African governments have an impressive record in their formal accession to the relevant child-focused international treaties. But the extent of their commitment to children’s issues varies widely, and the gap between promises and reality remains wide in many countries. Why is this so? How well are African governments doing in meeting their national and international obligations? Which governments are doing well and which ones are not? How do countries rank in relation to each other? What is it that is right that child-friendly governments are doing, which poorly-performing countries can emulate?
The report – The African Report on Child Wellbeing 2008: How child-friendly are African governments? prepared by The African Child Policy Forum (ACPF), addresses these questions. It reviews and compares the performance of 52 African governments using a common set of indicators and an innovative Child-friendliness Index developed by ACPF.
“We are convinced that the report is a significant contribution to public policy. It is an African report on African children by an African organization,” says Dr Salim Ahmed Salim, former Prime Minister of Tanzania and a three-term former Secretary General of Organization of African Union (OAU). And Professor Jaap Doek, former Chair of UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, adds that “This is a meticulously researched and evidence - based report, and the first of its kind on the subject in the region.”
