“Imagine the faces and bright futures of our own children -- then support those the world has forgotten. Help dedicated groups and governments care for those children as if they were our own. As, in a real sense, they are”

-Anthony LakeExecutive Director, UNICEF

What are the main issues affecting children globally?1. Child PovertyChildren experience poverty as an environment

that is damaging to their mental, physical, emotional and spiritual development (UNICEF).

• Material Deprivation Sectoral Issues Hinder Emotional Development

By discriminating against their participation in society and inhibiting their potential, poverty is a measure not only of children’s suffering but also of their disempowerment (UNICEF).

Child poverty by region

The Life Cycle Approach

Tool for policy makers to address and assess dimension of poverty during the life cycle

Risks are not homogenously distributed along the life cycle, but are higher in different stages of life.

Strengths of the Life Cycle ApproachImportant diagnostic tool with which to

assess the status, trends, and scale of children and youth issues across ages, sectors, poverty status, and other dimensions.

It identifies age-specific vulnerabilities, risks and gaps.

It illustrates positive and negative intergenerational effects and linkages.

It facilitates co-targeting of interventions and the improving synergies across sectors and ages in meeting common goals.

It enables monitoring of the impact of interventions on specific children and youth outcomes over time.

If used globally, regionally, and sub regionally, it can provide countries with useful bench- mark information and identify outliers that deserve specific attention

Children: continuum of risk and protective factors

Family and personal assets

(Family cohesion, parental health, skills, jobs,Child health, ability, etc.)

Family and child support measures

A Universal family and child benefits and services

B Specialized family support services

C Substitute care services (adoption, foster care, residential, care)

Mountingrisks

Supportrequirement

AB

C

Low risk level

Medium risk level

High risk level

Absence of parental care

Age Group: In utero and at birthVulnerabilities: In utero exposure to maternal

infections, nutritional deficiencies, and environmental toxins, as well as poor care around the time of birth, may lead to severe and irreversible damage to the brain and other organs.

Current Data: an estimated 358,000 maternal deaths

occurred worldwide in 2008. This means that each day about one thousand women die worldwide because of complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. Developing countries account for 99% of the deaths. Two regions, Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, accounted for 87% of global maternal deaths.

Situation of Children and the Life Cycle

Age Group: Early Childhood (0-5 years) Vulnerabilities: Development of basic cognitive

and social abilities occurs in the first few years of life.

Adverse factors—poor diets, infections, disease, lack of cognitive stimulation—can cause slow physical and intellectual growth.

Current Data: In 2009, 8.1 million children across the world

died before their fifth birthday Since 1990 the global under-five mortality rate

has fallen by a third – from 89 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 60 in 2009

There are an estimated 129 million underweight children in the developing world today, which translates into 23 per cent of children in developing countries; 10 per cent of the children in the developing world are severely underweight.

Age Group: School-age children (6–14 years). Vulnerabilities: Family resource constraints,

gender bias, and inadequate infrastructure and public services prevent school attendance and the provision of health services.

Current Data:84% of primary-school-age children attend

school. Only 55% of children of secondary school age attend secondary school. In  Africa, less than 30% attend.

About 16% of all children 5-14 years old, is involved in child labor in developing countries. In the least developed countries, 30% of all children are engaged in child labor.

Age Group: Adolescence and youth (15–24 years)Vulnerabilities: Youth lack opportunities to access

and complete primary and secondary schooling; receive relevant non-formal education, including life, livelihood, and marketable skills; and access relevant health services and reproductive health information.

Current Data: In 2008, around 430,000 (240,000-610,000)

children were born with HIV, bringing to 2.1 million (1.2 million–2.9 million) the total number of children under 15 living with HIV. Almost 90 per cent of these children live in sub-Saharan Africa.

Over 64 million women aged 20–24 years were married or in union before the age of 18.

Sectoral IssuesNutrition deprivationChild/Social ProtectionLack in health servicesLack in sanitation infrastructureHIV/AIDSLack in child protectionLack in educational opportunities