SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – 30 May 2017: ChildFund Australia has today released a comprehensive report on the enormous challenges faced by Myanmar as the country seeks to undo years of neglect and lack of investment in its education system.
The report, written by award-winning journalist Jo Chandler, explores the complexities facing educators, policymakers, bureaucrats, donors, civil society and international organisations as the country launches its first ever National Education Strategic Plan (NESP); a five-year road map to develop an inclusive and high-quality education system.
Once referred to as Asia’s rice bowl, Myanmar exported two million tonnes of rice a year in the late 19th century, making it one of the wealthiest nations in the region. However, decades of economic and political isolation, compounded by what some observers refer to as the world’s longest-running civil war, have meant that living standards have plummeted, with indicators for education and health now among the lowest in Asia.
According to Nigel Spence, CEO of ChildFund Australia, the long years of stagnation endured by Myanmar’s people have taken a terrible toll on children and families, particularly those living in poor communities.
Mr Spence said: “Education, life expectancy and household incomes have stalled in Myanmar for too long; hobbled by broken public systems. The task of rebuilding the education system is formidable but absolutely essential to the country’s development and in reducing the significant rates of poverty.”
According to the ChildFund report – Education for All: bridging the knowledge gap in Myanmar – the most powerful and immediate factors undermining children’s right to education are:
- The costs of education: fees are not officially levied but families must pay for school maintenance, admission, uniforms, and also face indirect costs, such as household earnings foregone if a child is at school rather than working, or the cost to relocate a child from a remote, rural area in order access school.
- The poor quality of education: lack of qualified and experienced teachers; dilapidated and overcrowded classrooms; shortage of school buildings; didactic teaching methodologies; lack of educational resources; outdated curricula.
- Poverty and child labour: extreme poverty prevents children’s access to education and impacts school retention; in Myanmar there is widespread acceptance of child labour with children from low-income families often forced to leave school early to supplement household incomes.
Ethnic diversity, with many minority groups speaking a different language at home to that taught in schools, presents additional challenges for children and educators.
As the country opens up to the world, Myanmar is viewed as having great economic potential – in terms of its natural resources, including natural gas reserves and hydropower, and its viability as a tourism hotspot. But the country’s most significant asset is likely to be its human capital.
Mr Spence said: “Myanmar has a highly youthful demographic in comparison to Australia, which is battling with the challenges of an ageing population. This is a powerful resource that can be harnessed through improvements to education, and why organisations such as ChildFund are committed to supporting the government’s new strategy and ambitions.
“Access to education is not only the right of every child but will ensure that this fledgling democracy can develop a skilled workforce able to meet the challenges of the 21st century.”
KEY FINDINGS FROM THE REPORT
As the Government of Myanmar begins the task of rebuilding its education framework, this report highlights the historical context, the challenges ahead, and the importance of ensuring access to quality education for all. Key findings include:
- Nationally, one in four children do not complete primary school, with the dropout rate even higher in poor communities. Fewer than one in three will finish upper secondary school.
- The average adult has completed only 4.7 years of schooling, a similar result to Cambodia, but less than Laos and Bangladesh (both 5.2 years), India (6.3) China (7.6) and Thailand (7.9).
- One in five children aged 10-14 years are working. Child labour and exploitation remains a pervasive concern in Myanmar.
- School attendance falls sharply from age 10, with boys often dropping out faster than girls because they can sell their labour.
Download the full report here: Education for All: Bridging the Knowledge Gap in Myanmar
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – 25 May 2017: Over one billion children each year are impacted by violence, yet less than $1.4bn worldwide is allocated towards initiatives to keep children safe from harm.
Equivalent to an investment of approximately less than $1 per child, this failure to address the causes and impacts of child violence costs the global economy up to $9 trillion annually, according to a new report published today by a coalition of aid agencies including ChildFund, Save the Children, SOS Children’s Villages and World Vision.
Counting Pennies: A review of official development assistance to end violence against children also reveals for the first time how much wealthy nations spend on combatting violence against children in developing countries.
Globally, the report found that in 2015 global ODA across all sectors was $233 billion. But of that amount, less than 0.6 per cent was allocated to activities which focus solely on preventing violence against children, or which include a component aimed at keeping children from harm.
Based on the percentage of overseas development assistance (ODA) allocated to ending violence against children, Australia ranked third in the world behind Sweden (2nd) and Canada (1st).
However, in terms of total amount of money spent on efforts to protect children from harm, Australia falls to 7th place, due to the now historically low size of its overseas aid budget in comparison with other donors. In 2015, Australian ODA spending on initiatives to end child violence was $92m, while Canada’s spend was $319m, followed by the United States ($211m) and Sweden ($191m).
Marta Santos Pais, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Violence against Children, said: “Children’s lives are at stake and the serious consequences of violence can last a lifetime,” Santos Pais added. “While governments’ policy priorities may have competing demands on scarce resources, the social and financial costs of inaction are too high.”
The report also found that 50 per cent of all ODA to end violence against children goes to two geographic regions: Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. Countries affected by conflict and displacement, such as Iraq, Syria and South Sudan, receive the bulk of these investments, yet it is still grossly underfunded.
One of the report’s recommendations is for donors to track spending on a yearly basis to determine how international development assistance is contributing to achieving the Sustainable Development targets to end violence against children.
The report also calls for further research into the amount of domestic resources invested by recipient governments, with the Sustainable Development Goals now including for the first time a target to end all forms of violence against children (target 16.2). Ending the abuse, neglect and exploitation of children is also mainstreamed across the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
“The world’s agreed priority to ending violence against children needs to be matched by increased ODA investment and by tracking spending on preventing and addressing violence against children,” said Santos Pais. “This must happen through both official development assistance and through the mobilisation of domestic resources.”
Key findings
- In 2015, ODA estimated to have been spent combatting violence against children globally was just under $1.4 billion, which equates to approximately less than $1 per child in the 107 nations where funding was directed, or just 0.6 per cent of global ODA spend.
- The report found that Canada is the largest single donor of ODA to end violence against children, followed by Sweden and the United States. The top six donors provided 80% of ODA to end violence against children; 10 donors provided over 90%.
- Almost all of the ending violence against children-related ODA to Oceania comes from Australia. For example, Australia is a large donor to the UN’s Papua New Guinea country fund, which includes a number of child protection activities.
- The costs and economic impact of physical, sexual, and psychological violence against children costs governments globally up to $9 trillion a year, or 8% of global GDP, and is manifested in health costs, social services, and judicial expenditure, as well as lower levels of educational attainment and other forms of social exclusion which negatively impact on human capital formation.
Download a copy of the report here: Counting Pennies: A review of official development assistance to end violence against children
