Millennium Development Goals
1:30 pm
Virendra Sharma (Ealing, Southall, Labour)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship on this important issue, Mr Bone. I thank the Minister in advance for responding to my concerns, and I thank hon. Members for attending the debate.
An
estimated 24 million children worldwide grow up without parental care.
In some regions, as many as 30% live apart from their parents, and
research suggests that that figure is increasing. Every child deserves
to grow up, to go to school and to live their childhood free from hunger
and disease, exploitation, abuse and violence. Experience has shown
that this happens best when children are loved and cared for in a family
setting.
The millennium development goals have
focused global efforts to improve the lives of the world’s poorest
people, yet many of the crucial targets are in danger of not being
reached by 2015. That would have a devastating impact on the well-being
of children throughout the world. Failure to provide proper care and
protection for children is hindering progress in achieving many MDGs. Future development goals, which are currently being developed, need to recognise and eradicate those mistakes.
There
are huge gaps in child protection systems around the world. Such
systems are crucial to ensuring the protection of children who are
without parental care. Therefore, addressing child protection in the
MDGs and the successor framework is key in supporting the rights of such
children. I will outline how children’s rights to care and protection
are the missing link in achieving the MDGs. Children without the care
and protection of their family are particularly vulnerable and hard to
reach.
I want to cover two issues related to the
MDGs: the importance of including protection and care concerns in
efforts to monitor the MDGs; and the need to address the absence of an
explicit reference to child protection and care in the current MDGs, if
the post-MDG framework is to be effective in improving children’s
well-being in the future.
MDG 1 aims to end
poverty and hunger. Children who are in the care of the state, either in
residential care or in detention, may fail to receive adequate food,
despite the obligation on Governments to provide it, while children who
are not in conventional households, such as those living on the streets,
in migrant families, or in child-only households, are often excluded
from social protection schemes. Poorly designed social protection
systems are, at best, failing to reach children who are without adequate
care and protection, and, at worst, actively encouraging family
separation or child labour. In South Africa and Ukraine, payments to
foster or extended family carers mean that children will be in better
resourced households if parents give them up to other forms of care.
Anas Sarwar (Glasgow Central, Labour)
I
congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this important debate. In an
answer to a parliamentary question I tabled, I was surprised to discover
that the Department for International Development does not have a dedicated child protection policy. Does my hon. Friend think that that is something DFID should have, signalling post-MDG intentions?
Virendra Sharma (Ealing, Southall, Labour)
I thank my hon. Friend for that appropriate intervention. I am sure that the Minister has taken note and will respond to it. I agree with my hon. Friend and share his concerns.
MDGs 2 and 3 seek universal education and gender equality. In its 2012 annual report, DFID
acknowledges that to meet the target of universal primary education,
efforts need to shift to the hardest-to-reach children. Education for
all will not be achieved unless the current widespread exclusion of
young married girls and children in extended family care, prison or work
is addressed. Children who have lost both parents are 12% less likely
to be in school than other children. The vast majority
of children living and working on the streets do not attend school,
while children in detention often have no access to formal school during
their sentences.
For the 13.6% of children who are child labourers,
including a quarter of children in sub-Saharan Africa,
combining work with school often has a negative impact on learning
achievements, with long working hours preventing children from attending
school at all.
International recognition of the
links between child labour and education have not translated into policy
change on the part of many Governments. To get education for their
children, the only option for some families, who are in poverty or are
far from a school, is to send their children away to live in
institutions that provide education but are detrimental to their
well-being in other ways. Long distances to school mean that some
children have to find alternative accommodation, making them vulnerable
to exploitation and abuse.
MDG 4 addresses child
health. The widespread use of residential care for children under three
places many children and infants at greater risk of dying young. In Russia,
official statistics suggest that the mortality rate for children under
four years old in residential care is 10 times higher than that of the
general population. In Sudan, of 2,500 infants admitted to one
institution in a five-year period, only 400 survived. There are
currently at least 8 million children in residential care, with evidence
to suggest a growth in this form of care in many countries in the
former Soviet Union, sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia.
Finally,
MDGs 5 and 6 address maternal health and combating HIV/AIDS. Ensuring
that children have adequate care and protection is essential for
improving maternal health and combating the spread of HIV. Preventing
early marriage is essential for stemming the spread of HIV and
preventing girls from becoming mothers at an early age when the risks of
maternal and child mortality are highest. Trafficked children, child
domestic workers and other working children often face sexual abuse. An
estimated 2 million children, mainly girls, are sexually exploited in
the commercial sex trade each year. Street children are often sexually
active at a very young age.
Early sexual activity
has profound implications for maternal and child health. Forced sex and
limited power in relationships mean that girls without adequate care and
protection often face early motherhood, with severe consequences for
the health of both young mothers and babies. Pregnancy-related deaths
are the leading cause of mortality for 15 to 19-year-old girls. Those
who give birth aged under 15 are five times more likely to die than
women aged over 20. Babies born to young mothers are also less likely to
survive. Early and often forced
sexual activity
among children lacking adequate care and protection increases the risk
of HIV infection. Lack of control over contraceptive use, inadequate
knowledge of reproductive health, frequent sexual activity and having
sex with often older husbands all result in such children being more
vulnerable to HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Children
on the streets are often discriminated against by service providers and
unable to access health care or advice about contraceptive use. DFID is
committed to achieving education for all, including the most
hard-to-reach groups. What is it doing to ensure that children who are
outside parental care receive an education, and that their parents do
not have to make agonising choices between schooling and care and
protection?
DFID makes substantial investments in
social protection programmes around the world. What is it doing to
ensure that social protection reaches the most vulnerable and is
designed in a way that keeps families together and does not push them
apart? Through its commitment to achieving the MDGs, DFID is working to
reduce child and maternal mortality and the spread of HIV. What is it
doing to reduce separation from parents and deal with the abuse and
exploitation that is so often the cause of dangerous early pregnancy and
HIV infection?
DFID is focusing more on fragile
and conflict-affected states and is working to mitigate the negative
effects of climate change. What is DFID doing to ensure that, in dealing
with preparedness and responses to conflict and disasters, emphasis is
put on preventing families separating and on protecting children whose
families are torn apart by war?
It is important
that DFID ensures the development of indicators of impacts on children
who are outside parental care and/or facing situations of abuse or
exploitation.
Virendra Sharma (Ealing, Southall, Labour)
I am sorry, I shall continue.
DFID
must invest more in appropriate, integrated child protection systems
that adhere to the UN guidelines for the alternative care of children.
The Prime Minister has recently been appointed co-chair of the UN Secretary-General’s
high-level panel, looking at what comes after 2015 when the targets for
the millennium development goals end. The first presentation of the
panel’s work will be made in September.
The
coalition Government recognise the importance of strong families in
improving the lives of children in the UK, yet in their work in the
developing world not enough is being done to keep families together. The UN
is co-ordinating a global process to develop a post-MDG framework and
there is an opportunity for the UK to influence the process, and the
outcomes of the development of these goals, by promoting specific
reference to children’s rights to care and protection in any framework
and by ensuring that extra effort is made to consult hard-to-reach
children, so that their voices are heard in the global debates on a
framework that could shape their future. I should like the Minister to address his Department’s role in those two areas.
The
post-MDG framework should include specific targets on children’s
protection and care, for example, by measuring reductions in numbers
growing up in large institutions, in detention, in harmful child labour,
living and working on the streets, or experiencing violence, abuse or
neglect in homes and schools. A consideration of children’s protective
rights will also help to ensure the equitable achievement of the
millennium development goals. Only through a consideration of such basic
rights will it be possible to make wide-reaching and sustainable
progress in efforts to alleviate child poverty, increase access to
education, improve maternal and child health, and reduce the spread of HIV and AIDS.
1:44 pm
Alan Duncan (Minister of State, International Development; Rutland and Melton, Conservative)
I thank Mr Sharma for
calling a debate on a topic that has an important bearing on the lives
of so many people around the world. There is little doubt that children
who live without parental care or in situations of severe family abuse
and neglect are the most vulnerable in any society.
Children
in the poorest countries are particularly at risk, especially those
living through conflict or humanitarian disasters. In most societies
children with disabilities face particular difficulties, as do children
living in institutional care. Girls are often the most vulnerable, which
is why the UK Government
are working closely with partners, such as the Nike Girl Hub, to
improve the lives of many thousands of girls living in abject poverty
worldwide.
UNICEF
estimates that almost 18 million children worldwide have lost both
parents and 153 million have lost one parent. Many of those children
face real hardships. They are often left without protection and care.
Some are fortunate enough to be able to live with relatives or friends,
but many more end up on the streets, having to fend for themselves and
eke out a living.
Supporting vulnerable girls and boys is an important priority in international development. The UK
Government are helping to tackle it in a range of ways, including
through specific programmes aimed at improving the lives of the most
vulnerable, as well as through our work with others, including overseas
Governments, the United Nations, the private sector and civil society.
I can answer the question asked by Anas Sarwar in his intervention by making it clear that those who work on child rights and child protection receive training and tuition on those subjects. DFID
tailors child protection programmes to the context of individual
countries and includes child protection clauses in its grants to
partners.
Hon. Members will be aware of international statutes that have a bearing on the issue of vulnerable children. The UN convention on the rights of the child and the International Labour Organisation’s
convention on child labour provide a universally agreed set of
non-negotiable standards and obligations on human rights for children
that must be respected by Governments in all societies, and clear
frameworks to hold Governments and others to account. The UK is not just
a signatory to those conventions, but is actively working with others
to ensure that the standards are put into practice and genuinely help to
improve the lives of the poorest and most vulnerable people across the
world.
In answer to the hon. Member for Ealing,
Southall, I shall focus on four ways in which we are working to improve
the lives of vulnerable children living without parental care. First,
international evidence shows that cash transfer programmes are one of
the most effective ways of reaching orphans and vulnerable children. In
some cases, those are in the form of pensions, because many of the
children live with their grandparents. For example, where one or both
parents died from HIV/AIDS, such payments provide a vital source of
income to help poor families care for children and stick together. In
other cases, cash transfer programmes directly target the children
themselves. For example, in Kenya, DFID is supporting the Government’s
orphans and vulnerable children programme, which directly targets
children without parental care, and is reaching more than 55,000
households. Over the past few years, it has resulted in a reduction in
the proportion of those aged six to 13 doing paid work from one in 20 to
one in 100. It has also helped to reduce the number of people living on
less than a dollar a day from one third to one fifth.
In
Zimbabwe, DFID is supporting the Zimbabwean Government’s national
action plan for orphans and vulnerable children. It will help at least
25,000 children to secure their basic rights and meet essential needs,
by providing money for food and school fees and helping orphans to
access justice services.
Secondly, the UK is the
second largest donor to the UN children’s fund—UNICEF—which works in 190
countries, helping the poorest and most vulnerable children in a huge
range of areas, including health and education, child labour,
trafficking, and recruitment into armed forces, and giving critical
support to children in institutional care. In 2011, for example, UNICEF
helped 19 million women and children with nutritional support after
natural disasters, and helped 6 million of the most vulnerable children
receive schooling in the aftermath of a disaster or humanitarian
emergency.
Thirdly, as the hon. Member for
Ealing, Southall rightly said, the millennium development goals are
central to the UK’s development priorities, which we are ensuring
include the poorest and most vulnerable children. For example, we
support universal primary education, because we know that the high cost
of education is the biggest deterrent to school attendance by the most
marginalised children. By supporting countries such as Kenya, Tanzania,
Malawi and Uganda to remove school fees we have seen a dramatic surge in
school enrolment, helping more than 1 million extra children to go to
school in each of those countries. Through the UK’s support to the World Food Programme’s
“Food for Education” programme, we are helping to provide high-energy
biscuits to 400,000 children in Afghan secondary schools and, therefore,
an incentive for very poor children to attend school.
Children are often orphaned because of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. The MDGs
are vital in focusing the international community and Governments on
tackling such killer diseases and, as a result, have prevented millions
more children from losing their parents in the first place. The MDGs
have helped to shape the quickest and biggest improvements in
poverty
reduction, child survival and school enrolment that the world has ever
seen. The goals that follow the MDGs after 2015 must build on that
success, while learning lessons from them.
I am
aware that some people argue that the post-MDG goals should be a
continuation of the current MDGs, while others say that the United
Nations should completely rewrite them. The UK Government will play a
role in helping to shape the new goals and will work to ensure that they
meet the needs of the poorest. Our commitment comes right from the top;
I am delighted that the Prime Minister
will be co-chairing the high-level UN panel that is to lead the
process. All may rest assured that he is personally committed to the new
framework dealing with the needs of the most vulnerable and
marginalised children.
Last, but certainly not
least, our support to civil society partners is also vital to reach the
most vulnerable children and communities. For example, through Save the
Children, the Government are providing vital life-saving support to
those affected by the humanitarian crisis in the Sahel. We are assisting
Save the Children and other organisations to mobilise early support for
the most vulnerable children. Last year, DFID’s funding helped Save the
Children to reach 2.7 million people with emergency food, clean water
and health care in east Africa.
Through War Child
we are helping children in detention centres in Afghanistan; boys are
often locked away just for petty theft, and girls are usually locked up
for what is called running away or eloping. Conditions in many such
centres are deeply shocking; children are often denied education and
they are given little food or comfort. War Child’s interventions are
helping to improve the justice system as well as conditions in the
centres, and children are assisted to reconnect with their families and
local communities when they leave the centres.
Our support to Plan International is helping more than 6,000 children who live and work on the streets in Dhaka, Bangladesh,
to transform their lives. It provides safe shelters, basic education,
health and sanitation facilities, information on issues such as sexual
abuse, child labour and trafficking, and counselling for the most
vulnerable and traumatised children.
In
conclusion, the UK Government are acutely aware of the vulnerability of
children around the world, in particular those without safeguards to
protect them. We are doing a great deal on this agenda but, clearly,
more needs to be done. We will continue to work with others to find
effective ways of meeting the needs of those children. We are also fully
aware that the post-MDG framework must include a focus on the world’s
most marginalised people, including vulnerable children. I thank the
hon. Member for Ealing, Southall for raising the issue in today’s
debate. He has done a great service to an important cause in the field
of development.
