Worldwide, 1.4 billion children aged under 16 lack any form of social protection, leaving them vulnerable to disease, poor nutrition and poverty.
This is according to data released by the International Labor Organization (ILO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Save the Children on Wednesday.
In low-income countries, fewer than one in 10 children have access to child benefits.
“Globally, there are 333 million children living in extreme poverty, struggling to survive on less than $2.15 per day, and nearly one billion children living in multidimensional poverty,” said Natalia Winder Rossi, Global Director of Social Policy and Social Protection at UNICEF.
“At the current rate of progress, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals’ poverty targets are out of reach. This is unacceptable,” she said.
Policy choice
Rossi said ending child poverty is a policy choice made by governments.
Expanding social protection coverage of children in the fight against poverty is critical, including the progressive realization of universal child benefits, she said.
The groups said child benefits are a vital social protection intended to promote children’s long-term well-being.
They are delivered as cash or tax credits, and child benefits are essential for reducing poverty as well as accessing health care, nutrition, a quality education, water and sanitation.
The benefits also support socio-economic development, particularly in crisis times.
Many children are deprived of the basic resources and services they need to escape poverty and are therefore exposed to the long-lasting impact of hunger, malnutrition and unrealized potential.
The data shows a modest global increase in access to child benefits over 14 years, from 20% in 2009 to 28.1% in 2023.
However, progress has been unequal. In low-income countries, coverage rates remain staggeringly low, at around 9%.
At the same time, 84.6% of children in high-income countries are covered.
Coverage rates for children in countries highly vulnerable to climate change are a third lower than those in countries not classified as being at high risk.
Child benefits
Ensuring that children are covered by social protection is key to protecting them from the worst impacts of the climate crisis, says the group.
A regional breakdown of child benefits coverage between 2009-2023 shows that in East Asia and the Pacific, child benefits coverage increased from 9.2% in 2009 to 16.0% in 2023.
In Eastern and Southern Africa, coverage increased from 9.6% to 12.3%.
In West and Central Africa, coverage increased from 3.1% to 11.8%.
In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, coverage increased from 59.0% to 61.4%.
In North America, coverage increased from 78.1% to 84.0%.
In Western Europe, coverage increased from 91.0% to 93.2%.
More marked improvements occurred during the same period in Latin America and the Caribbean, where coverage rates increased from 30.8% to 41.9%.
In the Middle East and North Africa, they rose from 22.7% to 32.5%.
In South Asia, they increased from 9.2% to 24.3%.
“This is a crisis for the almost one billion children who are not covered by benefits, and for the countries in which they live,” said Shahra Razavi, director of the Social Protection Department at the ILO.
