Day of the African Child (DAC) 2025

Planning and budgeting for children’s rights: progress since 2010

Theme for 2025

On 16 June, Africa commemorates the Day of the African Child. In South Africa, 16 June is Youth Day, a public holiday.

In 1991, the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the OAU instituted the
Day of the African Child (DAC) in memory of the 16th June 1976 student uprising in
Soweto, South Africa. At that time, students marched in protest against the poor quality
of education they received and demanded to be taught in their languages. The DAC
serves to commemorate these children and the brave actions they took in defence of
their rights. The DAC thus celebrates the children of Africa and calls for serious
introspection and commitment towards addressing the numerous challenges children
across the continent face.African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC)

Social Work and Development Student Conference (SWDSC)

This year the ASWDNet hosted the 3rd conference that was organised by students.

To learn more about Day of the African Child Africa, visit this African Union (AU)’s African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) website.

Call for abstracts

Importance of DAC for social work and development

As social workers, our work with children is significant. We drive development programs targeted at children, we strengthen families and communities and we have a policy role too. We also have a political role, and a big lesson from this day comes from its history. On this day in 1976, over a hundred children were murdered by armed police officers in Soweto, South Africa during a demonstration against educational segregation, apartheid and colonisation. Thousands were injured. About 10 000 – 20 000 marched in what became known as the Soweto Uprising. The lesson here is, if children find means to become political, how much can social workers do politically.

African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC)

The ACERWC draws its mandate from articles 32-46 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, which was adopted by the Heads of State and Government of the OAU on 11th July 1990 and came into force on 29th November 1999. One of their roles is to organise DAC. Previous DAC themes are shown int he table.

DAC themes since 2002

Year	Theme of DAC
2002	“Popularizing the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child”
2003	“Birth Registration”
2004	“Child and the Family”
2005	“Africa’s Orphans and Vulnerable Children: Our Collective Responsibility”
2006	“Right to Protection; Stop Violence against Children”
2007	“Combat Child Trafficking”
2008	“Child Participation”
2009	“Africa Fit for Children: A Call for Accelerated Action Towards Child Survival”
2010	“Planning and Budgeting for the Rights of the Child: A Collective Responsibility”
2011	“All Together for Urgent Actions in Favor of Street Children”
2012	“The Rights of Children with Disabilities: The Duty to Protect, Respect, Promote and Fulfill.”
2013	“Eliminating Harmful Social and Cultural Practices affecting Children: our Collective Responsibility“
2014	“A Child friendly, quality ,free and compulsory education for all children in Africa”
2015	“25 Years after the adoption of the African Children’s Charter: Accelerating our Collective Efforts to End Child Marriage in Africa”
2016	“Conflict and Crisis in Africa: Protecting all Children’s Rights”
2017	“The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development for Children in Africa: Accelerating Protection, Empowerment and Equal Opportunity”
2018	“No Child Left Behind”
2019	“Humanitarian Action in Africa: Children’s Rights First“
2020	“Access to a child-friendly Justice System in Africa“
2021	“30 years after the adoption of the Charter: accelerate the implementation of Agenda 2040 for an Africa fit for children“
2022	“Eliminating Harmful Practices Affecting Children: Progress on Policy & Practice since 2013″
2023	“The Rights of the Child in the Digital Environment“
2024	Education for all children in Africa: the time is now

DAC themes since 2002

Rationale for DAC 2025

“In 2010, the theme of the DAC was: “Planning and budgeting for children’s rights: a collective responsibility”. The commemoration of the DAC on this theme was informed by the various challenges the Committee observed on budgeting for children’s rights. The Committee noted that in addition to the lack of resources, the realization of children’s rights was faced by several factors that hinder the design and implementation of programs geared towards the protection and promotion of the rights and welfare of the child. Among these are: failure to take proper account of certain aspects of child protection in national programs, non- efficient use of resources, lack of participation of children in planning and budgeting for programs, lack of strategic information and statistical data and reliable target on the situation of children in some areas, poor coordination of programs, the lack of reliable financial records. The 2010 DAC aimed at exchange of ideas and experiences, reflection and advocacy in Africa on planning and budgeting that will promote a better improvement of living conditions of children in the continent.

The Committee decided that the year 2025 DAC will be commemorated under the theme “Planning and budgeting for children’s rights: progress since 2010”. The theme is aimed at assessing the level of progress achieved in mainstreaming a children’s issues in planning and budgeting by Member States of the AU and further encourage States to assess and reform their mechanisms of budgeting and planning to adopt a child rights-based approach.

The Committee notes from its engagement with Member States that budget for children has shown increase in most countries. However, children continue to face various challenges which call for additional and child sensitive budgeting. Africa still has high rates of child mortality, child malnutrition, stunting, wasting affecting their survival and development. Access to immunization has increased, yet there remain to be underserved areas with millions of children. Poverty remains to be an underlying factor that affects children and results in the violation of their rights such as child labour, separation from parents and caregivers, lack of access to basic services such as education and health. Moreover, the Continent is facing famine, pandemics, armed conflicts, natural disasters, and other emergencies that disproportionately affect children. Harmful practices such as child marriage, female genital mutilation as well as gender-based discrimination are violations of children’s right and often perpetuated due to poverty. Furthermore, children in vulnerable situations are more exposed to violence due to lack of sufficient programming for their specific needs such as children with disabilities, children in street situations, children separated from parents, and children from marginalised and remote areas.

The Committee notes the significant strides achieved by Member States of the African Union through legislative and other measures. To date 51 Member States have ratified the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. However, the implementation of the Charter is challenged by several factors including weak institutions and lack of resources. Planning and budgeting for children’s rights enables the needs relating to their fundamental rights to be considered in national processes, which is key to ensuring implementation of their rights in the Charter. Child sensitive planning and budgeting is highly impacted by lack of prioritisation of children’s issues on budget processes. African Countries tend to spend more on other priorities such as military and peace and security which result in less investment in children. Line ministries dealing with children’s issues are not politically placed in higher status as opposed to other ministries which impacts the amount of resource that will be allocated to their mandate. Ineffective management of national resources due to lack of sufficient regulatory frameworks and laws and administrative practices also affects children’s budget. Governments are obliged to ensure that there is an effective resource mobilisation and allocation through their fiscal and regulatory policies including tax laws. However, if such laws and policies are not child sensitive, they may have an adverse effect on children, for instance by increasing the price of goods and services consumed by children. Moreover, lack of proper regulation results in a loss of funds and resources through illicit flows or other factors. In addition, corruption which remains to be prevalent in the Continent affects child’s share of the national budget. More specifically, lack of accountability in the budget allocated for children coupled with lack of effective execution of the children’s budget to the right cause hinders the realisation of child sensitive budgeting and planning. Furthermore, children are not engaged in plans and budgeting processes concerning them which impacts the integration of their needs and views in decisions that impact their lives.

The Committee also notes that the demography of Africa calls for a compelling action to align planning and budgeting with child rights approach. In 2021, Africa had 650 million children and in 2023 it was estimated that Africa has 40% under 15 years population which is higher than the global average of 25%. By 2055, Africa will be home to around 1 billion children, or 40 percent of the world’s population. This demographic dynamic of Africa calls for increased investment on children to build a better future for the continent. The Committee also notes that Africa’s Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals of 2030 cannot be achieved without sufficient investment on children.
Moreover, Africa’s aspirations towards eradication of poverty, development of human capital, and economic growth cannot be realised unless investments are directed towards children. By investing in children today, States build a resilient economy, increase employment and productivity thereby increasing economic gains for countries. Moreover, by fighting unemployment and building a healthy and thriving society, States prevent causes for instability and conflict. Therefore, investing on children today is the key to achieving a prosperous, stable, and secure Africa.”