Global Inequality Robbing Millions of Children of 'What It Is to be a Child'

Global inequality—”a vicious cycle of disadvantage”—threatens the lives and futures of tens of millions of children around the world, according to a new report from UNICEF.

The annual State of the World’s Children report, released Tuesday, warns that unless serious steps are taken to narrow the gap between the rich and poor, 69 million children under five will die from mostly preventable causes, 167 million children will live in poverty, and 750 million women will have been married as children by 2030.

“Taken together, these deprivations effectively cut childhood short, robbing millions of children of the very things that define what it is to be a child: play, laughter, growth and learning.”
—UNICEF

“As we look around the world today, we’re confronted with an uncomfortable but undeniable truth: Millions of children’s lives are blighted, for no other reason than the country, the community, the gender or the circumstances into which they are born,” UNICEF executive director Anthony Lake writes in his introduction to the report (pdf).

“Before they draw their first breath,” he continues, “the life chances of poor and excluded children are often being shaped by inequities. Disadvantage and discrimination against their communities and families will help determine whether they live or die, whether they have a chance to learn and later earn a decent living. Conflicts, crises and climate-related disasters deepen their deprivation and diminish their potential.”

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Nowhere is the situation “grimmer” than in sub-Saharan Africa, the report finds, where at least 247 million children—or 2 in 3—live in multidimensional poverty. By 2030, fully 9 out of 10 children in this region will be living in extreme poverty.