RP receives P901-million grant from Australia

The Australian government, through the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has given the Philippines a P901.8-million grant to improve the lives of children in Mindanao.

According to Dr. Nicholas Alipui, UNICEF country representative, the agency intends to use the contribution to help "assisted areas" catch up with the rest of the country in "child well-being indicators."

"We are grateful to the government of Australia for its continued support to the Philippines Child-Friendly Movement to assist the most vulnerable children of the Philippines," said Alipui as he handed the Design Document to Australian Ambassador Tony Hely.

The contribution will benefit eight provinces and one city in Mindanao, and one province in the Visayas, particularly Agusan del Sur, Bukidnon, Maguindanao, North Cotabato, Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat, Sulu, Zamboanga del Sur, Davao City and Northern Samar.

"Our main focus is to reduce disparities, which means we will be focusing the Australian government’s assistance on the poorest barangays while making sure that the development process is participatory, builds local capacity and ownership for sustainability," he noted.

It is estimated that children under 18 years old account for 43 per cent of the population in these areas.

UNICEF records showed that children in these places tend to lag behind their counterparts in other parts of the country in terms of health, nutrition, education and protection.

And while the national infant mortality rate is 27 per 1,000 live births in 2003 , the rate is much higher in such places, especially Northern Samar (79), Sultan Kudarat (55), Bukidnon (53 and North Cotabato (51).

"All areas receiving Australian assistance have equal or higher levels of underweight children compared to the national average. Except for Davao City and the province of Agusan del Sur, all other focus areas have malnutrition rates higher than 30 percent," the agency said.

Some 15 percent of households in the assisted areas do not have sanitary toilets and access to drinking water. But the "worst-off" places are Sulu and Maguindanao where access rates were below 50 percent.

UNICEF maintained such areas are faring worse in education compared to national averages. "Primary school enrolment is below 90 percent in four of the assisted provinces while survival rates are below 70 per cent in all assisted areas except Davao City.

Records further showed that Maguindanao has the highest primary school dropout rate at 23 percent, followed by North Cotabato with 14.3 percent and Agusan del Sur with 13.6 percent.

UNICEF added that reports also indicated that massive trafficking is taking place in Southern Philippines, with many Filipino children being smuggled to Sabah, Malaysia.

Aside from this, sporadic armed conflicts have been affecting children, particularly in North Cotabato and Maguindanao.

Alipui said that from 1999 to 2004, the Australian government provided P451 million to UNICEF for children’s programs in the Philippines.