UN Urges South Sudan To Consider Education In Austerity Measures The United Nations (UN) Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy has called on the government to consider education as vital despite the austerity measures it’s taking.15 March 2012 Radhika Coomaraswamy giving remarks in a previous function [©UN]By Lopu Moses JUBA, 15th March 2012 [Gurtong]
She was speaking to the press at the Juba Grand Hotel after meeting the president of South Sudan, H.E Salva Kiir Mayardit. Following the oil shutdown, the Government of South Sudan announced that it was deemed to carry out austerity measures as a solution to run the government which mostly depended on oil. “I told the President that education should be invested in by the government. Education should remain intact even if we are going to have the austerity measures,” she said. She also revealed that the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is working with the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare in partnership with the Demobilization and Disarmament Commission (DDR) to try and get funding for the children released by the SPLA. She also noticed the importance of educating the child soldiers who will be removed from their ranks. Given the high illiteracy rate in the country, she said that it will be important for the education sector not to be affected in the cutting of the budget. She observed that education is key for both sexes in this country. This comes after the SPLA signed an agreement and action plan with the SPLA to have a child-free army. She added that UNICEF is already working with abductees and that she intends to visit Jonglei where she will talk to the Murle and the Lou Nuer to chat ways on how resources can be mobilized. She also called for sensitization and protection of children in Jonglei. Radhika further noted that South Sudan has many challenges and said it will be “unfair to describe the south as a failed State” since it was declared independent a few months ago. She also announced the international community’s enormous will for South Sudan and that they are ready to help hoping that together South Sudan can be developed. With the UNMISS’s Humanitarian section’s prediction that millions of people will be hit by hunger in South Sudan, the Special Representative to the UN Secretary General said that the World Food Program is planning for contingencies. Posted in: Home, Education, Foreign Relations -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/SouthSudanKob?hl=en.
