UNICEF and Capri report flags gap between Jamaica child spending and outcomes

Kingston, 14 May 2026 — Jamaica’s public spending on children is substantial by international standards, yet poverty, service gaps, and weak learning results show that money alone is not delivering commensurate outcomes, according to a report launched on Thursday evening at the Wolmer’s Auditorium.

UNICEF Jamaica commissioned the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (Capri) to produce “Room for Improvement: The Gap between Public Spending and Child Outcomes in Jamaica,” described at the event as the most thorough review of child-focused public expenditure in roughly two decades. Olga Sasa, UNICEF’s representative in Jamaica, said the study draws on nine years of budget data across eight sectors and asks how much is spent on children, how it is composed, whether commitments appear in sustainable budget lines, and whether outcomes move with spending.

Sasa told the audience that Jamaica has protected social spending over the past nine years and allocates a children’s share of the national budget comparable with many high-income countries, with education treated as a priority and programmes such as PATH cushioning poverty, including during COVID-19. Even so, children remain poorer than the national average, with rural children worst off. Learning has not improved at the pace hoped, especially for boys, children with disabilities, and adolescents out of school, while gaps persist in mental health, child protection, nutrition, and housing.

A central finding is that Jamaica still lacks a routine system showing how much public expenditure actually reaches children. Budget data are not disaggregated by age or beneficiary group, and much spending labelled child-focused goes to compensation and core operating costs, leaving limited fiscal space for programme inputs. Capri executive director Damian King said the partnership aims to strengthen evidence for policy choices affecting a population that cannot vote.

The report’s nuanced conclusions include rising total education spending on children while operational budgets face pressure as wages absorb much of the investment; PATH demonstrating large-scale predictable support, with benefit levels and complementary services not always keeping pace with rising family costs; and progress in child protection and mental health that remains fragmented relative to need.

Sasa proposed exploring with the Ministry of Finance and the Planning Institute of Jamaica a national approach to tagging child-focused programmes in budget classification, strengthening publication of coverage, unit cost, and outcome data for major programmes, and reinforcing accountability where children are most vulnerable. She stressed these steps do not require new legislation overnight but a shared decision to make children visible in the budget.

Presenting early findings, Capri lead researcher Dr Diana Thorburn said Jamaica has averaged about 5% of GDP on education over three decades—spending levels comparable with wealthy, high-performing systems—yet outcomes lag. A child entering school today can expect about 11½ years of schooling but learns only the equivalent of seven, and Jamaica’s World Bank human capital index score of 0.53 implies a child born today may reach just over half of their productive potential by age 18. “We spend like a rich country, but we’re not getting the outcomes of one,” she said—the gap the report sets out to explain. Further panel discussion with ministry and development partners was scheduled after the launch.