The Experience of Promoting Investment in Children 2006-2012

In Latin America, there are 80 million children living in poverty, with a total of 32 million living in extreme poverty (CEPAL 2012). To protect and promote the rights of children and make sure that every child fully enjoys their rights guaranteed under the UNCRC requires much work, as well as a change in the approach of many organizations, public officials and private sector representatives.

Since 1998, Save the Children and many other child focused organisations in Latin America have been working in favour of children and adolescents by promoting initiatives that improve investment in children and a better use of availabe resources. This working paper summarises the main lessons learned from these efforts and proposes a future agenda for action. It presents the extensive feedback from various national and regional workshops, as well as from discussions and debates on the issue of budget policies and investments in children.

The development of this theme has occurred in three main stages:  the period from 1998 to 2006 saw the strengthening of technical and institutional capacities to develop this theme in the Latin American context; important developments for the period 2006 to 2010 included the incorporation of childhood coalitions and networks in Latin America and the establishment of a relationship of cooperation with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Global Movement for Children’s Rights (Latin America and Caribbean Chapter); and from 2010 to date, the agenda has been extended to include contributions at international level to improve investments in children.