This report from our Coalition to End Child Poverty Partner, Save the Children, takes a look into the lives of children living in poverty in key countries around the world, highlighting what drives child poverty and why it persists, even in some of the world’s richest economies.
Children around the world speak movingly about the pain they feel and the scars they bear as a result of poverty and marginalization. They talk of how they endure stigma, shame and a loss of self-esteem. In many places too, the outward signs of poverty attract ridicule or insult, causing deep psychological damage to young minds.
With the adoption by all Governments in 2015 of the Sustainable Development Goals, eliminating child poverty is now a universal commitment as well as an urgent global priority. The new Goals express the commitment to “end poverty in all its forms everywhere” by 2030. The SDG targets recognize not only income poverty, but also “poverty in all its dimensions” as it affects “children of all ages.” But without explicit recognition of the challenge of child poverty by decision-makers at all levels, and dedicated efforts to address it, this first SDG will not be met – and the task of reaching other Goals, in areas such child survival, nutrition and learning, will be immeasurably more difficult.
Read the executive summary here and the full report here.
For facts and infographics, click here.