Dollars and Sense for a Better Childhood: A Palestinian Child-Focused Budget Study, has been produced as part of an international project about the development of methods for budget analysis in seven of the countries participating in Save the Children Sweden programmes: Ethiopia, El Salvador, Peru, South Africa, Sweden, Vietnam, and the West Bank and Gaza. Each country has selected the subject of its budget study on the basis of specific national conditions.

The fundamental goal of this study is to initiate a national discussion concerning the challenges facing Palestinian children; to illustrate that child rights and welfare are not nominal expenditures, but fundamental inputs for a successful nation. After a brief introduction to the history and socio-economic status of Palestine, this report is organized around four main elements: (1) a guide to the Palestinian budget from a child rights perspective with a general overview of social sector spending, (2) an analysis of education spending in Palestine, (3) an assessment of the Palestinian social welfare sector and (4) a child-focused budget comparison of two Palestinian municipalities. By extracting lessons from these four components, this study hopes to inform legislators, ministerial finance departments, civil society, and children themselves about the budgetary issues and processes that impact child rights.

Read here the summaries of the eight child-focused budget studies.