not carried out during the law reform process while it is pertinent to consult; particularly in cases where society plays key role in implementation, such as in the case of the amendment of the Marriage Act. iv. Institutional measures and coordination: To address the institutional gap observed by the Committee at the time of the consideration of the Initial Report, the Committee has recommended for the establishment of a separate Ministry for children. In the absence of implementation this recommendation, the Committee is concerned that lack of coordination of child rights issues greatly affects the implementation of the Charter and the concluding observations in the State Party. The Committee particularly notes that the National Plan of Action for Children, which is the main coordination body for protection and promotion of child rights issues, but it is located within the Ministry of Health and Child Care; whereas most of the child rights and welfare issues including monitoring the Children’s Act falls under the mandate of the Ministry of Public Services, Labour, and Social Welfare. The Committee notes with concern, that this arrangement creates tensions and disconnections in the State Party’s activities on children’s rights; which, coupled with lack of the capacity to implement the National Plan of Action for Children by the Ministry of Health and Child Care adversely affects the full implementation of the African Children’s Charter in general and the Committee’s recommendations in particular. With regard to independent monitoring, the Committee was informed that the National Human Rights Commission has child rights as one of its 8 thematic areas and hence there is a Commissioner for child rights who leads the thematic area. VIII. Child Friendly Budgeting: During the various discussion, the Committee noted that there is no mechanism to ensure child friendly budgeting. The Committee was informed that the Ministry of Public Services, Labour, and Social Welfare, which deals with most of child rights and welfare issues, has only been listed once in the 5 Ministries that are prioritized in budget allocations. The Committee also notes that public investment on children is low in terms of services. For instance, the target of the Abuja Declaration on health budgeting is never met as only 5% of the total budget goes to the health sector. Beyond issues of budget allocation, the Committee observes that there is discrepancy between budget allocation and disbursement in sectors like education where there is relatively higher budget allocation. Likewise, Social Cash Transfers are not being transferred due to the fiscal challenge the State Party is going through, hence the allocation budget is not being consumed. Due to insufficient budget allocation, most programs and projects are supported by donor funding and hence not sustainable. A case on point that was brought to the attention of the Committee is the pre-trial diversion program which stopped after the pilot project supported by donor funding. 6