Antonio Broto
Geneva, March 1. Nearly three out of four children worldwide (73.6%) are outside of social protection services, and this percentage, calculated at the start of the pandemic (2020), is even higher than four years earlier, when it was 72.8%, warns a United Nations report released today.
The joint study by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) concludes that 1,460 of the 2,000 million children under the age of 15 do not have access to this type of support, commonly offered in the form of “family allowances”.
This means 50 million more children without benefits in 2020 than in 2016, when these “can be lifesaving for families facing economic hardship, food insecurity, conflict and climate-related disasters said ILO Social Policy Director Natalia Winder-Rossi. .
ALMOST TOTAL PROTECTION ONLY IN THE WEST
The situation varies enormously depending on the region, with high protection only in Europe (96% of those under 15) and North America (94%), regions where the rate has however fallen by a few tenths between 2016 and 2020, whereas whereas in Africa it is only 12.6%, an even lower percentage, 10.5%, in the sub-Saharan region of this continent.
In Asia-Pacific, it is 18%, while it is the only region in the world where the rate has increased, even slightly, in four years (it was 17.4% in 2016), while in America Latin America the decline was very pronounced: from a rate of 50.7% in 2016 it fell to 41.5% in 2020.
“When they do not receive adequate social protection, boys and girls are more exposed to poverty, disease, lack of schooling and malnutrition, being more likely to fall into the networks of early marriage and child labour”, warns the ILO when the report is published. published.
It recalls that 356 million children (nearly one in six) live in extreme poverty (less than 1.9 dollars a day) and up to 1,000 million suffer from “multidimensional poverty”, defined by the UN such as one in which there is a lack of access to one or more basic services (education, health, housing, nutrition, toilets, drinking water).
The number of children living in this multidimensional poverty is estimated to have increased by 15% during the COVID-19 pandemic, marking a setback in progress towards reducing child poverty.
HALF OF THE POOR ARE CHILDREN
Minors, say the ILO and UNICEF, are twice as likely to live in extreme poverty as adults, and in fact constitute half of the world’s poor, despite representing only 30% of world population.
The report recommends that countries invest in child benefits, which also help connect families to other health and social services that include free health care for children, with special protection for girls, migrant minors and victims of exploitation.
“Adequate investment in universal social protection for children (…) is an ethical and rational decision, and puts us on the right path towards sustainable development and social justice”, summed up the director of the Department of Social Protection of the ILO, Shahra Razavi.
The report points out that an annual expenditure of 1% of GDP on social programs such as child benefits can reduce population poverty by 20% in middle-income countries, and the percentage for those under 15 years. be even higher.
SYMPTOM OF WIDER DEPROTECTION
The lack of social protection for children is only part of a global problem that affects many other groups: 2.7 billion people do not have access to health insurance and 1.7 billion workers do not are not covered by sickness benefits.
In addition, 164 million older people do not receive pensions, and 71 million mothers of newborns, 150 million people with disabilities and 179 million unemployed are also outside any social protection and benefit system, according to the ILO figures. EFE
abc/rml