UNITED NATIONS Acting Regional Co-ordinator, David Bowden, on Wednesday praised Jamaica for gains made in improving the welfare and well-being of children.
However, he added, a lot of work still needed to be done.
His comments came at a meeting at Le Meridien Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston on the Government of Jamaica/ United Nations Children Fund (GOJ/UNICEF) strategy paper for 2002 to 2006. The paper addresses the situation of children in Jamaica and strategies to improve the condition of the most vulnerable.
Mr. Bowden said gains had been made in reducing malnutrition, which declined by 4.7 per cent in 1999, and deaths from diarrhoeal disease, which has had a fatality rate of less than one per cent during the past five years. He also pointed to the eradication of poliomyelitis and improvements in immunisation coverage, which now stands at more than 95 per cent.
Mr. Bowen said gains have also been made in the area of early childhood education, where safety nets have been provided for the most vulnerable. "We eagerly await the enactment of the Child Support and Protection Act," he said.
Fatality rate
Areas of worry include the rate of vertical transmission of HIV/AIDS, he said, noting that mother to child transmission was the most common and that the case fatality rate among children under 10 for 1999 was 55.9 per cent. About 150 children under the age of 15 have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS, Mr. Bowen said.
He reported that severe under nutrition was still high among poor children and that about 40 per cent were suffering from iron deficiency anaemia.
Noting that social and economic changes over the years have had a negative effect on the world's children, Mr. Bowen said children had suffered the most from the ravages of war, hunger, malnutrition and HIV/AIDS. He said 200 million children suffer from chronic malnutrition globally.
Social capital
He congratulated UNICEF and the Jamaican Government for developing the strategy paper.
Special Envoy for Children, Ambassador Marjorie Taylor, expressed the hope that the strategy paper would influence discussions at the fifth Ministerial Meeting on Children and Social Policy for the Americas to be held in Kingston in October. Since the last meeting in 1990 a number of issues have emerged, she said.
"We have learnt to talk about social capital and children in economic terms. We have learnt that whatever happens to the 2-year-old will impact on the budget when the child is 17 or 18. Are we going to spend the money at two or build more prisons at 19?," she asked.
She urged civil society to be involved in the discussion of objectives set out in the document.
"Don't just participate in terms of criticisms but help to mould and frame the document so that it will be owned by all Jamaicans," she urged.
