SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS OF CHILDREN AND WOMEN IN TWELVE COUNTRIES OF THE CARIBBEAN
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Acronyms
Executive Summary
CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND CHILDREN’S RIGHTS IN THE CARIBBEAN
Economic Constraints, Poverty and Children’s Rights …………………… 1
Cultural Constraints to Child Development and Rights …………………. 2
Child Rights, the CRC and UNICEF……………………………………… 3
The Realisation of Children’s Rights ……………………………………... 4
UNICEF/CAO Situational Analysis……………………………………… 5
POPULATION, GOVERNMENT, ECONOMY AND SOCIETY
Demographic Profile ……………………………………………………… 10
Assessment ………………………………………………………. 12
The State and Governance ………………………………………………… 13
Assessment ………………………………………………………. 14
Economy, Social Development and Poverty ……………………………… 14
Assessment ………………………………………………………. 23
Employment and Work …………………………………………………… 24
Assessment ………………………………………………………. 26
CHILDREN AND FAMILY LIFE
The Image and Value of Children…………………………………………. 26
Patterns of Socialisation ………………………………………………….. 27
Family and Household Composition……………………………………. 27
Assessment ……………………………………………………….. 30
THE CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD (CRC)
Ratification and Implementation ………………………………………….. 32
The CRC and UNICEF ……………………………………………………. 33
Assessment ………………………………………………………… 33
SURVIVAL, DEVELOPMENT, PROTECTION, PARTICIPATION
SURVIVAL: HEALTH, NUTRITION AND WELL-BEING………… 34
Water, Sanitation and Waste Disposal……………………………………. 34
Child and Adolescent Health……………………………………………… 35
HIV/AIDS Infection ……………………………………………………… 40
Adolescent Health, Sexuality and Well-being …………………………… 43
Assessment ……………………………………………………… 48
DEVELOPMENT: CHILDREN’S EDUCATION…………………… 50
Equal Educational Opportunity ………………………………………… 50
Early Childhood Education (ECE) ……………………………………… 51
Primary Education ……………………………………………………… 55
The Common Entrance Examination (CEE) …………………………… 58
Secondary Education …………………………………………………… 59
Secondary School Examinations ……………………………………… 61
Tertiary Education ……………………………………………………… 62
Adult Literacy …………………………………………………………… 64
Inequalities in Education ………………………………………………… 64
- Rural/Urban Disparities ………………………………………… 64
- Gender Disparities ……………………………………………… 65
- The Feminisation of Education ………………………………… 67
Physical Conditions in Schools ………………………………………… 67
Special Education ………………………………………………………… 68
Assessment ………………………………………………………. 68
PROTECTION: CHILDREN ‘AT RISK’ ……………………………. 71
Child Labour …………………………………………………………….. 71
Street Children …………………………………………………………… 72
Children of Migrant Parents ……………………………………………… 73
Child Abuse and Neglect ………………………………………………… 74
Domestic Violence ………………………………………………………. 77
Pregnant Teenage Girls ………………………………………………….. 78
Children of Indigenous Minority Groups ………………………………… 80
Children with Disabilities ………………………………………………… 81
Children in Institutions ……………………………………………………. 82
Juvenile Offenders ………………………………………………………… 84
Assessment ……………………………………………………….. 86
PARTICIPATION: CHILDREN’S RIGHTS, THE LAW
AND SOCIETY………………………………………………………….. 88
Children and the Law …………………………………………………….. 88
Children’s Rights and Participation ……………………………………… 93
Assessment ………………………………………………………………. 95
ANALYSIS ……………………………………………………………… 96
CONCLUSION………………………………………………………….. 107
APPENDICES
I. Reported AIDS Cases …………………………………………… 111
II. The Ladder of Child Participation …………………………………….. 112
REFERENCES …………………………………………………………. 113
LIST OF ACRONYMS
ADP Adolescent Development Programme (Trinidad and Tobago)
AIDS Acquired Immunodeficiency Virus Syndrome
ARI Acute Respiratory Illness
BVI British Virgin Islands
CAREC Caribbean Epidemiology Centre
CARICOM Caribbean Community
CCA Common Country Assessment
CEE Common Entrance Examination
CDB Caribbean Development Bank
CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
CFNI Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute
CRC Convention on the Rights of the Child
CXC Caribbean Examination Council
DPT Diptheria, Pertussis, Tetanus
ECE Early Childhood Education
EFA Education for All
EU European Union
GDP Gross Domestic Product
GER Gross Enrolment Ratio
HDI Human Development Index
HFLE Health and Family Life Education
IDB Inter-American Development Bank
IMR Infant Mortality Rate
MICS Multi-Indicator Cluster Survey
MMR Maternal Mortality Rate
MMR Measles, Mumps, Rubella
NGO Non-Governmental Organisation
OECS Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States
PAHO Pan American Health Organisation
PAM Programme for Adolescent Mothers (Grenada)
PAREDOS Parent Education for Development in Barbados
PQLI Physical Quality of Life Index
PTA Parent Teacher Association
SERVOL Service Volunteered for All (Trinidad and Tobago)
SitAn Situational Analysis of Children and Women
STI/STD Sexually Transmitted Illnesses / Diseases
TCI Turks and Caicos Islands
UNDAF United Nations Development Assistance Framework
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund
UWI University of the West Indies
VET Vocational Education and Training
WHO World Health Organisation
WSC World Summit for Children
WTO World Trade Organisation
YTEPP Youth Training Employment Partnership Programme (Trinidad and Tobago)
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1. This Situational Analysis of children and women in the twelve programme countries (Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos) of the Caribbean Area Office of UNICEF has drawn on existing published data, qualitative and quantitative, to provide an assessment of the achievements and problems in four main areas: Survival (health, nutrition and wellbeing), Education and Development, the Protection of children in specially difficult circumstances, and Participation. It also presents an analysis which identifies the immediate and underlying causes of the major problems in these areas, preparing the groundwork for UNICEF’s strategic planning and programmatic interventions for the period 2003-2007.
2. The preparation of the Situational Analysis adopted a participatory methodology for data collection, but faced several challenges including
· Time and resource constraints
· Difficulties in accessing the data and delays in data retrieval and submission
· The inadequacy of the databases in relation to children
· The problem of balancing general regional perspectives with national specifics of the twelve participating countries.
3. The governments of the twelve Programme countries have taken many initiatives to maintain and improve children’s (and women’s) rights, including the ratification of the CRC and CEDAW, the establishment of national mechanisms to coordinate child rights issues, law reforms and improvements in the situation of children in terms of access to basic social services.
4. These include the following:
Survival
· The expansion of water and sanitation services to the majority of the population including those in rural areas
· Significant declines in infant and maternal mortality rates
· Near universal immunisation
· Control of communicable diseases
· Virtual elimination of chronic malnutrition
· Declines in adolescent fertility.
Education and Development
· The achievement of near universal primary education
· Investments in Early Childhood Education, Care and Development
· Expansion in secondary school and tertiary educational provisions
· Syllabus expansion to include technical and vocational education and Health and Family Life Education (HFLE)
· Teacher training
· Non-fee paying schooling and subsidies for children in need.
Protection
· Provision of children’s homes and social work services for children in need of special care and protection
· Legislation to protect children and women and initiatives to establish Family Courts
· More sensitive and accurate data collection on child abuse and domestic violence
Participation
· Reforms in family and employment laws to support the protection and rights of women and children
· Some evidence of efforts by governments and civil society to facilitate the participation of youth in decision-making.
5. Although most Programme countries have achieved modest macro-economic gains:-
· expenditure and investments in basic social services remains relatively unchanged
· there are systemic weaknesses in social policy and planning and in social service delivery
· there is relatively poor understanding and appreciation of the importance of social policy and development
· and poverty and vulnerability are increasingly evident among ‘at risk’ groups of children and youths.
6. Four critical problem complexes concerning Caribbean children and youths have emerged from the Situational Analysis and must be targeted in research, policy and programmatic interventions:-
· Early Childhood Education, Care and Development (ECECD)
· Child Abuse, Exploitation and Violence
· Adolescent Reproductive Health, Sexuality and HIV/AIDS
· Adolescent Empowerment and Participation
7. The Situational Analysis revealed two major general areas of focus for the agenda for children in the Caribbean:-
· To ensure that all children and youths are empowered as citizens and subjects of rights to participate fully and consistently in their own development
· To ensure that those children and youths who are vulnerable and ‘at risk’, who are the principle victims of poverty and the disparities in the social system, are provided with the quality of life to which they have a right; to ensure that they have a future.
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CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND CHILDREN’S RIGHTS IN
THE CARIBBEAN
Despite progress and development, children are at riskThe impact of economic recession on child development
Perceptions of ‘the Child’
The silencing of children
The CRC’s new mandate for children
The emphasis on childrens’ rights and participation
Satisfaction of basic needs but evidence of regression and resistance to children’s rights
Caribbean children ‘at risk’
The meaning of children’s rights
The global agenda of children’s rights
The Caribbean
Situational Analysis:
Coverage
… Content, and Focus,
… and Methodology / Economic constraints, poverty and children’s rights
The countries of the Caribbean region present a commendable record of political stability, good governance, economic growth and social development. Basic indicators of health, nutrition, education and welfare reflect a level of progress that has, in general, been maintained and improved. But children and their priorities and rights remain virtually invisible on the national agenda for development. Where they are mentioned it is as passive beneficiaries of social services and socialisation in preparation for adulthood. Children, as children, are not seen as subjects of human rights.
While basic indicators of child development in the Caribbean in terms of provision and protection are generally satisfactory, there are no grounds for complacency. The countries of the region have not been immune to the economic reverberations of the ‘lost decade’ of the 1980s. Several had no alternative but to implement stabilisation and structural adjustment programmes, with little in the way of a human face, cutting back drastically on State provisions in health, education, housing and welfare (Jolly and Cornia 1984, Jolly and Mehrotra 1998, Girvan 1997). Recovery has been slow and constrained by the global environment of economic recession, the demands of debt servicing obligations, declines in ODA, and persisting poverty.
There is also emerging evidence of persistent poverty, a deterioration in the quality of life of children and adolescents, increased exposure to abuse and exploitation, and the violation of children’s rights especially among special groups of children ‘at risk’ and in need of special protection. Children bear the brunt of economic crisis: “it is the young child who is paying the highest of all prices, and who will bear the most recurring of all costs, for the mounting debt repayments, the drop in export earnings, the increase in food costs, the fall in family incomes, the run down of health services, the narrowing of educational opportunities” (UNICEF 1989:2).
Many countries of the region have not managed either to achieve or to reinstate budgetary provisions to match the 20/20 initiative. Public sector responsibility for social development and child welfare has been reduced. With unemployment rates relatively high and in some cases rising, especially among women and youth, family incomes have not kept pace with increasing costs of living. While civil society and NGOs, families and communities make every effort to spread scarce resources and to ensure social well-being, there is growing evidence of an impoverished quality of life for those persons most ‘at risk’ and vulnerable, children in particular.
Cultural constraints to child development and rights
Fundamental barriers to the implementation of children’s rights are also evident at a country specific level in traditional ideologies of childhood and the accompanying resistant cultural practices which are, in turn, sanctioned in local legal, religious and political systems. Where children are perceived as dependent, incapable minors, as the property of their parents and as the passive beneficiaries of social protection and welfare provisions as they wait to grow up, then the implementation of children’s rights is invariably compromised.
The Western orthodox model which sentimentalises childhood has been exported world wide. It promotes the idea that children, as immature minors, have neither the capacity nor the need to express opinions or to participate in decisions affecting their lives. Children are to be seen and not heard and adults must assume responsibility as compassionate, altruistic role models who speak and act on their behalf. But, this model which juxtaposes childhood innocence and adult benevolence also assigns to parents, teachers and other adults the right to exercise authority and control beyond the level required to socialise and protect children. It also silences children, limits their participation to token ceremonial activity and reinforces dependency and social exclusion.
This SitAn exposes a Caribbean environment in which there are few examples of projects and programmes that allow the voices of children to be heard and their participation to be realised. If anything, the contrary practices of silencing and controlling children are reaffirmed. The prevailing public perception of increasingly deviant and disruptive children in the home, school and community, an image sensationalised in media reports, provokes a reflex reaction which sanctions greater control and policing. This, in turn, reinforces authoritarian adult-child relations and conventional practices and policies of corporal punishment, institutionalisation and incarceration, rather than the empowerment and self-determination so central to the realisation of children’s rights. Other than an occasional token voice or appearance, Caribbean children continue to be excluded from active participation in shaping their own lives.
Children’s Rights, the CRC and UNICEF
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) provides the vision and mandate for the advocacy and operational activities of UNICEF. The CRC stands as a landmark in the international debate and platform of activities for the world’s children. Universally adopted by the UN General Assembly in November 1989, the ensuing enthusiastic ratification of the CRC by UN member states was unprecedented in the history of international human rights instruments. All Caribbean countries included in this SitAn had signed and ratified by the end of 1993.
The children’s rights enshrined in the 54 articles of the CRC are comprehensive and represent internationally accepted minimum standards. They speak to four fundamental principles, namely non-discrimination, the best interest of the child, right to life, survival and development and respect for the views of the child. The articles have been summed up as the ‘3 Ps’ of the CRC, namely provision, protection and participation. The innovative feature of the CRC is the emphasis on the participation of children in decision-making concerning their own lives. Previous declarations focused attention on child welfare, summed up as the provision of health, education and various additional forms of welfare, and the protection of children from harm, abuse and exploitation. The CRC adds to this the promotion of children’s rights