CRC/C/GTM/CO/3-4 Allocation of resources 25. The Committee welcomes the efforts to enhance the allocation of resources for children, such as the conditional cash transfers in the areas of health and education, but is concerned that budget allocations for children need a longer-term perspective, which could only be provided by a comprehensive and time-bound national plan of action as part of the national development strategy. It is also concerned at the low social spending in the State party, and the difficulty of tracking investments on children across sectors, departments and municipalities in order to monitor and evaluate their efficient use. The Committee also notes with concern that the particularly low tax collection in the State party has a negative impact on the national revenue, and may limit resources for children. 26. The Committee recommends that the State party, in line with Article 4 of the Convention: (a) Adopt comprehensive and progressive tax reform, expanding the tax base specially to cover social sectors and children and improving collection in order to increase the availability of resources to social sectors and children; (b) Allocate adequate resources for children at national, regional and municipal levels and ensure transparent and participatory budgeting through public dialogue and participation, including that of children; (c) Use a child rights approach in the preparation of the State budget by implementing a tracking system for the allocation and use of resources for children throughout the budget, thus providing visibility of the investment in children. The Committee also urges the State Party to use this tracking system for impact assessments on how investments in any sector may serve "the best interests of the child", ensuring that the differential impact of such investment on children is measured; (d) Establish adequate resource allocations for the departments of the State party that are progressively addressing the disparities reflected in the indicators related to children’s rights implementation, and ensure proper accountability by local authorities in an open and transparent way; (e) Define strategic budgetary lines for those situations that may require affirmative social measures (such as birth registration, chronic malnutrition, indigenous children, education, violence against children) and make sure that those budgetary lines are protected even in situations of economic crisis, natural disaster or other emergencies; (f) When possible, follow United Nations recommendations to start budgeting-by-result to monitor and assess the effectiveness of resource allocation and, if necessary, seek international cooperation to this effect from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and other stakeholders as is being provided to other States parties in the region; (g) Take into account the Committee’s recommendations following its 2007 day of general discussion on "Resources for the Rights of the Child - Responsibility of States." Data collection 27. The Committee notes with concern that an adequate data collection system has not been established, which has resulted in incomplete and confused data. It regrets the lack of coordination and feedback among different institutions which results in contradictory data, and that existing statistics often refer only to the capital city and urban areas. 5