World Children's Day

  Poverty poisons childhood. It claims the lives of children, undermines their health and development, and limits their ability to learn. The consequences are lifelong: Adults who grew up in poverty have weaker job prospects, live shorter lives and are more likely to experience depression and anxiety. Poverty also poisons societies. By limiting children’s ability to realize their full potential, poverty undermines future economic prosperity. By dividing the haves from the have-nots, it frays the bonds that tie us together. And by depriving communities of hope, it creates conditions in which violence and extremism can thrive. At a time in history when global military spending has reached a record US$2.72 trillion, hundreds of millions of children continue to live each day in deprivation, without basics like schooling, clean water and a home. Why? The answer is not one of scarcity or resources; it is one of priorities. When progress is the priority While far too many children still l...

Decades of effort to end child poverty have uncovered proven strategies that are essential for making progress. Ending child poverty is a policy choice.

These pillars focus on integrating efforts across nutrition , health , education , housing and the labour market . They also prioritize equity and empowerment, helping families to become self-sufficient , while leveraging evidence-based design across interventions.

Embedding child poverty reduction in laws, plans and budgets transforms it from aspiration into binding obligation. Prioritizing child poverty in national strategies drives political commitment, mobilizing resources and ensuring coordinated action across sectors. Integrating child poverty into broader development frameworks also strengthens accountability and secures sustained funding. Learn more on the Ways to Make ending child poverty a national priority .

Reducing child poverty requires embedding children’s needs into economic and fiscal governance . Central banks should assess how interest rate changes affect families, and legal frameworks should protect child-related spending and include automatic inflation adjustments. Child-sensitive budgeting and transparency mechanisms also support accountability – countries with more transparent budgets tend to spend more on health care and child well-being . Learn more on the Ways to integrate children’s needs into economic policies and budgets .

Both universal and targeted family and child benefits have demonstrably helped reduce child poverty rates, improved nutrition and health, and increased school attendance and completion . Targeted cash transfer programmes have proven effective in countries including Brazil, Mexico and South Africa, while Poland’s universal child benefit has helped drive a substantial reduction in child poverty rates . Still, approximately 1.6 billion children globally lack any form of social protection coverage. Learn more on the Ways to Expand inclusive social protection .

Children need reliable access to education, healthcare, water, sanitation, nutrition, information, play and housing to support their learning, development and well-being. Indonesia’s School Operational Assistance programme has reduced financial burdens on families while increasing enrolment and retention, while Bangladesh’s integrated maternal and infant nutrition efforts have steadily lowered the country’s stunting rates. Lean more on the ways to Expand access to quality public services

  Children’s well-being is closely tied to their caregivers’ economic security . Despite a low global unemployment rate, more than 58 per cent of the global workforce were informally employed in 2023. In Africa, 29 per cent of working people were living in poverty – more than four times the global rate. Practical steps to ensure decent work include legislating and enforcing minimum wages, increasing formalization through incentives, extending social security to informal workers. Policies must also support workers’ care responsibilities through paid parental leave and affordable childcare. Learn more on the Promotion of decent work for parents and caregivers to end child poverty .

While proven solutions exist, three immediate crises threaten to undermine efforts to reduce child poverty. These crises are harming children now – destroying livelihoods, displacing families, disrupting education, and causing hunger and malnutrition. They demand adaptation and strategic, scalable solutions. Without urgent action, we risk consigning millions more children to lives of deprivation. The climate and environmental crises Rising levels of conflict The funding crisis and underinvestment in children

Each year, four out of five children face at least one extreme climate hazard , such as a heatwave, flood or drought. Climate hazards and poverty form a vicious cycle. Children living in poverty are more likely to be exposed to extreme climate hazards, and these climate hazards push families deeper into poverty. To protect all children, responses need to include strengthening climate-resilient infrastructure and services , while better supporting displaced children . Learn more about  The climatic and environmental crises

The world is experiencing a historic rise in armed conflict . In 2024, about 19 per cent of the world’s children lived in a conflict area – double the proportion 30 years ago. Conflict causes poverty by undermining economic stability, destroying infrastructure, and disrupting public services like water, education, and energy. It puts children’s lives and futures at risk. To protect children in these settings, responses need to include ensuring humanitarian access , investing in social protection, and prioritizing education. Learn more on the Rising levels of conflict

Too many governments face a difficult challenge: how to invest adequately in children when funding is scarce. Forty-five of the world’s developing countries now pay more in debt interest than they spend on health, and 22 spend more on interest than education. If this trend continues, we risk creating an indebted generation – a cohort of children whose futures are compromised as countries struggle to service debt incurred before they were born. At the same time, unprecedented cuts in development aid could result in the deaths of at least 4.5 million children under age 5 by 2030. Funding cuts directly impact life-saving programmes, forcing the delay or suspension of critical supports in education, health, and protection for children caught in crises. Traditional solutions, like austerity or borrowing from new sources, risk deepening the crisis. Instead, debt restructuring can align the incentives of lenders and borrowing governments to transform obligations into opportunities . In su...

We have evidence of what works when conditions allow, and we have promising, scalable adaptations for when they don’t. What we need now is the will – to implement proven strategies , to listen to and learn from children , and to innovate solutions that can withstand today’s converging crises . The rights of every child must be fully realized and upheld. Our collective future depends on it.

At its core, poverty is a lack of financial resources . This alone does not capture the full reality for children. Child poverty must also be understood through the lens of the multiple deprivations children face in their daily lives. This chapter explores child poverty through both monetary and multidimensional definitions, disaggregated by country income group. It highlights the progress made to date, while emphasizing how fragile and uneven that progress remains.