• Child-Friendliness Index

Most governments in Africa have formally acceded to the relevant international treaties on children. However, the extent of their commitment varies widely, and the gap between promises and reality remains wide in many countries. This raises several interesting questions: which governments are striving to meet their obligations to children and which ones are not? What accounts for difference in government performance? How do governments rate in relation to one another? How do we measure government performance?

In response to these questions, The African child Policy forum (ACPF) developed a pioneering approach to review, analyse and measure government performance in realising child rights and child wellbeing. The approach seeks to quantitatively assess the extent to which governments live up to their commitment through a child-friendliness Index which scores and ranks the performance of all African governments. The results and analyses are reported in a report just published by ACPF, The African Report on Child Wellbeing 2008: How child-friendly are African governments? The analysis and results from this report provide critical policy-oriented information and a policy compass which governments can use in initiating and implementing legal and budgetary reforms aimed at improving the wellbeing of children. This note provides a brief description of the philosophical and analytical foundations of the framework used for measuring government performance and analysing policies.