By: Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports
At the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Ms Anupama Rao Singh
Regional Director, UNICEF East Asia and the Pacific Regional Office,
Mr Kishore Mahbubani
Dean, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
National University of Singapore,
Excellencies
Colleagues
Friends
Introduction
I would like to extend a warm welcome to all participants of this regional conference on the impact of the economic crisis on our children. It is also not too late to wish everyone a Happy New Year.
Living in a time of economic uncertainty
2008 has not been a good year. We are all too familiar with the reports on the dire economic situation confronting the world. The Asian Development Bank estimates economic growth in developing Asia will slow to 5.8 % this year, from a likely 6.9% last year and 9% the year before. Here in Singapore, the Ministry of Trade and Industry expects the Singapore economy to grow by -2 to 1 percent this year.
Food prices have also been a source of concern. In a survey of over 140 countries in the middle of last year by International Monetary Fund, 78 countries reported a net increase in their fiscal costs due to the array of measures implemented in response to higher fuel and food prices. While the prices have declined somewhat in recent months, they remain high in many parts of the world, and threaten to push more people into poverty.
Whilst much of the current discourse seems focused on countries' economic resilience, I would suggest that an equally important focus ought to be on the social impact of this crisis, and in particular, its implications for children given their added vulnerabilities.
These concerns are very real. Let me share some statistics with you. It is believed that, if unaddressed, the recent crises could increase rates of maternal anemia in East Asia by 10-20 percent, increase the prevalence of low birth weight by 5-10 percent, and increase the overall under-5 child mortality in severely affected countries of Southeast Asia and the Pacific region by 3-11 percent. In 2007, the International Labour Organisation projected that almost 20 million children were vulnerable to becoming or would have become child workers in East Asia and Pacific by 2016.
Given these prospects, this conference is most timely.
Impact on Children
In the next two days, you will hear eminent international child development experts speak on cutting-edge research and best policy practices to frame our understanding of the impact of the crisis particularly in the areas of child health and nutrition, education, labor, and family income maintenance and to focus our region's attention to address these key concerns. Their presentations would illuminate the far reaching consequences of the crises on both governments and ordinary peoples and the key challenges ahead.
Their views would, undoubtedly, be informed by our countries' responses to the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis. Our responses, then, were varied whether in terms of overall budget for social spending or the overall budget allocation to social spending, as were the effects of these decisions on children in the region.
Countries' responses affected issues such as infant mortality rates and immunization rates, school enrolment and dropout rates and child labour rates in ways that we did not imagine. We have learnt various lessons from the past financial crisis in our capacities as government and non-government officials, as well as academics. These lessons paint for us a collective picture of the obstacles as well as the levers that can help us ensure the best social outcomes for our children in this current financial crisis.
Navigating the road ahead - Securing the future of our children
I thought it useful at this juncture to offer three key principles or operating parameters for us to consider as we work to synthesise the myriad of views and comments we will hear in the next two days.
The first is to acknowledge that we are all different. There is immense diversity in our peoples across the region and within our own countries. We are culturally, socially, economically and developmentally diverse. Across governments, our challenges, our priorities would also be different. This means that there can be no one panacea that will guarantee success in our road to securing the future of our children.
The challenge for us would be to develop as comprehensive a picture of the issues affecting our children in our own countries and across the region as possible, so as to better understand what is unique and what is similar, with a view to designing strategies for intervention.
Secondly, we need to recognise that our children are unique, as are their issues. Consequently, there is a need to focus on ensuring that we place our children at the core of what we do, and ensure that all our policies and practices are framed by what is best for the child. We must work together to find ways to make their concerns more visible. We must be committed to ensuring child centricity and a whole-child approach to policy and planning. Our commitments under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Singapore is a party to, and the Millennium Development Goals agreed upon by countries in 2000, are useful starting points.
Finally, and perhaps most important of all, we need to recognise that our children are our future - they are our partners in co-creating and designing the future. We need to move away from the old paradigm of them being passive recipients of our programmes and services and begin to see them as partners in the road to recovery. Investing in our children is the ultimate investment in our future.
Conclusion
Ultimately, the real impact that we will all make will be determined by the actions that we take beyond this conference. I am confident that our shared sense of responsibility amongst all countries will serve us well as we work to safeguard our children's interests and wellbeing.
It leaves me to thank the two key organisations who have worked tirelessly to make this event a reality - The Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and the East Asia and the Pacific Regional Office of the United Nations Children Fund, more commonly known as UNICEF. I wish you a fruitful conference. Thank you.
MCYS SPEECH NO: 01/2009
DATE OF ISSUE: 06/01/2009