A State of the Filipino Children Report (SOFCR) is a document prepared annually by the Council for the Welfare of Children

(CWC) to serve as advocacy material for all sectors that work with and for children. Every year, the Council agrees on a theme to give emphasis on emerging issues or issues needing urgent attention at the time of writing. For 2010, the CWC Board agreed to anchor the report on Child- Friendly Governance with special focus on allocation of resources for children.

Overall Situation of Children in the Philippines

Child Survival
Malnutrition remains a big challenge in both pre-school and elementary school levels. The practice of exclusive breastfeeding in the Philippines has remained the same from 2003 to 2008 at about 34 percent. The incidence of underweight children 0-5 years increased from 24.6 percent in 2003 to 26.2 percent in 2008. The decrease in the number of malnourished children over the past four decades is less than one percent annually. At least two percent yearly decrease is needed to meet the 17.3 percent MDG nutrition target by 2015. In addition, micronutrient malnutrition still needs to be addressed, although some signicant improvements in iodine nutrition have been noted. Of note is the decline in infant mortality rate from 57 per 1000 live births in 1990 to 40 in 2003 to 34 in 2008. In maternal mortality rate, the decline has been very slow from 209 per 100,000 live births in 1993 to 162 in 2006 per Family Planning Surveys conducted during those years, indicating low probability of meeting the MDG target by 2015.

Child Development
In early childhood care and development, participation rate in center-based programs among 3 to 5 year old children has slowly increased over a 10-year period from 29 percent in 2000 to 39 percent in 2010. In basic education, there is a steady decline in school enrolment; there is an observable reduction in completion rate; and there is signicant increase in the number of school leavers and out-of-school youth. The

country is lagging behind in achieving universal primary education. Performance in terms of elementary education is still quite far from the MDG target. It is also apparent that elementary cohort survival rate at 73.3 percent for the same year are still way below the EFA targets for 2015. Gender disparities in the Philippines reveal that girls are outperforming boys at different levels of education in terms of net enrolment, retention, and achievement rates.

Child Protection
Growing numbers of children are vulnerable to and have become victims of various forms of abuse, violence, and exploitation. Data from various agency reports and studies reveal the presence of working children (4.1 million as of 2001); street children (246,000 as of 2002); sexually abused and exploited children, trafcked children; children in armed conict; children in drugs; children in conict with the law; and children without parental care and at risk of losing parental care. The situation of children in Mindanao deserves special attention considering that several regions and provinces in Mindanao are worse off in terms of child protection indicators especially those related to children in especially difcult circumstances such as those affected by armed conict and displacement as a result of disaster, both natural and man-made. Due to the continuing conict, families experience a diminished capacity to protect and care for their children resulting in increased deprivation of basic services and lack of opportunities for normal growth and development. One other consequence of this frequent and continuing emergencies and disasters is the overstretched capacity of service delivery system in the area.

Child Participation
The Philippines is a pioneer in the promotion of children and young peoples participation as various innovations to institutionalize children and young peoples participation preceded the CRC. The rich variety of experiences from the country continues to contribute to the discourse and practice. The establishment of the Sangguniang Kabataan or the youth councils, the formulation of the National Framework on Childrens Participation, Child 21 (the Philippine National Strategic

Framework for Plan Development for Children), and the National Anti-Poverty Commission Children Basic Sector representation are among the signicant efforts of government to engage young people to participate in the deliberation of matters concerning them. The fourth progress report on the MDGs admits that while the MDGs are top priorities for the government, progress made towards achieving them has been uneven. It mentions that the country has already surpassed the targets improving access to sanitation, increasing tuberculosis case detection rate and providing equal opportunities for girls. It also reports signicant progress made in reducing mortality rate among children aged 5 and below and reversing the incidence of and death rate associated with malaria, tuberculosis, and other diseases. The report further projects that the country is likely to meet the targets on proportion of population below food threshold (hunger reduction), and access to safe drinking water. There is, however, need to double or triple efforts towards achieving the following MDG targets: poverty reduction; reduction in malnutrition rates; meeting dietary energy requirement; improving elementary participation rate, elementary cohort survival rate, elementary completion rate; reducing maternal mortality ratio; and increasing access to reproductive health services, and HIV/AIDS.

Child Friendly Governance

The National Plan of Action for Children (NPAC) denes child-friendly governance as Governance that provides the enabling mechanisms for the creation of a true child-friendly society that is sensitive to the needs of the child, and where all sectors interact and cooperate to produce holistic, integrated, and sustainable strategies that promote child rights. This denition includes as a key element sectoral interaction and cooperation to produce holistic, integrated, and sustainable strategies that promote child rights. It likewise implies that the interest of the child is to come rst in the agenda of government at all levels. This means that in designing development programs and projects of government, the child is viewed as the convergent point of all services and interventions including monitoring and evaluation.

Parameters of Child Friendly Governance

1. 2. 3. 4. Child Friendly Resource Allocation Child Friendly Policy Environment Child Friendly Institutional Structures Synchronized Child Friendly Programs & Projects

CHILD FRIENDLY GOVERNANCE FRAMEWORK

The framework shows that the local government unit (LGU) is the convergent point of all interventions designed to address childrens rights and issues. It emanates from the transformation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child from a legal framework into a well-dened, national, strategic plan (Child 21) that articulates the vision of the country for its children. This vision is further concretized into clear, actionable plans within a time frame of ve years. Called the National Plan of Action for Children (NPAC), this ve-year plan carries development interventions such as child friendly policies, institutions and programmes with corresponding resource allocations.

Budgeting for Childrens Programs & Projects

At the national level, resources for programs and services for children are mostly lodged in the budget allocation of the agencies in the social services sector, namely: DepEd, DoH, DSWD, DOLE and its attached agencies including TESDA, HUDCC, CHED, and CHR. To some extent, DAR too has a heavy social component in its budget, the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP), DoJ and the PNP, all have social programs and projects addressing childrens concerns. The 2010 budget of Php1.541 trillion passed by Congress reected an additional Php25.23 billion budget for health, education, agriculture and environment sectors. It was believed that this budget should enable Filipinos to contribute to the attainment of the MDGs by 2015. The Philippine MDG Progress Report of 2010 concluded with

the recommendation that to reduce nancing gaps, multi-stakeholder resource analysis and planning for MDGs must take place at both national and local levels. An important issue in closing the nancing gap is the need to reduce leakages in program/project implementation through streamlining of programs and better targeting by way of reducing the too many, small, uncoordinated and overlapping anti-poverty and social protection programs which do not make impact in reducing poverty. At the local level, aside from their share from the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA), the Local Government Code of 1991 empowered LGUs to generate resources from and receive transfers directly in cash or indirectly in-kind and in the form of technical assistance from external sources, both foreign and domestic. Other sources of funds for social and child-related programs, projects and activities in the LGUs outside of their regular budgets are special programs and projects externally funded but require a certain percentage of cost-sharing or counterpart funding from the LGU under agreed conditions spelled out in legal instruments such as a Memorandum of Agreement. The LGUs under the decentralized system of government have the power to allocate and increase budgetary allocations for social development programs and projects especially those directly affecting children. The big challenge therefore is to create awareness and commitment from LGUs to invest on children for a more lasting and meaningful legacy.
Percent Share of Social Services Budget for 2008-2010

Source: Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Funding, www.dbm.org

Good Practices on Child-Friendly Governance Drawn from the Experiences of Awardees from the Presidential Award for Child-Friendly Cities and Municipalities
New Lucena, Iloilo (Region VI) Hall of Fame Awardee in the annual Search for the Most Child Friendly Municipality among 4th to 6th class municipalities (2006, 2008 and 2009)* The municipality boasts of 65 percent allocation of its total LGU budget for programs and projects benetting children with an expenditure rate of 91 percent from 2006 to 2009. It therefore comes as no surprise that the municipality has no reported cases of children in conict with the law, children in labour, sexually abused children and street children. San Mateo, Isabela (Region II) National Awardee for the Most Child Friendly Municipality among 1st to 3rd class municipalities.(2008 and 2009)* Through Municipal Ordinance 2001 411, San Mateo, Isabela successfully institutionalized the setting-up of herbal and vegetable gardens in every household
Mayor Roberto Agcaoili of San Mateo, Isabela welcomes the National Awards Committee Validation Team Breastfeeding Support Group of New Lucena, Iloilo Province during the Synchronized Breastfeeding Event Held in 2009

as a strategy to protect the environment, reduce malnutrition and to ensure family food sufciency. Its anti-plastic campaign Walang Plastikan which has likewise

earned the municipality a national recognition is proof of the local governments intensive efforts to protect the environment for succeeding generations. Vigan City, Ilocos Sur (Region I) Presidential Award for Child Friendly Component City (2006, 2008 and 2009)* True to its being a UNESCO heritage site, Vigan City has put up and is maintaining a museum for children, Buridek, Ilocano word for youngest, to serve as a venue for children to learn stories of great men and women, family values,

language and culture, and several other value forming modules studied outside of the regular classroom. Total development of every Vigan child is the citys mantra. Naga City (Region V) Hall of Fame Awardee in The Presidential Award Chartered City (2006, 2008 and 2009)* The city has pioneered in a number of initiatives and reforms in the elds of education and participatory governance. The Citys indicator of development is when all children from Naga go to school and nish the level of education they dream to reach. Olongapo City (Region III) Presidential Award for Child Friendly City in Highly Urbanized Cities (1999 to 2009)* The City government believes that the welfare of children is the true measure of success of any LGU. As such, it has consistently maintained its recognition as the most child-friendly city among highly urbanized cities of the country as a result of its sustainable programs in health, education, waste management and community-based monitoring system. It has likewise maintained its recognition as a clean and green city t for children to play and grow and develop to their fullest potential.
*There was no national awarding in 2007, only regional recognition. Day Care Children in their center in Olongapo City Day Care Center Validation Visit of the National Awards Committee in Naga City. The Day Care Worker shows the instructional materials for Most Child Friendly Independent available in the Day Care Centre of Barangay San Jose, Vigan City

Stories of Initiatives and Good Practices on Child-Friendly Governance from the Non-Government Partners of CWC
Complementing the efforts of government are the programs, projects and services delivered by child-focused non-government organizations and the private business sector through their corporate social arms. Included in this 2010 SOFCR are stories from three non-government partners of the CWC in promoting and protecting childrens rights. These are the stories of Save the Children, World Vision Development Foundation and SM Foundation. From Save the Children in the Philippines, there is the story of Cyrus from Pasay City on working with children to stop violence. Cyrus is an active member of Youth Meets Children Organization (YMETCO), a group in Pasay composed of 25 children and young people with ages ranging from 12 to 20 organized by Save the Children in 2006. YMETCO focuses on raising awareness about childrens rights and issues in their community. YMETCO holds regular small group discussions, play-acting, art workshops, and community-wide events to discuss childrens issues, particularly corporal punishment. As a consequence, YMETCO is steadily gaining a reputation as the leading voice for children in the community. Its youth members not only sit at the Barangay Council for the Protection of Children (BCPC) but also at the City level Council. And in a community where children have nowhere to meet and play, the donation of a room within the Barangay Hall for YMETCOs meetings and other activities by the Barangay Council of Barangay 144 of Pasay City, where Cyrus is a leading member, is viewed as a major achievement by itself. World Vision Development Foundation pursued in 2010, an Awards Program on Childrens Participation in Citizenship and Governance, a program which aimed to enhance the right of children to participate in the development process. This was done through their exercise of citizenship and governance principles in the communities they live in.
Cyrus John outside his home in Pasay City, Metro Manila. Photo by Alison- LaporteOshiro.

Through pilot-testing in nine (9) Area Development Program (ADP) areas in the Philippines for seven months, the Awards Program gave the children an opportunity to integrate childrens citizenship and governance concerns into the ADPs development agenda and practice at the barangay,
World Vision Foundation pilots an Awards Program on Childrens Participation in Citizenship and Governance in 9 provinces of the country

municipal and provincial levels of government.

SM Foundation on the other hand, has adopted Safeguarding our Future: Creating Child-Friendly Malls as their corporate social responsibility (CSR) mission. As such, the SM Supermalls Program on Youth and Childrens Welfare is committed to help future generations reach their maximum potential. And realizing that it will take more than just a city to achieve that goal, SM Foundation together with parents, tenantpartners, various government institutions and NGOs, has come up with a series of sustainable programs geared towards values formation of people doing business in the mall at the same time ensuring the comfort and safety of children entering their malls. A group of children participates in United Nations Day Celebration at SM Malls

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Gaps and Challenges

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Uneven growth and insignicant reduction in poverty, deprivation and inequality particularly with reference to children High population growth Vulnerability to natural and man-made disasters Inadequate allocation for the social services sector (Budget decit for social sector spending) Inadequate data collection and information system Fragmentation of health care delivery system, limited coverage of Philhealth insurers, and out-migration of health professionals are the prevailing issues on child survival 7. 8. 9. Problem of access to quality basic education in pre-school, primary and secondary levels Limited institutional capacities for child protection Issues of token childrens participation still persist

10. The challenge of peace and development in Mindanao

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Policy and Program Recommendations

To respond to the above gaps and challenges, this 2010 SOFCR reiterates the recommendations spelled out in the Third and Fourth Country Report presented in 2009 to the UNCRC, The biggest long-term challenge in upholding the best interests of the child is to create the structural conditions conducive to the promotion, protection and fullment of human rights, most especially childrens rights. This requires the strong and unrelenting political commitment and government capacity, as well as active civil society participation to undertake all necessary measures that will (a) effectively eliminate poverty, (b) reduce disparities in wealth and resources, (c) wipe out rampant graft and corruption, (d) put an end to armed conict, and other forms of organized violence, (e) generate food and job security for families, (f) provide opportunities for education, as well as health, nutrition, and other social services without discrimination, (g) care for and protect the environment, and (h) bring peace and stability among families and communities. Finally, to make all the above happen, it is recognized that the big and urgent challenge now lies in the political will and capacity of government to mobilize broad-based actions and allocate the necessary budgetary resources to fulll its commitments to the MDGs, the WFFC goals and targets, Child 21 and the National Plan of Action for Children (NPAC). It is hoped that under the new administration which have won under a platform of clean and good governance, energies and resources can now be focused to achieve its development goals and to move towards achieving social justice and greater concern for the common good in order to promote, protect, and fulll the basic human rights of all its citizens, particularly children, young people, women and other vulnerable groups.

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President Benigno Aquino III receives the Pledge of Commitment to achieve the MDGs and to promote CRC from DSWD Secretary Corazon Soliman and Barangay Councilors League of the Philippines President Julio Jaime at the Advocacy Meeting organized by CWC at Malacaan Palace on December 13, 2010