Review by Maria Francisca Botelho
The new joint report between the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) describes the devastating impact of the lack of social protection in childhood.
Approximately four years after the release of the first joint ILO-UNICEF report on social protection, “More than a billion reasons: The urgent need to build universal social protection for children” provides a more recent global overview of the development of social protection systems for children, and the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on them. Indeed, about 1.77 billion children lack access to social support, from subsidies to family allowances, a fundamental pillar of any social protection system. Thus, of the 1.77 billion children, 1 billion face multidimensional poverty, which saw a 15% increase during the pandemic, while the remaining 770 million survive below the extreme poverty line, that is, subsisting on less than US$1.90 (PPP)[1] per day, making children an extremely vulnerable group compared to adults, as they are more likely to live in extreme poverty.
Compared to any other United Nations publication, it can be stated that this report is abundant in terms of statistical information, providing a wide range of national, regional, and global statistical data on comparable trends regarding case studies on social protection coverage, that is, social assistance benefits and public spending on social assistance per country. Thus, the report includes access to very comprehensive statistical tables, covering the latest data on social protection, detailing data from various countries such as Brazil and the USA, aiming to achieve the 2030 Agenda and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations General Assembly.
According to the report, social benefits for children and their families were introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic, however, these decreased or stagnated as the critical phase passed, perpetuating the increased needs of children and their families in regions such as Latin America and the Caribbean (42%), Western Asia and North Africa (28%), Central Asia and South Asia (21%), East Asia and Southeast Asia (14%), and Sub-Saharan Africa (11%). Clearly, the pandemic showed that social protection was a viable and quick solution in times of crisis, as most governments wasted no time in implementing new social protection programs or adapting existing ones to support children and their families. However, after the pandemic wave, most did not continue to elaborate reforms with a permanent character to face future events. Thus, the report emphasizes that all countries, regardless of their level of development, have a choice: either adopt a “high road” strategy of investing in strengthening social protection systems, aiming to improve the living conditions of billions of children, achieving sustainable development and social justice; or follow a “low road” strategy, which does not make the necessary investments, leaving billions of children vulnerable to child poverty, lack of access to education, health, sanitation, decent housing, malnutrition, psychological instability, and sexual violence, increasing the risk of child marriage and child labour.
Simultaneously, the ILO and UNICEF present a set of decisive measures aimed at persuading national governments to implement them in order to achieve a universal social protection system for all children, highlighting: (1) investment in social benefits that ensure effective combat against child poverty and, consequently, their economic prosperity; (2) accessibility and provision of essential social and health services free of charge, such as high-quality childcare, aiming at establishing links between families and services; (3) the construction of rights-based, inclusive, and gender-sensitive social protection systems to address social inequalities and offer better results for female children, migrant children, and children in child labour situations; (4) mobilization of domestic resources and budget allocation for children, ensuring sustainable financing for social protection systems; and (5) the provision of social protection for parents and caregivers, ensuring access to appropriate work and adequate social benefits, such as unemployment, sickness, maternity, disability, and pensions.
The report also highlights the commitment of countries such as Montenegro and Tunisia to strengthen and expand their social protection systems to all their vulnerable children, having previously established the necessary steps to achieve positive change in their respective territories, which is quite visible.
In parallel with the joint ILO-UNICEF report on the urgent need to build a universal social protection system for children, the World Childhood Foundation’s 2021 Activity Report also emphasizes the importance of ensuring social protection for parents, as it allows them to develop a safety net for children, providing them with economic, educational, food, and health-related subsistence, and a stable and healthy family environment, as the development of parental, personal, and social skills prevents children’s psychosocial risk situations. In this way, the abandonment of children by parents due to poverty is avoided, not leaving them particularly exposed to violence and sexual abuse in some institutions, as evidenced by the World Childhood Foundation. It is up to the different state actors and institutions to jointly develop interdisciplinary systems focusing on children, aiming at promoting and defending their rights in various societies around the globe.
In conclusion, the reports from both the ILO-UNICEF partnership and the World Childhood Foundation underline the urgent need for a commitment from national entities with their children because, after all, building social protection for them falls on these institutions, being a vital basis to help them out of a vulnerable world they are embedded in, allowing them access to education, health, basic sanitation, decent housing, nutrition, and psychological stability, ending inhumane practices such as sexual violence, child marriage, and child labour. Thus, social protection must be understood as an indispensable reality in the current world since it is enshrined as a universal human right, consisting of a precondition for a world free from poverty.
References
ENGSTRÖM ALEXANDER, Petra (2021); World Childhood Foundation Activity Report 2021; Stockholm, Sweden.
WORLD CHILDHOOD FOUNDATION (2023); Childhood in Ukraine. One year after the invasion; Stockholm, Sweden.
Note
[1] PPP is the abbreviation for “Purchasing Power Parity,” a measure of the price of specific goods used to compare absolute purchasing power in different countries.
