Unicef's Allen finds raising child welfare a marathon

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."