UNICEF: One in five children in low and middle-income countries lack most basic services

And today, November 20th, is International Children’s Day or World Children’s Day rather. The date marks the day the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989. Despite the good intentions of those measures, children continued to bear the brunt of war, deprivation of their rights, and poverty. And joining me now is Cecil Aptel, deputy director of UNICEF’s global office of research and forecasting. Good morning, Cecil, and thank you for joining us. On this World Children’s Day, what are the biggest issues facing children worldwide? Good morning. There are many issues facing children. Uh many issues impacting their rights. Uh violations of the rights of children in conflict as your report just uh has shown. But also um today we have decided as UNICEF to bring the attention to a phenomenon that remains um you know terrifying in terms of the impact on children and that’s poverty. Um we have in the world in low and middle inome countries one in five children who leaves deprived of at least some of the essential services. We’re speaking of nutrition, water, health, housing, sanitation, education, basic services that these children are lacking. One in five children in low and middle inome countries, that’s 417 million children worldwide. So, we really want to demonstrate this as something that has a huge impact on on children’s, but as uh as as you say, children are impacted in so many different other ways. Now children are by definition dependent on their parents and guardians. So they invariably suffer knock-on effects of social and economic problems. Now we all have children in our lives somewhere other be it our own children or relatives. So we definitely do feel a connection to children. But is it sometimes the case that even people who do have an affection for children can sometimes easily forget them particularly those who are involved in policym and in government. That’s the risk which is that we feel that love and care for the children around us but not that’s not necessarily reflected in policies. Um we we see that um when looking at at policies that are effective to um to end child poverty, we know in fact what works. We know that to end child poverty, we can have uh access to essential public services, education, health care, again water, sanitation, nutrition that can be expanded through through public services. But that means making the right political and budgetary decisions that put children and their families at the center of of those decisions. We also know that um social protection programs such as cash support for families are very effective but there again budgetary decisions, political decisions need to be in favor and supportive of those social protection programs. So to um end child poverty, we need to make sure that ending child poverty is a national priority that it is embedded. Um and that means people making those decisions. That’s true at the national level. That’s even also of course the case at the global level where we need to have international political commitment to children’s needs um through the economic policies and budgets. And unfortunately this is not necessarily very high um in terms of the global policy discussions these days. Now here in France official figures show that 2.76 million children live in poverty and that’s an indication that even high income countries have their problems. Um are these countries better equipped than others to rectify the problems or are they also intractable? In fact, in those high inome countries, there’s even more of a possibility to allocate budget towards policies that are supportive of providing essential public services to children to invest into education, health care, to support um social protection program, cash support for families. So high-income countries have more of the financial tools at their disposal to prioritize children’s needs and to um end um child poverty. Indeed, in in a country like France, we see 9% of children in France experiencing severe material and social deprivation. That’s one out of 10 and that’s very high for a high-income country. Now there has been a lot of criticism in recent years of the effect of for instance social media or other technology on children. Uh is this something that um UNICEF is is taking seriously? We do take this very seriously. I mean in fact the life of children around the world not only in high-income countries is is really taking place online as much as offline. And there’s interaction between these two dimensions. So we do work extensively with children with governments but also with technology um companies to um see how we can both optimize the opportunities for children through um online services and even artificial intelligence and minimize and even eradicate the risks. I’ll give you the example of education. Um we really see that um you know some schools around the world banning the use of of phone and and we can see that as as important in terms of protection protecting children’s capacity to concentrate. But similarly we also would not want to have complete ban that would mean depriving children from tools that also give them access to information and education and in particular in some um deprived areas. So this is not such a clear-cut issues. We really need to have more datas to know not only how long children spend online but what they do online. And obviously some of those activities can promote their well-being and their development and other activities are extremely harmful and we really need to boost the protection of children online as well especially to ensure that they’re kept safe. Now we’ve spoken about some of the problems facing children worldwide. Can you point to any successful initiatives that have managed to alleviate um suffering and and problems for for children? Sure. I I will I will return to the question of of child poverty. I mean we’ve seen huge progress in terms of reducing child poverty. Um in fact especially in in the year from 2000 um and and for that decade where we saw the rate of severe deprivation among children in low and middle inome countries falling by a third. Um and that really means that globally we went from three in five children living in poverty to two in five children. So that was a a massive development. And I’m just going to point out to one specific country, Tanzania, for example, that achieved a 46% um reduction in severe child deprivation between 2000 and 2023. That was driven by um government cash support grants to poor households, but also making sure that families could make their own decision on on how to lift um you know to lift themselves out of poverty. So yes, there is really hope. Um we can with the right decision make sure that we eradicate child poverty. We can ensure that um children’s rights including in conflict are better respected by ensuring that those responsible for violations are held accountable. um we have to really keep hopeful and and keep fighting for children’s rights and to give also them their children space for them to to express their views and and participate in decisions today that will impact their future. Now young people including children have been to the four of um uh the fight against climate change including Greta Thunberg most famously. Uh is there a sense that uh children are possibly uh possibly on the front line of of suffering from uh the ravages of uh climate change? Unfortunately, yes. Um children because of their physical vulnerability are far too often um those severely impacted in in in case of um heat waves for instance. We know that especially babies, infants have their body temperature more at risk of not regulating sufficiently quickly. We certainly see that in case of extreme weather events um we have children and especially younger children or children that may be living with disabilities very much um at the forefront of those most impacted by this. So children um are suffering um in in large part among those suffering the the worst um in those situation they are also as you rightly say fighting uh for what they see as absolutely crucial in their future. We have been monitoring what we called echo anxiety or climate anxiety among children and especially young people and we find that concerning. We see a large number of children worldwide that are concerned with what is coming and what their future will be looking like um including uh because of the impact of of climate uh change but also more generally environmental degradation. So we see many children um you know taking um taking their their place and asking for for their right and their future to be guaranteed by decision makers um and politicians making the right decisions today to preserve children’s future. Thank you very much for that. Cecil Aptel, deputy director of UNICEF’s global office of research and forecasting.

On World Children’s Day, Oliver Farry is pleased to welcome Cécile Aptel, Author and Deputy Director of UNICEF’s Global Office of Research and Forecasting. UNICEF is offering a sobering reminder: national and global policies too often leave the world’s most vulnerable in the shadows. In a world of progress and innovation, 417 million children in low- and middle-income countries are still denied the most basic necessities: clean water, healthcare, education, nutrition. And even in a high-income country like France, official figures show that 2.76 million children live in poverty: one tenth of France’s child population. Putting an end to child poverty requires political will and social commitment and to decide, collectively, that children’s well-being is non-negotiable.
#UNICEF #WorldChildren’sDay #ChildPoverty

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