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The next five years will be crucial for the children.
Every passing year brings us closer to 2030, the year for which the world has set itself ambitious targets - including for children - in the form of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The progress made over the next five years will determine whether the vision of the objectives is still possible.
Our analysis examines the prospects for the world's children, based on a review of the changing context, against a backdrop of global crisis and growing uncertainty. COVID-19, climate change, slowing democratic expansion, a shaken spirit of multilateralism - all these factors have a profound and lasting impact on children.
The current state of the world threatens to eclipse two decades of historic progress that has improved the lives of children. This progress is the result of a convergence in living standards - with poorer countries beginning to catch up with their wealthier counterparts - and a general improvement in children's lives thanks to new technologies, new knowledge and new standards - from the proliferation of anti-malaria bed nets to demands for gender equality in access to education.
The persistence or reversal of these forces in the years ahead will be decisive in assessing the progress made for children at this delicate and complex moment in our history.
The main conclusions are as follows
- The likelihood of a two-stage resurgence of the pandemic, with rich countries exiting first, creates the conditions for a historic disinvestment in children in many developing countries, putting the Millennium Development Goals for children out of reach.
- On the other hand, the possibility of accelerating technological advances for the benefit of children, inspired by the rapid development of COVID vaccines, and reinforced by a greater role for the State in funding research and development.
- The weakening of multilateralism risks stifling progress on the world's biggest collective action issues, including many of the greatest threats to children's lives.
- The effects of climate change on children's health, development and well-being will become increasingly evident. At the same time, the role of young people as a formidable force for changing climate-related attitudes, behaviors and policies is set to grow and become increasingly sophisticated.
- As the digital divide widens, there is a risk that children in developing countries will be the furthest behind in terms of their ability to benefit from digital tools, and the most exposed to deficiencies in digital governance.
- The trend towards youth activism is set to continue, as young people turn away from traditional forms of political participation, distrust electoral processes and express dissatisfaction with democracy.
Courtesy of UNICEF
