In late 2022, Parliament’s Finance Committee granted separate funding to the National Child Strategy for 2023-2024 for piloting child-oriented budgeting. The funding is intended for the development of activities in wellbeing services counties. The goal is to get three welfare areas involved in implementing the pilot.Applications for the government grant for child-oriented budgeting can be submitted between 4 and 25 May 2023.

Child-oriented budgeting means that the central government budget is examined from the perspective of the rights of the child. It involves monitoring budget expenditure, i.e. child-oriented budget analysis, as well as assessing the impact of budgetary decisions on children.

Child-oriented budgeting has become a new way of looking at public funds over the past few years. Child-oriented budgeting is about the realisation of children’s rights. It provides information that can be applied to the long-term allocation of funds for children and young people in a fair and effective manner. Child-oriented budgeting is part of child impact assessment.

Three wellbeing services counties to take part in the pilot project

Applications for the government grant for child-oriented budgeting can be submitted between 4 and 25 May 2023. The aim is to make decisions in summer so that the project can get under way in early autumn. The pilot is managed by the National Child Strategy, and the Finnish Committee for UNICEF has provided coordination resources. Mikael Malkamäki, specialist in the Child Friendly Cities Initiative, will act as the pilot coordinator from May until the end of 2023.

Malkamäki is looking forward to the upcoming pilot: “A lot of high-quality preparatory work has gone into developing child-oriented budgeting in Finland in recent years. Now we can start the practical work with the selected wellbeing services counties. I expect the pilot to make use of the resources more effectively and to promote knowledge management, especially to promote the rights of children.”

Links to publications related to child-oriented budgeting:

• Child-oriented budgeting in municipalities and wellbeing services counties, and the monitoring and reporting of outturn data: Report by rapporteurs (in Finnish, valtioneuvosto.fi)
• Children’s opinions about the use of public funds (in Finnish, valtioneuvosto.fi)
• Better decisions through child impact assessment – Child impact assessment, child-oriented budgeting and children and young people as providers of information in wellbeing services counties (in Finnish, valtioneuvosto.fi) 
• Better decisions in municipalities through child impact assessment (in Finnish, valtioneuvosto.fi)
• Children’s rights – Child impact assessment and child-oriented budgeting as tools (in Finnish, eOppiva.fi)

Further information:

Laura Kuusio,National Child Strategy, laura.kuusio@gov.fi, tel. +358 295 163 352

• Government funding for piloting child-oriented budgeting (in Finnish, stm.fi) 
• The child-oriented budgeting pilot is one of the first tasks of the National Child Strategy Unit (in Finnish, stm.fi) 

• Keywords: child strategy