Centre to fight for children consideration in budget

Malawi’s Centre for Social Concern (CfSC) has developed a K62 million (about $183 000) Child Friendly Budget Project to push government to address children’s needs in the national budget

CfSC social conditions research programme manager Alex Nkosi said this in Mzuzu on Monday during an orientation for stakeholders.

He said children are marginalised in the budget despite being in majority and the most affected by the harsh economic situation.

Nkosi said a survey the centre carried in November to December last year found that most children have been heavily affected by the devaluation, but government has paid little attention to their plight.

“With the high cost of living, some families have developed difficult strategies of survival. The families have resorted into having one meal per day which is not healthy for the children. Other families send children to beg from their neighbours while others send them to their well-to -do relations so that they can survive.

“ So, we want the national budget to be responsive and meet children’s needs in various sectors,” said Nkosi.

CfSC communications and publication manager Bill Turnbull said every child is vulnerable despite coming from different backgrounds.

He called on stakeholders who deal with children to come up with facts on children’s needs and present them to government for redress.

The project is funded by Tilitonse Fund and will run for three years.