UNICEF and the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) 2018 - What it means for children in South Africa

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is encouraged that the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) represents the first major government policy statement since 2012 which does not further decrease the spending ceiling available to national, provincial and local governments. This critical policy statement recognises that constant expenditure cuts might be counterproductive and commits the country to better utilise existing resources by reprioritising spending to where it is needed most. More than R32 billion of government spending will be reprioritised over the next three years, and there are important gains for children. These gains include:

Challenges facing children’s budget programmes:

UNICEF recommendations for the 2019 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework:

Recognising that investment in children’s services takes time to produce tangible results, UNICEF calls on the government to continue its long-standing commitment to children’s services and programmes and where possible, expand service provisioning, especially for the poorest and most marginalised children.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of UN Information Centre in Pretoria (UNIC).