Muhith unveils ‘child budget’ for the first time in Bangladesh

The finance minister has unveiled a ‘child budget’ by publishing a report on the child-related expenses and programmes of five ministries directly linked with their development.

Abul Maal Abdul Muhith placed the report titled ‘Budget Thoughts for Children’, first of its kind in Bangladesh, during his budget speech for FY 2015-16 in Parliament on Thursday.
 
The minister said, “We are presenting a report... taking into account the budgetary allocations of five ministries directly related to socio-economic development of children.”
 
“In formulating this report we have considered the projects, programmes, and other initiatives directly dealing with the needs, rights and welfare of children,” he said.
 
Muhith had announced in the previous budget speech that ‘children budget’ would be placed from FY 2015-16.
 
He said the report will give an idea about the allocation in the national budget, the programmes being implemented and policies being formulated for development of children.
 
The minister said, “In order to complete a child budget the initiatives of all the ministries dealing with children’s welfare should be taken into consideration.
 

“But in the first place, we need to identify all these programmes and build a proper framework to evaluate their impacts.”
 
He expressed the government’s wish to accomplish the task in phases.
 
Muhith said, “We are soon going to undertake a project named ‘Strengthening Capacity for Child Focused Budgeting in Bangladesh (SC-CFB)’ which will commence from July 2015.”
 
“Once the project is implemented, capacity of the Finance Division and other child related ministries in terms of proper utilisation of resources and its reporting will be enhanced.”
 
In formulation of the child budget, the five ministries directly related to the development of children have been divided in three categories.
 
Health and family welfare ministry falls under the category one while the education, and primary and mass education ministries come under the category two. Social welfare, and women and children affairs ministries fall under category three.
 
Nearly Tk 15.17 billion has been allocated for the health ministry ‘as investment in child health’. The figure represents 4.13 percent of the entire budget.
 
In FY 2014-15 revised budget, the allocation for the ministry was over Tk 14.08 billion or 4.74 percent of the total outlay.
 
Over Tk 96.46 billion has been earmarked for the education ministry ‘as investment for children’. In current FY’s revised budget, it was a little over Tk 91.88 billion.
 
The allocation for primary and mass education ministry has increased to over Tk 139.12 billion for the new FY from over Tk 110.26 billion of the current fiscal.
 
The total allocation for the ministries under category two accounts for 10.72 percent of the total outlay.
 
Under category three, social welfare ministry gets more than Tk 4.65 billion ‘as investment for protection, welfare and development of children’.
 
The allocation was over Tk 3.66 billion in the revised budget for the current FY.
 
Tk 3.12 billion has been allocated for the women and children affairs ministry. The figure was more than Tk 2.64 billion in the current FY.
 
The allocation for the two ministries accounts for 1.67 percent of the total outlay. In the current FY, it stands at 1.8 percent.