Budgeting for children in Africa: Rhetoric, Reality and the Scorecard. Supplement to The African Report on Child Wellbeing 2011

This report by The African Child Policy Forum (ACPF) entitled ‘Budgeting for Children in Africa: Rhetoric, Reality and the Scorecard’, is a supplement publication to The African Report on Child Wellbeing 2011: Budgeting for Children. In addition to further sharpening the messages of the main report, it includes the Budgetary Commitment Index – as a composite measure of performance of African governments in budgeting for children: a powerful tool of budget advocacy and government self-examination. This abridged version succinctly presents the findings of the main report, but takes it further by introducing additional elements that resulted from further reflection and analysis. It looks more sharply into the gap between rhetoric and reality and on how African Governments score relative to each other. It also provides concrete recommendations on what can be done to budget for children and ensure effective outcomes.