"On the contrary, this is the time to sustain and actually expand social investments."

She suggested that social protection programmes be made an integral part of government stimulus packages aimed at reviving economies. That would create jobs for teachers, healthcare workers and social workers, she said.

There are concerns that shrinking national budgets could force governments to cut back on social spending in areas such as health care, nutrition and education, potentially affecting a huge number of children, according to experts.

During the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis, Thailand's public health budget shrank by 9.0 percent and its education budget fell 6.0 percent, according to figures cited by UNICEF.

At that time, the infant mortality rate in Indonesia rose 14 percent.

In the Philippines, the immunisation rate fell nearly 15 percent and public health expenditure tumbled six percent, while school enrollment rates for children declined and the number of child labourers increased, UNICEF said.

Vivian Balakrishnan, Singapore's Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports, suggested refocusing on the social impact of the crisis.

"Remember that there are real human beings at the end of these numbers and this indicates real suffering," he said, referring to children likely to be affected.

Governments should get their priorities right, said Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School.

He cited data showing that the total cost of launching feeding programmes for malnourished schoolchildren worldwide would be six billion dollars a year.

The money may appear massive but it pales in comparison with the eight trillion dollars used by governments to bail out the world's richest banks over the past few months, he said.

"Eight trillion dollars is 8,000 billion dollars. We can find 8,000 billion dollars to bail out rich banks, but we cannot find six billion dollars to feed the children of the world. Something is very wrong here," he added.

Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati called on international financial institutions to increase lending for social programmes.

Developing countries previously depended on raising funds in the global bond markets to support projects targeted at the poor, but borrowing costs have become prohibitive, she told the conference.

Source-AFP
SRM