Social Accountability and Child Rights Budget Analysis: Using government budgets to implement children’s rights in Albania

Policy commitments by governments to children are implemented through government’s budgets. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC, 1989) sets children’s rights at the heart of the political and government’s agenda asking from state parties to align their legal framework and take all the necessary measures to ensure full application of children’s rights, which should be translated into better outcomes for children’s lives. These obligations require from governments to systematically analyze the situation of children’s rights in their countries, to identify where children’s rights are not being realized and why, and to commit all the necessary resources for the realization of children’s rights. Children and their representatives have the right to know how much and on what are national resources spent. Their voice should be considered during preparation, approval and implementation of both local and national budgets. At the same time, other public institutions such as schools and civil society organizations should be open to children and communities on how they spend resources they mobilize on their behalf.

The Social Accountability and Child Rights Budget Analysis Manual is a document encompassing methods and tools employed to plan, analyze and monitor the public budgets in order to implement children’s rights in Albania. Its content and materials are drawn from the extensive body of knowledge and experience accumulated by Save the Children and other programmes across the world as well as the local practices and models applied in Albania.