UNICEF expands role in Belize
The statistics are startling: thirty-three point five percent of our population in Belize is below the poverty line. When it comes to children that figure rises to thirty-nine percent. Those numbers come courtesy of the United Nations Children’s Fund, an organisation which is intent on helping countries like Belize focus on the most urgent issues affecting the rights of children and adolescents. In Belize this week is UNICEF’s Deputy Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Dr. Alfredo Missair. Missair says since his last visit two years ago, fundamental changes have taken place, especially in areas of cooperation between the government, civil society, and UNICEF. Now, the organisation is preparing to get down to the real work.
Alfredo Missair, Deputy Regional Director, UNICEF
“I have to say that we were at one point funding small projects with small funds scattered, a little bit here and there. At this point, we are really supporting, advising, guiding technically in working with the government in order to influence public policy, social policy that will favour children’s development in Belize. And that’s a fundamental change, because it makes more relevant we are not substituting for civil society, or NGOs or government. We are cooperating with government, civil society and all stakeholders: children themselves, which is the ones that needs really to participate and demand their rights and at the same time, work in order to fulfil a better future for themselves and the country.”
UNICEF is planning to use the National Plan of Action as the platform of its financial and technical support. The N.P.A. is based on a memorandum of understanding signed more than a year ago between the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition to develop public policies that would ensure the development of Belizean children in areas such as early childhood development, education, juvenile justice, and the prevention of HIV/AIDS. In addition to UNICEF and the government, the National Plan has had the involvement of the National Committee for Families and Children and District Youth Councils. According to UNICEF programme officer Roy Bowen, the final draft of the plan should be ready to go to Cabinet for approval in approximately one month.
Roy Bowen, Programme Officer, UNICEF Belize
“I think this plan is a very comprehensive plan, and when people see it they are going to see that it is going to encompass many of the areas we are talking about. Today when Alfredo was talking about some of the issues with poverty, some of the issues with health issues, that plan encompasses the education plan, the health plan, the child protection plan, HIV, sports, and culture so it’s a comprehensive plan. What we recognise would have to happen is the National Committee for Families and Children has approached us and said, okay, we need to develop an implementation plan for the N.P.A. because the N.P.A. is up to the year 2015. So we are going to provide technical assistance for the N.C.F.C. so that they will be able to come up with an implementation plan for those agencies that would implement, and also do an assessment of the capacity of those organisations. Because the idea is not only to get the plan but to ensure that children benefit from all the things that are listed there.”
While in Belize, Deputy Director Missair held meetings with the Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition, and government representatives including Ambassador Dolores Balderamos Garcia, C.E.O. in the Ministry of National Development Dr. Carla Barnett, and Dr. Paul Edwards of the Ministry of Health.
