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Does Brazil have enough schools for approximately 60 million youths? Does the government invest as much as it should in health and education projects destined for children and adolescents? Few are aware of the fact that both the Brazilian Constitution and the Child and Adolescent Statute establish that youths must be given absolute priority in the creation and execution of public policy in the areas of education, health, sanitation and housing. The State is also under legal obligation to promote the creation of efficient mechanisms for child and youth protection against abuse, violence and exploitation. After 10 years monitoring government spending in projects designed for children and adolescents, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) along with Brazil’s Abrinq Foundation and the Institute for Socio-Economic Studies (Inesc) have launched the book “De olho no Orçamento da Criança- Atuando para priorizar a criança e o adolescente no orçamento público” (With an eye on the budget for children – working to make children and adolescents a priority in government spending) in October. The book sets out a straight forward manner how the Brazilian population can demand increased resources for childhood or the reassignment of existing funds to more urgent problems. “With an eye on the Budget” was launched preliminarily October 17 during a meeting of the National Council on Child and Adolescent Rights (Conanda) and the next day in the Brazilian Congress with the support of the Parliamentary Front on the Rights of the Child. The book is split into two parts: the first explains the functioning of the public budget and provides equations for determining the actual parcel of funds destined to youth projects. The second part shows how civil society can keep track of government spending, take part in designing the budget, and even monitor its spending. It is a methodology that has already been successfully in use in pilot projects developed by different institutions such as the Luiz Freire Cultural Center (CCLF) in the State of Pernambuco, the Child and Adolescent Defense Center (Cedeca) in the State of Ceará, and the Polis Institute in São Paulo. International Goals According to UNICEF’s adjunct representative in Brazil, Manuel Buvinich, the publication hopes to provide the necessary tools for stimulating members of civil society, the media and even the common man to exert what was termed as “social control” over the government’s budget. “Lack of information on public spending and especially on funds destined for children is one of the reasons this topic receives little attention from the general public. We need to train communicators and specialized journalists. The great challenge ahead of us it so monitor information on budget and spending in a way that is easy and significant,” said Buvinich. According to the book, the Brazilian government plans to spend until the year 2010 only 56% of the funds necessary to reach international goals in children’s needs, goals the nation has agreed on in the United Nations. Further information (in Portuguese): Fundabrinq, Inesc and UNICEF