The New Nation - Internet Edition

The Government of Bangladesh and UNICEF held the Mid-Term Review of the Country Programme of Cooperation for Bangladeshi Children and Women on 25th September which covers the five-year period from 2006 to 2010. The overall aim of the programme is the progressive realization of children's rights to survival, education, development, protection and participation. It also contributes to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in the country. The review was chaired by Mr. Md. Aminul Islam Bhuiyan, Secretary, Economic Relations Division (ERD) of the Ministry of Finance and included all line ministries involved in the joint cooperation programme. Mrs Frances Turner, UNICEF Deputy Regional Director for South Asia, Mrs Renata Dessallien, UN Resident Coordinator and Mr. Carel de Rooy, UNICEF Representative in Bangladesh also attended the meeting.

'The Government of Bangladesh was among the first few nations to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child', said Mr. Md. Aminul Isla Bhuiyan, Secretary, ERD. 'We are committed to put children first for all our development strategies and interventions as our children are our future. The GoB-UNICEF Country Programme provides a wider scope to materialize this national commitment through joint collaboration and interventions.

The 2006-2010 Country Programme contains five main interventions dedicated to children's rights, which includes: Health and Nutrition, Water and Environmental Sanitation, Education

Child Protection, Policy, advocacy and partnership. During the first half of the Country Programme, Bangladesh experienced two major floods and a cyclone. UNICEF's response was immediate and relief was brought to children and women in affected areas. In particular, UNICEF took the lead in coordinating the water and sanitation cluster and was co-leader of the education cluster as agreed internationally.

'The recent increase in prices of essential food commodities and the effects of climate change have created new challenges for Bangladesh, observed Carel de Rooy, UNICEF's Representative in his opening remarks. 'These along with the frequent natural calamities have pushed more people into greater vulnerability. UNICEF is committed to work closely with development partners and the Government on these issues during the remaining years of the Country Programme.'

The mid-term review meeting resulted in a fair assessment of the progress made, the constraints met and the way forward. At policy level, progress includes the current development of a National Neonatal Health Strategy and the launch of the National Strategy for Infant and Young Feeding. In the education sector, the Department of Primary Education adopted strategies for inclusive education that specifically address barriers encountered by girls, indigenous children, poor children and children with special needs. The Birth and Death Registration Act, which came into effect in 2006, represents a major step forward to ensure the registration of all children.

At implementation level, other progresses were noted such as:

· Full immunization coverage of one-year old children increased from 64% to 75% nationally from 2005 to 2007. In low-performing districts, the proportion of fully immunized children aged 12 months rose from 52% to 69%.

· Bangladesh has successfully eliminated Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus.

· Vitamin A supplementation programme is another success with 89% coverage of children aged 9 to 59 months.

· Access to sanitary latrines increased significantly between 2003 and 2006. However many of these latrines still do not match the recommended standard of 'improved sanitation facilities'.

· A total of 254,000 children have been enrolled in early learning centres.

· Net enrolment rate in primary education increased from 87% to 91%.

· Birth registration for children and adults increased from 7% in 2005 to 40% in 2008.

The review, however, expressed concern about the high prevalence of malnutrition among children with 46% of children under five being underweight. Maternal and neonatal mortality rates remain high. Quality education was also identified as a challenge with about half of the children enrolled in schools dropping out before reaching grade 5. Child labour is a widespread phenomenon in Bangladesh with 13% of children aged 5 to 14 years engaged in child labour. Child trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of children are serious problems, which have not yet been fully addressed. Family care practices, which are important determinants of child development and well-being, are still inappropriate. In general, poverty was found as an underlying cause for low access to care, services and information.

Three important recommendations are emerging from the review:

(i) Achievement of better synergy in the 14 convergence districts in order to increase the impact of the programme interventions

(ii) Support to models that are sustainable and can be easily replicated and scaled up

Need to ensure equity in all programmes as marginalized groups are still excluded from the progress made toward the fulfilment of children's rights in Bangladesh.

Ramzy Baroud

I was ecstatic as I read an email sent by a manager at a Canadian toy company. The company donates a large number of toys each year to inner city kids throughout North America, using various NGOs. A few years ago, they decided to ship several thousand toys to Palestinian children. They asked for my help.

The feeling of joy that I felt that day was unparalleled. Rarely do I experience in my job as a writer, whose main focus is war and conflict, this overpowering sense of elation. I had to tell someone that 11,000 toys would be shipped to Palestinian refugee camps before the Muslim holiday. This will certainly be a memorable Eid for so many children denied the simple pleasure of holding a teddy bear, or watching a toy police car running in circles with blazing sirens.

My friend, Mohammed, a reporter from Egypt, however, was not very impressed.

"Toys?" he asked with an irritated tone. "What Palestinian children need is weapons, to defend themselves," he exultantly explained, as various colleagues nodded their head with agreement.

His statement mixed truth with bizarre logic. True, Palestinian children needed to be protected, but to expect a child to further abandon his childhood and to carry a weapon was most cruel, insensitive.

I revisited the subject with my friend an hour later, this time armed with all sorts of print outs.

"The Convention on the Rights of the Child," I lectured, asserted that "every child has the inherent right to life…survival and development," that "children must be protected from 'injury or abuse, that "a child who is seeking refugee status or who is…a refugee … [shall] receive appropriate protection and humanitarian assistance."

He seemed equally unimpressed. Later that evening I found my friend with a shopping cart, loaded with toys, candies, and all the rest, as he and his entire family were cheerfully finishing their shopping for the Muslim holiday.

His children were eagerly pointing at every dazzling toy they find, and he, happily obliged.

I still wonder if he had ever figured out the irony in denying Palestinian children toys for the holiday and hauling, on the very same day, every toy his kids requested?

This episode took place several years ago, but I am still as resentful as ever, resentful of the notion that Palestinians, mostly in refugee camps, are entrusted with the daunting task of withstanding the awesome military might of Israel, entirely alone.

While some Arab media are tirelessly singing the praise of heroic Palestinians, the governments of these same countries are ensuring that the siege of Gaza is complete, that the 'punishment' of Palestinians is perfected, that starvation, misery and despair continue to prevail. This decade-long hypocrisy is symptomatic, and is inherit in the relationship between many Arab states and Palestinians: the 'guardians' of the Holy Land, those who resist, suffer and often die alone.

But even a child, in a most atrocious war zone is still a child. No matter how much fear and grief prevail in her life, she still longs for a toy monkey that flips around on the push of a button.

In fact, that was one of very a few toys that I have ever received growing up as a child in Gaza. The bond that grew between me and the flipping monkey was legendary.

I often checked on him, tucked neatly into a drawer in my mom's closet following every Israeli raid, before I left for school and when I came back. It gave me a sense of comfort amid a dreadful and terrifying life.

In Gaza, parents hardly worry themselves with such minor subjects as buying toys.

When flour and sugar are missing, rubber ducks and water guns can wait. For children however, even those who survive the most appalling violence, or even those who sustain an injury or a lifetime disability, only a teddy bear can bring a smile, only a toy monkey can somehow restore the sense of loss.

Palestinian children deserve to enjoy the edicts of UN conventions. Palestinian children don't need rhetoric nor wish to be designated as anyone's 'guardians' and 'heroes'; they need safety, security, protection and a promise for a better future.

When Playgrounds for Palestine - http://www.playgroundsforpalestine.org - was first founded by activist and writer, Susan Abulhawa, I remember thinking: this is the most thoughtful idea I have heard in a long, long time.

Abulhawa led a group of activists to the refugee camp of Jenin in 2002 and organized play workshops for the devastated camp's children, the organization and its founder grew in my eyes immeasurably.

It's easy to theorize endlessly about the 'violent tendencies' of Palestinian children, and sermonize incessantly of the need to send weapons to children, already battered by war and violence.

But, thankfully, there are those with the passion to understand that what Palestinian children need the most is their freedom, their milk, their school uniforms and supplies, their innocence, their giggles as they go down the slide of a jungle gym.

On November 23, Susan Abulhawa and I, joined by a few others, will be running the Philadelphia Marathon. Our goal is to raise 12,000 dollars to build a playground for Palestinian children. The organization has already erected several playgrounds throughout the Occupied Territories (it's also building three playgrounds in Lebanon's refugee camps and sending 152 soccer balls) that has served thousands of children. But more is needed, and we need your help.

(Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an author and editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His work has been published in many newspapers and journals worldwide. His latest book is The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People's Struggle (Pluto Press, London).)