DAKAR, 12 May 2009 (IRIN) - In an effort to safeguard and even bolster spending for children and health during a global recession, UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) opened a three-day forum on national poverty in Mali's capital, Bamako, on 12 May.

"Yes, the impact of the financial crisis is here and there will be even more [consequences] from it," the head of UNICEF's West Africa regional office, Gianfranco Rotigliano, told IRIN. "But keeping poverty under control is a way to avoid social [upheavals]." He told IRIN the temptation governments may face to cut public spending could be detrimental to children.

But it is not always apparent how much public spending goes toward children, Rotigliano added. "It is always difficult to trace public spending on children. It is highly bureaucratic. But the main focus and challenge is how to involve more local government actors to protect spending for children and health."

Africa's economies are expected to grow at half the rate they did in 2008, according to the African Economic Outlook 2009. The World Bank has warned of inevitable health fallouts in the world's poorest countries.

But despite dark economic indicators, Rotigliano said good governance and political will are valuable currencies. "If you have those two [elements], even if you are [economically] poorer than other countries, you can still achieve results." For poor countries with few natural resources, "their resources are their people," he added.

Bucking a regional trend, Mali's economy is expected to grow more than its 3.6-percent growth last year, reaching five percent in 2010, according to African Development Bank.

In January 2009 Mali's government approved nationwide mandatory health insurance with the care of the poorest 5 percent of the population to be subsidised by the government. Discussions on how to create the health assistance fund are on-going; two percent of the 12-million population currently pays into mutual health funds.

Mali finances 40 percent of its budget from outside revenue. 

Women and girls are hardest hit during economic crises, with women the first to become unemployed and girls more likely than boys to be malnourished, according to Overseas Development Institute.

Malnutrition rates of children in Mali have changed little in the past decade, according to UNICEF. Two out of every five children continue to suffer from stunted growth. Rural children and single-parent households fare the worst, according to recent UNICEF reports on Mali's regional disparities, the impact of food price increases, cash transfers and social protection.

These findings are going into a UNICEF comparative study of childhood poverty and disparities in 40 countries.

Of more than five million children in Mali under 15, eight out of 10 children face "severe deprivation" in at least one of seven areas studied, mostly commonly, housing and education.

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