UNICEF Bangladesh organized a briefing session on Thursday to emphasize the critical importance of prioritizing children in fiscal planning for the FY2025-26 budget.
The event, held at the Meena Conference Room of UNICEF House in Dhaka, brought together journalists and development reporters to explore current trends and key priorities affecting children's well-being in the national budget context.
During the session, UNICEF presented data showing that Bangladesh continues to underinvest in key sectors that directly impact children. Education receives only 1.7% of the country's GDP and 11.9% of the total national budget-well below international recommendations. In health, the gap is even wider: only 0.7% of GDP is allocated, with actual spending even lower in past years. The situation in social protection is similarly concerning, with just 8% of allocations reaching children, despite them comprising one-third of the population.
Participants were also informed that budget implementation remains a major challenge. In FY2024, almost half of the development budget in both education and health remained unused. In FY2025, by the third quarter, only 29.1% of the education development budget and just 5% of the health development budget had been utilized.
UNICEF called for urgent action to address these gaps through strategic and timely investments. In education, this includes boosting funding for foundational learning, early childhood education, teacher development, and climate-resilient school infrastructure. In health, UNICEF urged the government to allocate at least 2% of GDP, with a focus on strengthening primary healthcare, ensuring uninterrupted medicine supply, and securing timely vaccine financing-warning of potential vaccine stock-outs by mid-2025 if no action is taken.
The need to enhance social protection systems was also emphasized. UNICEF recommended increasing support for pregnant women and children under five, particularly in urban slums and climate-vulnerable regions, and adjusting cash benefits to account for inflation. In child protection, UNICEF proposed the formation of a dedicated government department for children, the hiring of at least 10,000 trained social workers, and the rollout of virtual child courts and police helpdesks-initiatives that could be implemented with modest additional resources.
Speakers underscored the vital role of the media in holding policymakers accountable for how budget allocations are made and spent, especially at a time when fiscal space is tightening and parliamentary oversight is limited.
