Organising Partners



About the IPC

The International Policy Conference on the African Child (IPC) is a major biennial event aimed at promoting policy dialogue and providing a platform for leading thinkers, policy makers, practitioners and activists to positively engage and interact on the challenges facing children in Africa and the policy choices that governments could consider to promote their wellbeing.

Theme of the Fourth IPC

The theme of the Fourth IPC will be on Budgeting for Children. Why?

Article 4 of the UNCRC requires States Parties to undertake all appropriate legislative, administrative, and other measures for the implementation of the rights recognised in the Convention. With regard to economic, social and cultural rights, States Parties are required to “undertake such measures to the maximum extent of their available resources and, where needed, within the framework of international co-operation.” The CRC Committee has, on several occasions, recommended compliance with Article 4 of the convention and a commitment for a policy of budget analysis in order to enhance spending on children to the maximum extent possible and identify priorities. The Committee has increasingly stressed budget analysis in its reporting guidelines, in its dialogue with state parties and in its Concluding Observations.

Given this injunction and the central place of public finance and resources in the realisation of child rights, ACPF considers it appropriate to devote both its forthcoming African Report on Child Wellbeing 2011 and the Fourth International Policy conference on the African Child to the theme of Budgeting for Children.

Budgeting for children as a process rests heavily on the system upon which the budget is constructed, approved, implemented, monitored and evaluated. The following issues are particularly important: the absolute and relative allocation (and expenditure) of resources for children; the adequacy of resources; the extent to which the budget is equitable (amongst various socio-economic groups, sectors and relatively disadvantaged groups); the extent to which children and the public at large are part of the deliberation process; and the extent to which the budget is enshrined in law and embodies accountability. The conference will address these various dimensions and aim to cover them in the context of both international experience and African realities. Far more importantly, the conference will be designed such that participants will share and profit from knowledge of practical experiences and guidelines which could be applied in policy and budgetary formulation and in advocating for a pro-children budget at the national level.

The overall objective of the conference is to:

  • Promote budgeting that puts children at the heart of public resource allocation;
  • Promote the exchange of experiences and information on good practices;
  • Agree on a framework and guideline that could be used by policy makers and CSOs for policy and advocacy; and
  • Agree on priority areas of work to promote and support budgeting for children in Africa



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