-sensitive policies and
budget
o Policy and budget analysis and research
• Training on programme-based budgeting for MEF
and line ministries
o This complemented WB support for Financial
Management Information System development
• Training on results-based management for MEF,
MoP and line ministries
o Based on WB assessment on PB
implementation, identifying RBM capacity as
key bottleneck
Solid partnership to achieve results for
children (2016 - Present)
• UNICEF positioned as key partner for PFM
reform (programme-based budgeting)
• UNICEF expertise in thematic areas
(health, nutrition, etc.) and MEF’s trust in
UNICEF resulted in increased budget
allocation for children
• Sector specific PFM support (education
sector) resulted in leveraging donor
funding (EU) for education e.g. school
operating budget allocation formula
• Steady increase of education budget,
particularly on programs to address equity
(current budget)
• PM’s commitment to roll out a cash
transfer program for children and pregnant
mothers nationwide by mid-2019
 IMPROVING BUDGET ALLOCATION UNDER MTEF/LTEF ON ECD: THAILAND

IMPACTS ON
Key Challenges & Gap*** KEY INTERVENTIONS CHILDREN
Budget Planning is Only 0.05% Budget/Total Advocate BOB to Focus on “Children” Child-related programs
Centralized and focus on for ECD Introduce MTEF/LTEF on using Integrated Plan receive greater and
growth consistent budget
ECD based on RBM budgeting under RBM.

Budget Planning is Low Capacity for Line

Increase fiscal space will
Agencies to Plan in
too short (1 year) for Capacity Building for bring in private for
Integrated Plan Strengthening innovative financing for
evaluation Budgeting MOE for Provincial Children
ECD integrated plan Result Based
ECD Integrated and MTEF/LTEF Evaluation System
Plan
budget ECD
with OPDC
Provincial ECD programs
Integra
are affectively and
ted
efficiently implemented for
Budget remains Plan
children
Line Item based Seek Ownership from and
and not result Partnership with BOB OPDC
based in practice NESDB MOE

*** From OPM/UNICEF 2017 study on “Equity in PFM Systems: A Case Study of Thailand”
Thank you