Poverty reduction begins with children

The unprecedented prosperity that the global economy is currently enjoying has not trickled down to benefit the staggering 40 per cent of all children in developing countries – over half a billion – who are still struggling to survive on less than $1 per day. Other child indicators such as global under-five mortality, school attendance and child malnutrition – which are among the most accurate measures of development – clearly suggest that progress has not kept pace with the promises made at the World Summit for Children in 1990. It is, indeed, a sorry distinction of today’s world that, at the dawn of the ‘information age’, one in three children in developing countries does not complete five years of education – a minimum required for achieving basic literacy. Millions more are being taught by untrained and underpaid teachers in overcrowded and poorly equipped classrooms, denying these children their social and economic rights. There are many reasons for this tragic situation but poverty is the main underlying cause of millions of preventable child deaths each year. It is the cause of tens of millions of children going hungry, missing out on schooling or being forced into child labour. Poverty causes lifelong damage to children’s minds and bodies, turning them into adults who perpetuate the cycle of poverty by transmitting it to their children. This is why poverty reduction must begin with the protection and realization of the human rights of children. Investments in children are the best guarantee for achieving equitable and sustainable human development. This document describes how children bear the brunt of poverty and explains why they are central to poverty reduction. It illustrates how UNICEF’s efforts to improve communities’ access to and quality of health, education, water and sanitation, child protection and participation – combined with policy advocacy – contribute to poverty reduction and the fulfilment of human rights. As governmental and other leaders gather in the coming months to review the progress achieved since the Education Conference in Jomtien, the World Summit for Children in New York, the Social Summit in Copenhagen and the Women’s Conference in Beijing, I hope that this document will provide some concrete lessons and encouraging examples of success in the fight against poverty