Unicef's Allen finds raising child welfare a marathon

Allen finds raising child welfare a marathon

David Kennedy Contributor Jakarta d_kenn@yahoo.com

When Steven Allen talks about improving the survival prospects and quality of life for Indonesia's most vulnerable citizens it is clear that he is not deterred by unfavorable odds.

The 51-year-old head of the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) in Indonesia came to Jakarta last year via some of the world's most infamous war zones and famine-hit areas -- Rwanda, Zaire, ex-Yugoslavia, Ethiopia and Sudan to name a few.

What brought him to Jakarta?

"Oh, palm trees and heat," he joked to The Jakarta Post during a recent interview.

Oxford born Steven Allen got into the field of humanitarian aid and child welfare almost by accident. Within a week of graduating from the London School of Economics in 1974 he was on a plane to Ethiopia in search of adventure, planning to become a journalist.

"I had delusions of grandeur and thought I'd write the definitive story of the 1974 famine," he said, recalling how he was impressed by the work of development agencies when he arrived and soon abandoned his journalistic aspirations.

He started work for a British humanitarian organization, Oxfam, and then as a UN volunteer in Sudan, before joining Unicef in 1977.

"My first task with Oxfam put me into the humanitarian relief mode with a bump. It was in a relief camp for displaced people who'd come from the worst hit famine areas. They were in a desperate state, starving and sheltering under marquee tents.

"The rains had just arrived and the tents were collapsing under the volume of rain. My job was to go with a team and convince these extremely sick and weakened people to temporarily leave the tents while we re-pitched them."

Nowadays he admits to spending less time working on the ground and more in dealing with resource and policy issues. He sees Indonesia as a natural progression from his previous postings as it combines both humanitarian and development work.

Unicef administers US$23 million per annum in development aid to Indonesia on projects ranging from improving the quality of schools and access to education to immunization, nutrition, health promotion and child protection as well as relief aid to displaced people in conflict areas.

"Most of what we do in Indonesia is about getting systems to work," he said.

Education is seen as a primary tool for lifting children out of the cycle of poverty but there are many obstacles which can prevent them from completing basic studies.

Although attendance in the country's primary schools is high at 95 percent, the drop-out level rises rapidly after the age of 13 years. Only about 60 percent of children go on to secondary schools. Poverty is a factor influencing this as families often cannot afford to send children to school. However other factors are also at work.

"We see an alarming level of early marriage taking place at 15 or 16 years of age which means girls leave school. One of the crucial reasons for keeping them in school as long as possible apart from education is that it will postpone marriage and will help to postpone the first pregnancy," he said.

He added that early pregnancies contribute to high maternal and infant mortality as well as perpetuating a cycle of ill health and poverty.

Keeping children in school is only half the battle. Raising teaching standards is also crucial to increase the employability of students once they leave school.

"Quality is a problem. It's a well known fact that Indonesia scores very low in terms of maths and science -- it is among the bottom 15 percent in Asia. There is a need to invest more in teachers and involve communities in managing schools."

Parents also have an important role to play as a recent Unicef survey showed that mathematics and science, crucial to the economic leverage of a society, ranked low in their list of priorities for their children's schooling.

"Parents were asked to name the most important subject in schools (state schools) and 100 percent replied 'religion'. Maths and science came around fourth of fifth place."

Apart from working with NGOs, local authorities and schools to improve education facilities Unicef also lobbies central and local government to implement laws on children's rights.

Indonesia has introduced legislation to protect children from abuse, exploitation and discrimination but Allen said much of it has yet to be enacted.

Only an estimated 40 percent of children under the age of five have birth certificates. This means that statistics on child poverty are based on projections of population sizes and lack details of migratory effects and regional disparities.

"Child labor is a problem. Children are employed on fishing platforms, working with hazardous chemicals or in quarrying and shoe making," he said. He added that the juvenile justice system was also a major concern as children tend to be imprisoned in adult jails for minor offenses.

"In many areas to do with the protection of children the legislation and policies are there, whether it is about child protection, child labor or the sexual exploitation of children, but the implementation is not."

Allen argues that concerted action on implementing laws is hindered by the decentralization process which requires regulations to be adopted separately by all levels of government right down to local level.

"It's slow and cumbersome and child protection may not necessarily be the highest priority so there is a constant advocacy process that needs to be taken to the district level. It's extremely time consuming and labor intensive as authorities have to meet and discuss the issues. The government cannot just send a letter."

Cultural sensitivities also hinder efforts to protect children which Unicef defines as young people from 0 to 18 years of age.

"HIV/AIDS is essentially transmitted among the young. In a survey in 2001 about 84 percent said they knew nothing about AIDS," he said adding that a subsequent short-lived advertising campaign had a major impact on raising awareness until it was stopped because of fears that it would promote promiscuity and sex outside of marriage.

"There is a certain schizophrenia which needs to be overcome. I think the policy makers are aware of it but are in a dialogue with more conservative elements of society on how to formulate the message."

Alarming levels of infection among intravenous drug users have also yet to be addressed. Unicef figures suggest that levels of HIV/AIDS among this group have risen from 14 percent in 1999 to 54 percent in 2003.

According to Allen other countries, which had a similar phenomenal rise in numbers infected, have introduced successful harm reduction measures such as distributing clean needles.

"But that's something that Indonesia is not prepared to move to yet as it's seen as legitimizing an illegal activity."

When asked whether he is optimistic about the future for children in Indonesia his reply is upbeat and diplomatic as you would expect from an experienced career civil servant.

He sees "the cross cutting issue of governance" as the main source of difficulty in implementing laws to protect children.

"There needs to be implementation of legislation, follow up, monitoring and as necessary sanctions against people who are not in line with the law whether its related to illegal logging or something as seemingly benign as the iodization of salt," he said referring to the government's commitment to raise the consumption of iodine in the country which can lower health and mental deficiencies in mothers and infants.

"There's so much work to be done in implementing improvements for the survival of children, for their development and their protection and to get the policies formulated down to the village level."

"I am optimistic but it's a marathon -- not a sprint."