Social Spending Monitor

Protecting and Transforming Social Spending
Amid COVID-19 for Inclusive Recoveries

Realizing all children’s rights does not come for free. To achieve this indispensable goal, careful planning and budgeting are needed. By collaborating with key partners, UNICEF’s Public Finance for Children work seeks to enhance the transparency, quality and size of public spending on children, to ensure that even the most disadvantaged children are supported.

The emerging global economic crisis threatens to decimate progress made on social spending for children in recent years. Even before the pandemic, social sector spending in most countries was grossly inadequate to address the challenges and inequalities most children faced. Experience from past crises shows that social spending works to protect children. UNICEF Innocenti’s new publication series with UNICEF's Programme Division monitors, advocates for, and supports better social spending.

Each quarter, the series takes a deep dive into a pressing issue affecting social spending. These focused reports include case studies from countries around the world.

COVID-19 and the looming debt crisis

Compounding the COVID-19 pandemic is a looming debt crisis for low- and middle-income countries where a growing debt burden threatens to crowd out social spending for children.

This policy brief explores whether the current support from the international community is enough to maintain spending on basic services during COVID-19. It highlights countries that are most at risk due to high levels of poverty, as well as those less likely to benefit from the G20 Debt Standstill (DSSI). It concludes that a new international debt restructuring architecture, which encompasses the needs of poorer countries, is crucial to protecting children’s rights in the wake of COVID-19.

Download the Debt Crisis report

 

COVID-19 and Shrinking Finance for Social Spending

In the wake of COVID19, investing in education, health, and social protection is key for every child to thrive. However, many low- and middle-income countries struggle to prioritize social spending on education, health, and social protection.

This policy brief is the second in a series that assesses key issues affecting social spending as part of UNICEF’s work on Public Finance for Children. The brief examines how recent trends are impacting on the financing available for, and directed to, social spending in low- and middle-income countries in different regions, using secondary analysis of public expenditure data collected by international organizations.

Download the Social Spending report

 

 

Monitoring the Social Costs of Climate Change for Low- and Middle-income Countries

This policy brief is the third in a series that assesses key issues affecting social spending as part of UNICEF’s work on Public Finance for Children. It aims to add to the understanding on of what climate change means for social sector budgets, and the extent to which social sectors are being prioritized in the climate response.

Social sectors face rising climate-related costs but positive opportunities to raise the required additional financing required remain. These include: leveraging green technologies; reforming energy subsidies and harnessing green financing initiatives.

Download the Social Cost of Climate Change report

Monthly reports track social spending, highlight any updates, provide key messages on social spending, and identify opportunities for improvements. An accompanying dataset, updated each month, details the financial response to COVID-19 by country. 28 countries will be added each month (four countries from each of UNICEF's seven regions), starting with the poorest countries in each region.

Download the dataset