CRC/C/15/Add.216 page 3 Coordination and national plans of action 10. The Committee welcomes the adoption of New Zealand’s Agenda for Children and the Youth Development Strategy in 2002. However, the Committee shares the State party’s concern that coordination of policies and services for children is still insufficient. 11. The Committee recommends that the State party establish a permanent mechanism to coordinate activities by all actors and stakeholders implementing the Convention, the Agenda for Children and the Youth Development Strategy. Sufficient financial and human resources should be allocated to ensure that they are fully implemented and effectively coordinated. Independent monitoring 12. The Committee notes the efforts to strengthen the Office of the Commissioner for Children and welcomes the Office’s activities for children, as well as the activities of the National Human Rights Commission. However, the Committee is concerned about the possibility of duplication of activities between the National Human Rights Commission and the Office of the Commissioner for Children, and that the latter does not have sufficient resources to carry out its activities effectively. 13. In light of its general comment No. 2 on national human rights institutions, the Committee recommends that the State party use the discussion of the Commissioner for Children’s Act, which is currently before Parliament, to ensure that the Office of the Commissioner for Children and the National Human Rights Commission are equally independent and that they report to the same political body, and to define the relationship between the two institutions, including a clear division of their respective activities. In addition, the Committee urges the State party to ensure that the Office of the Commissioner for Children receives sufficient human, material and financial resources to carry out its mandate. Resources for children 14. The Committee is concerned that despite the persistence of poverty, the State party has not undertaken a comprehensive study of the impact of its economic reform policies on children, as previously recommended. The Committee is further concerned about the lack of available data on budgetary allocations for children. 15. The Committee recommends that the State party pay particular attention to the full implementation of article 4 of the Convention by prioritizing budgetary allocations to ensure implementation of the economic, social and cultural rights of children, in particular those belonging to economically disadvantaged groups, “to the maximum extent of … available resources”. The Committee further recommends that the State party gather disaggregated data on budget allocations for children and systematically assess the impact of all its economic policy initiatives on children.