The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and Child Development Accounts: Making Them Work for Children in Institutions

Child Development Accounts (CDAs) are an innovative public financing mechanism used to build monetary assets for a child’s post-secondary education costs. CDAs are government-funded individual savings or investment accounts automatically set up for each child at birth and made available when a child turns 18. Country-specific implementation of CDAs has revealed both the uplifting economic effects on families with children as well as positive psychological impacts on children of asset building itself. CDAs must be designed to comply legally with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) enumeration of children’s rights, including its anti-discrimination provisions, when a country is a State Party to the treaty. To align with the UNCRC, national CDA laws must guarantee three essential principles: (1) Provide for universal access for all children within a State Party country; (2) Establish progressive, public funding for CDAs, which means funds are subsidized based on need; and (3) Open the accounts immediately upon a child’s birth and provide investments throughout childhood. Applying these principles will ensure that all children, including those living in institutions without family care, will have equal access to CDAs. State Parties must apply the UNCRC’s legal prohibitions against discrimination to children in institutional care so that they too may benefit from the CDA method of financing post-secondary education. • Child Development Accounts (CDAs) are for post-secondary education • CDAs must comply with U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child • CDAs should be universal, progressive, and opened upon child’s birth • Children in institutions must have equal access to CDAs