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 | A Foundation to End Child Poverty | The global economic shock brought about by COVID-19 could set back over a decade of progress in reducing child poverty and severely undermining progress made towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and children’s rights as set out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Analysis jointly carried out by Save the Children and UNICEF estimates that approximately 150 million additional children are living in multidimensional poverty due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the new report, A Foundation to End Child Poverty – How universal child benefits can build a fairer, more inclusive and resilient future, Save the Children is calling for urgent action to address soaring child poverty through providing regular financial support to all children. Governments, donors and development partners need to work together for an expansion in social protection coverage of children and their caregivers, working progressively towards Universal Child Benefits.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly all countries announced social protection measures. Still at least 594 million children in low-and-middle income countries have completely missed out on much needed child and family-specific economic support to protect them during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The deprivations that millions of children are suffering not only risks their lives today and tomorrow, but also undermines productivity, economic growth, and social cohesion in societies. Increasing poverty deeply affects children and even short periods of deprivation can have life-changing impacts on children’s health, development and life chances.
With increasing poverty, the number of children under five suffering from acute malnutrition could surge by 7 million by the end of a year, representing a 14% increase. By the end of the year, half a million more girls are at risk of child marriage and 2.5 million over the next five years. This is in addition to the 12 million who marry each year. Increased poverty could also lead to between 7.0 and 9.7 million more children dropping out of school.
Child benefits are needed in the fight against child poverty, and to help families to mitigate the impacts of crises. This would ensure basic income security for all children in line with the Sustainable Development Goal Target 1.3, which aims to establish social protection floors in all countries by 2030. Child benefit systems can also help manage future shocks - building much needed resilience.
Universal Child Benefits provide a crucial investment in children and in our future. These benefits can help reduce child mortality, chronic malnutrition, improve educational outcomes and access to school and reduce various forms of harm to children. Countries investing in children now will also reap long-term rewards from a more skilled and healthier workforce in the future.
Child or family benefits have proven to have also significant economic multiplier effects in local economies. Investments in family income go beyond supporting families in need, and contribute to the local economy, a much-needed measure at this time. At a time when many countries are struggling with recession, job losses and rising poverty and debt, it is important to consider which investment options will provide both immediate and long-term benefits. We believe universal child benefits fall squarely into that category – with strong and well-evidenced economic and social benefits that provide multiplier effects when combined with other investments (in education and health for example).
This report is a call to action to Donors, states and developmental partners:
1. Prioritise investment in children by creating more fiscal space for child-focused social protection, aiming towards at least 1% of their country’s economic output (GDP). States, donors and development partners should do more to ensure temporary financing measures are in place, for example through increased aid, debt relief or a global fund for social protection.
2. Aim to move towards universal coverage - States, donors and developmental partners shall ensure provision of the social coverage for all children, particularly in their early years. This will give children a safe and healthy start in life, building human capital along the way. Vulnerable groups and the most deprived and marginalised children, such as those with disabilities, will need special attention.
3. Ensure that child benefit systems and programmes are responsive to shocks so social protection systems can quickly adapt and respond in the event of future crises including climate change, providing financial protection for vulnerable families.
| 21/10/2020 | 6MB |
| Build Forward Better: How the global community must act now | ‘Build back better’ has long been a rallying cry of crisis responses – and is being used frequently today. However, given the scale of the global learning crisis even before the Covid-19 pandemic – with one child in six denied their right to education – it’s vital we don’t limit our ambition to building ‘back’ to how things were.
Now it’s imperative we build forward better – and differently. There’s no denying the scale of the challenge. But there’s also cause for hope. The global reach of the Covid-19 crisis has generated a shared understanding of the impact of crisis on children’s right to education. This understanding can be used to build forward better – and radically transformchildren’s chances.
Build Forward Better presents new analysis on which countries’ school systems are most vulnerable to existing risks and future crises. And it sets out what the global community needs to do to support ministries of education in those countries to prepare now. So that, even during emergencies, education systems can provide all children with good-quality, safe and inclusive opportunities to learn. | 07/09/2021 | 4MB |
| Protect a Generation Report | Home/Resources/Protect a Generation Report
PROTECT A GENERATION REPORT
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An estimated 99% of children worldwide – or more than 2.3 billion children – live in one of the 186 countries that have implemented some form of restrictions due to COVID-19. Although children are not at a high risk of direct harm from the virus, they are disproportionately affected by its hidden impacts.
The most marginalised and deprived children have been hit the hardest, and existing inequalities have been exacerbated. Progress that had been made against the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for children is at risk of being disrupted, or even lost. For many children, the impacts of the pandemic will be catastrophic.
Save the Children carried out a global survey of children and their parents or caregivers during the COVID-19 pandemic, to find out the impact that the pandemic is having on their access to healthcare, their education, their family finances and their safety, and to hear from children themselves on these topics. The survey is the largest and most comprehensive survey of children and families during the COVID-19 crisis to date. The research was implemented in 46 countries and results in the largest and most comprehensive survey of children and families during the COVID-19 crisis to date, with 31,683 parents and caregivers and 13,477 children aged between 11-17 years old participating.
The research sampled three distinct population groups: Save the Children program participants with telephone numbers or email addresses, specific population groups of interest to Save the Children, and the general public. This report is one in a series presenting findings from the Global COVID-19 Research. The results presented in this report focus on quantitative data from our representative sample of 17,565 parents/caregivers and 8,069 children from 37 countries in in our program participants group.
| 10/09/2020 | 4MB |
| Global Girlhood Report | 2020 was supposed to be a once-in-a-generation opportunity for women and girls. The year when governments, businesses, organisations and individuals who believe in equal treatment for all people were going to develop a five-year plan for how to work together to accelerate progress for gender equality, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. Then COVID-19 struck. Now, 2020 risks being a year of irreversible setbacks and lost progress for girls. Unless the world acts fast and decisively, the impact on girls’ futures – and on all our futures – will be devastating.
Even before the COVID-19 crisis hit, progress for girls on some issues was under threat. While girls’ health, nutrition and access to education have improved over the last 25 years, even before the pandemic hit, progress to end child marriage and reduce adolescent pregnancy had slowed to a halt. Now, with reports of gender-based violence increasing across the world, it is estimated that 9.7 million children may never return to school post‑COVID. And with the number of children living in poverty estimated to climb by around 100 million, for girls today, gender equality feels further from reach than ever. | 02/10/2020 | 3MB |
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