SUNS  4324 Monday 16 November 1998

Bangkok, Nov 13 (IPS/Ron Corben) -- East Asia's financial crisis has set back the region's march towards economic prosperity and stability, unravelling the "economic miracle" that has made it the fastest growing region in the world.

Now, it is threatening to reverse widespread gains in child health, education and other basic services, say authorities.

Carol Bellamy, executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) says the consequences of the economic turmoil are "potentially devastating" especially for children.

Speaking at a UNICEF ministerial consultation here, Bellamy lamented how financial markets have gained a priority in "rescue" funding, at a time when 1.3 billion people - half of them children - still live in absolute poverty.

Bellamy said most were "denied access to even the most basic health and education services, to adequate food and nutrition, to safe water and sanitation."

"When the interests of the global financial markets are at stake, tens of billions of dollars are readily found to bail them out. But when it comes to the relatively modest amounts of money for basic services in countries where the need is greatest ....the world's response is far from adequate," she said on Thursday.

The UNICEF ministerial consultation in Bangkok is the fourth aimed at measuring progress in East Asia and Pacific in the goals for children adopted at the 1990 World Summit for Children.

Eight years ago world leaders set down commitments to achieving goals in the areas of health, nutrition, education, and child protection by 2000.

But after posting considerable gains, the economic crisis has awakened a sense urgency and fear as countries, such as Indonesia and Thailand, experienced major economic contractions.

Gains in child mortality, immunisation, reduced malnutrition, maternal mortality, even sanitation and basic education are threatened by budget cuts and growing unemployment.

"The current economic crisis is also emerging as a major threat to the gains made against child mortality, especially in Indonesia," said a UN report presented at the conference.

As health budgets are cut, present high immunisation levels are expected to decline, it said.

Malnutrition in the region, where some 33 million children "suffer from severe to moderate" levels of hunger, will remain even if there were rising incomes, the assessment report said.

"But a lack of access to adequate amounts of nutritious food is still a major cause of malnutrition in Indonesia and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," it added. Maternal mortality rates (MRR), which are already high, are also expected to deteriorate. "Approximately 40,000 women still die each year in the East Asia and Pacific region of causes related to pregnancy and child birth."

Thailand's UNICEF Ambassador, Anand Panyarachun, agreed the outlook had turned bleak. "Day by day the situation seems to deteriorate in many countries, with more mass layoffs announced and ever grimmer projections for the years ahead," he said.

"There are more poor than ever, more families and children in trouble, and more and more people who need help but cannot find it," he said at the conference which ends on Saturday. But whatever the economic situation, "it is only through investment in people, starting with children, that we can ensure our future", Anand said.

He said this required adequate investment in the development of human resources in order to redeem the "economic miracle".

"In addition, economic rescue packages should not be used to assist only the immaculately tailored, Mercedes-driving financiers who are in need of a bail-out, but rather the barefoot farmers who travel by water buffalo and the women and children of the rice paddies," he said.

Bellamy, meanwhile, said the economic distress gripping many countries has caused social and political repercussions, in some cases made worse by natural disasters, adding that "the economic outlook for the more distant future is at best uncertain".

"The consequences, especially for children, are potentially devastating."