Child well-being media review

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10 April 2013 – The Netherlands, along with four Nordic countries – Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden – top a United Nations list released today, which ranks children’s well-being in 29 industrialized countries, while Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain are at the bottom.

Now that high school graduation season is winding down, it’s worth taking a moment to remember that in the sea of flowing gowns lurk some unsettling statistical realities. On many measures of childhood well-being, the last decade in the United States has been one of stagnation. We remain an outlier in many ways among developed countries.

The High-Level Panel's goal for girls and women is a moment to celebrate, but there is still work to do to unleash girls' unique potential

The Department of Social Welfare in partnership with Unicef, Child Fund The Gambia and other partners will Sunday 16 June 2013 commemorate the Day of The African Child at Farafenni in the North Bank Region.

There has been a four-fold increase in the number of children and teenagers admitted to hospital for obesity-related conditions in the last decade, doctors in England and Wales warn.

This year’s annual World Day against Child Labour (12 June) will put the spotlight on the plight of child labourers in domestic work.

Greens leader plans 'keep the bastards honest' campaign, casting party as Senate curb on Coalition excesses

Malnutrition is responsible for 45% of the global deaths of children under the age of five, research published in the Lancet medical journal suggests.

In a country where the sight of unfinished, discarded food on white plates is a common sight at weddings, an organisation based in the twin cities has been trying to create awareness on avoiding food wastage while feeding the undernourished and underprivileged communities.

When talking about the impacts of climate change on health, it is impossible to overlook the specific impacts on child health.

The global development community is starting to pay more attention to girls. New projects are now needed to help build momentum

Youth unemployment is set to rise further in the hardest-hit developed nations, the OECD, a club of mostly rich countries, warned on Thursday.


GENEVA — The U.N. Children's Fund says children with disabilities are among the most marginalized people in the world. In its annual State of the World's Children report, UNICEF says ending discrimination against children with disabilities and nurturing their abilities will benefit both the children and society as a whole.

A group of leading authors including Julia Donaldson is highlighting new research that malnutrition leaves children struggling to read and write.

While the next set of global development goals are being debated around the world, those who actually will be responsible for achieving them are also voicing their concerns. As reports are being drafted, working groups assembled and high-level panels convened, we shouldn’t forget that it is today’s young people who will be tasked with carrying out the next development agenda.

Efforts to end child marriage must bring together community activists and those working on structural problems. But just how does partnership work between 250 NGOs in 50 countries?

Women and children are the most vulnerable sections in displaced population as statistics show that almost four per cent of disaster-affected women are pregnant at any given point, a government official said today.

An annual UN report says that the crisis has left one in three children in Greece living in poverty.

A UK-backed project in Western Equatoria state seeks to ensure domestic and social factors don't deny girls an education

It's well documented that the first 1,000 days of a child's life is developmentally critical. No less so for the last 1,000 days of the life of a Millennium Development Goal (MDG). With less than 1,000 days before the end of the current MDGs, we are entering what UN Special Envoy for Education Gordon Brown describes at the "Final Sprint" to achieve them.

Education is a cornerstone of a functioning society. As Benjamin Franklin put it: “An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.” But as education becomes longer and increasingly expensive, are we teaching our young people the right skills for the current market? With an outstanding student debt reaching $1 trillion last year in the US alone, and millions of graduates unable to find jobs in OECD countries, the question of return on investment has become a real economic priority.

A report by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (Niace) says there has been a seven percentage point drop in the number of 17 to 24-year-olds taking part in learning compared with last year.

British Medical Association report says cuts to benefits and social care likely to hit the most vulnerable the hardest

The 2013 World Health Statistics Report focuses on progress to health-related Millenium Development Goals.

Poverty is an exam room familiar. From Bellevue Hospital in New York to the neighborhood health center in Boston where I used to work, poverty has filtered through many of my interactions with parents and their children.

At least 3,000 children as young as six are being recruited by insurgent groups across India, according to a new report published by a human rights group.

Mother's Day is a time to come together as families and friends to celebrate some of our greatest nurturers, teachers and providers. It's not easy being a mother under any circumstance, but I am particularly inspired by, and mindful of, the mothers we serve in countries where malnutrition and food insecurity still persist.

Following the recommendations from the youth union, the Lou Nuer organized a peaceful demonstration in Bor to petition the state government for more vigorous disarmament initiatives. The governor listened to the demonstrators and pledged to ramp up disarmament. Lou Nuer tribe members were pleased with the response, and tensions subsided.

IFS says 'tax and benefit reforms introduced since April 2010' can account for most of the projected rise in numbers

Report says poverty should remain central, but calls for inclusive, sustainable model that emphasises jobs

Around the world almost 300m 15- to 24-year-olds are not working. What has caused this epidemic of joblessness? And what can abate it?

Throughout Somalia's armed conflict, successive transitional governments and international actors have overlooked widespread human rights abuses by all parties. The failure to address these abuses and the culture of impunity in which they have taken place has contributed to ongoing conflict and insecurity. A substantial improvement in the respect for human rights and accountability for serious abuses is now essential. Given the scale and nature of the crisis that has wracked the country for two decades, the needs are significant.

Millennium Development Goal 2 concerns education. It ensures that by 2015, children everywhere will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.

After years of postponing the inevitable, the U.S. is finally on the verge of reforming our dysfunctional immigration policies. For millions of immigrant families who have committed themselves to building better lives for themselves and their communities, change cannot come too soon. And for the children in these families, their hopes for the future are very much part of America's future.

Obesity in Scotland's primary one pupils has remained at "worryingly" high levels for more than a decade, a leading public health consultant said.

Heeals is a Non Profit Organisation registered under the Indian Government societies act 21 of 1860. A vibrant civil society organization aims to safeguard health, environment, education and livelihood to promote sustainable development of society.

I thought in honour of the day, I would give you some facts and figures about malaria, its effects in Uganda and the work of Kids Club Kampala in this area.

Invest in the future. Defeat malaria.

“Countries pledge billions of dollars to fund child vaccinations,” rings out the headline, the ringing only drowned out by those of the tills in the minds of pharmaceutical manufacturers as they see their coffers rapidly filling with a cool four billion dollars.

Poor health and malnutrition have been shown to be important underlying factors for poor performance, early drop out from school, low enrolment, and absenteeism, and are constraints on both “Education for All” and the second and third Millennium Development Goals of achieving universal primary education and gender-based equitable access to quality education.

More than a million schoolchildren could be susceptible to measles due to the MMR vaccine scare, warn child health doctors in the UK.

The United States has done it again — and not in a good way.

The United Nations Children’s Fund says more than a quarter of children under the age of 5 worldwide are permanently “stunted” from malnutrition, leaving them physically and intellectually weak and representing a scandalous waste of human potential.


Health advocates recommended that restaurants offer kids meals with more fruit and vegetable options and more whole-grain items.

Unhealthy food environments and sedentary lifestyles certainly contribute to obesity, but they can’t entirely explain weight gain. The latest research points to four new genes that could contribute to the most extreme cases of obesity in childhood.

Complying with federal guidelines for healthy meals in schools helps children to stay leaner, according to the latest study on school lunches.

The Netherlands ranks first and Romania last among 29 developed countries examined in a UNICEF report on the well-being of children that warns budget-slashing governments to spare a thought for future generations.

Top donors urged to provide extra $15bn to fight infectious diseases over three years or risk reversing decade of advance

Almost unnoticed, one of the great civil rights struggles of our times is being fought out in our midst. Across the Indian subcontinent, in Afghanistan and in Africa, supporters of universal girls’ education are being threatened, assaulted, bombed and murdered.

THE defenders of traditional marriage tell us the argument is, first and foremost, about the children. You might not know that from the buzz surrounding the Supreme Court deliberations. The children of gay and lesbian parents got a few splashes of attention, including a powerful endorsement of marriage equality from the 60,000-member American Academy of Pediatrics and one sympathetic-sounding aside from Justice Anthony Kennedy during the hearings. But for the most part, the debate has focused on the rights of grown-ups and the powers of states, not so much on the well-being of children. And when that subject does come up, the discussion is often shallow or misleading.

This week marks an historic turning point in how benefits are increased. The government's up-rating measure comes into force, increasing payments by just one per cent and breaking the crucial link between benefits and inflation.

Up to 12 civilians - 10 children and two women - are reported to have been killed in a Nato air strike in eastern Afghanistan.

Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai has said 40 girls in Pakistan will be the first to benefit from a fund set up in her name after she was shot in the head by the Taliban for her efforts to promote girls' education.

Hollywood star Angelina Jolie has honoured Pakistani schoolgirl activist Malala Yousafzai, who has launched a charity to fund girls' education.

More than 20 million children and adolescents in Mexico are estimated to live in poverty, and five million of them in extreme poverty, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today reported in a joint study with the Mexican Government.

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim called for a commitment by the international community on Tuesday to end extreme poverty by 2030 and to improve the lives of the most vulnerable people living in developing countries.

In February 2013, Martin and Maureen Brooke travelled to Madagascar to volunteer their professional skills for SOS Children. Martin is an NHS associate specialist in paediatrics and Maureen is trained in horticulture. Using their annual leave from work, they are volunteering at SOS Children’s projects for six weeks.

Two million children in the Central African Republic are without basic social services and are exposed to violence following a power grab by the Séléka rebel coalition and subsequent insecurity and looting, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) today said, warning that more children will be at risk if the country does not stabilize quickly.

Children are supposed to be protected and provided for by their parents and caretakers. However, the trend has changed and it is now the little ones providing for the families. There are many factors contributing to this trend, including poverty, high school dropout rates and the growing trends in HIV/AIDS, writes Andrew Masinde.

BANGKOK, 28 March 2013 (PlusNews) - As a UN high-level panel completes worldwide consultations to pick development goals for 2015 and beyond, PlusNews consulted experts to see how HIV/AIDS might fit into this new agenda.


The Millennium Development Goals have left behind millions of forgotten children. Had they tackled educational inequality 9 million more children could now be in school in Nigeria and Pakistan alone.

On her speech, MEP Daciana Octavia SÂRBU (S&D, RO) stressed that good and healthy nutrition have a crucial impact on children life expectancy and that the role of the parents in this regard should not be underestimated.

Child malnutrition is one of the most serious side effects of poverty. Without proper sustenance, children can be more susceptible to disease, growth defects and even death. Malnutrition can also interfere with children's cognitive development, which can cause them to struggle in school. Providing children and their families with healthy, nutritious and affordable food is one of ChildFund's most important objectives, and to ensure children get the healthy start they need, we are working to improve nutrition for children and pregnant women as part of the 1,000 Days initiative.

Government adviser says proposals are 'muddled and unclear', and income must remain the central measure

the new BBC One series The Editors invited me to consider a question I posed on this blog...it asked whether the teen rebel is now a dying breed.

Child Poverty Action Group says raising personal tax allowance does little for million lowest-paid workers, due to loss of benefits

Education experts gathered in the Senegalese capital Dakar this week to discuss what priorities should look like once the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) expire in 2015. The conclusion: more focus on quality and how to measure it; on equity and access for hard-to-reach children; and on what should happen during the first three years of secondary school.

The process of establishing a post-2015 development agenda must include youth input and participation to reflect the issues that concern them, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Envoy on Youth stressed today in his first press conference since he assumed office.

The young Pakistani heroine and education activist, who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban, met for the first time with teachers and pupils at her new school in Britain. But millions of girls like her are still denied an education, writes Gordon Brown, former U.K. prime minister and UN Special Envoy for Global Education.

Prime Minister’s Questions, the weekly opportunity for MPs to grill David Cameron in Parliament on anything and everything, is usually an occasion for highly political shouting matches and “Hear hears” on largely domestic issues. While this week was no exception, it was great to see an MP ask about international development issues at this crucial time. David Blunkett MP, former Labour Education Secretary, used the opportunity to ask the Prime Minister about his leading role in the UN’s High Level Panel on the Post-2015 successor framework to the Millennium Development Goals…

On Friday 15 March, the One UN Rwanda launched the offline version of the MY World Survey today with the aim of reaching 80,000 children from all Districts in Rwanda within a two week period.

In 2000, 164 governments met in Dakar, Senegal and pledged to achieve the six "Education for All" goals by 2015 committing to provide quality basic education for all children, youth and adults. This week, education experts from all over the world meet again in Dakar to discuss the best way to ensure education, training and learning is reflected in the post-2015 agenda.

We are entering an age of post-standardization in education. It may not look, smell, or feel like it, but the augurs of the new age have already arrived and are advancing with increasing speed. [This] Fourth Way pushes beyond standardization, data-driven decision making, and target-obsessed distractions to forge an equal and interactive partnership among the people, the profession, and their government.

The U.N. says the proportion of the world’s middle-class living in developing nations more than doubled between 1990 and 2010 and is expected to be more than 80 percent by 2030.

Education is the greatest investment that a nation can make in its citizens or that a parent can make in his or her child. It is indisputable that historically marginalized groups are too often denied access to an education by those holding power. Withholding education is the most effective tool for those in power to control their citizens.

This article will first assess the dangers inequalities pose to children and then provide an analysis of current methods of measuring child poverty referencing UNICEF’s ‘Child Poverty and Inequality – New Perspectives’ report, published in 2012.

Two million Syrian children are victims of war, charity says in report revealing third of children have been hit, kicked or shot at

India is no longer considered a poor country and yet many children do not receive a good education. Rachel Williams reports.

Sheila C. Bair is right (“Grand Old Parity,” Op-Ed, Feb. 27): income inequality should concern both parties. In Britain, it does, at least when it comes to children.

The government of South Sudan should increase efforts to protect girls from child marriage, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today, on the eve of International Women’s Day. The country’s widespread child marriage exacerbates South Sudan’s pronounced gender gaps in school enrollment, contributes to soaring maternal mortality rates, and violates the right of girls to be free from violence, and to marry only when they are able and willing to give their free consent.

MDGs have been important in advancing the livelihoods and capacities of young people, but also mobilizing young people to be involved in the implementation and progress reporting of the MDGs. However, Beyond 2015 goals should have at least one goal committed to youth and one committed to human development governance, particularly issues pertaining participation in decision making.

Child poverty in the US has reached record levels, with almost 17 million children now affected. A growing number are also going hungry on a daily basis.

5th March 2013: Launch of the 'A girl's right to learn without fear: Working to end gender-based violence at school' report at #CSW57, New York

BEIRUT, Lebanon — The United Nations depicted the collapse of Syria’s education system in a report released on Tuesday, saying that thousands of schools have been damaged or converted into shelters for civilians displaced by civil war and that many children have not attended class since the conflict began two years ago.

The 57th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (#CSW57) is taking place at UNHQ from 4-15 March. Its priority theme is the elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls. Below pictures summarize some of the highlights of Day 1.

Global policy and advocacy experts discussed the importance of nutrition in the successor framework to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – more specifically, how to connect the technical aspects of nutrition and development with the political and practical “in order to come up with concrete and actionable principles and recommendations.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the ALAS Foundation are teaming up for the second annual ALAS-IDB Awards to recognize innovations and excellence in programs and research that benefit children under 6 years of age in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The United States is considered the richest, most economically competitive country on the planet. So how is it possible that it also has one of the highest rates of child poverty in the developed world?

A lot is already happening in an aggressive manner to influence and shape the post Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agenda globally.

Si de nombreux couples rêvent de fonder une famille, une étude met à mal le bonheur qui devrait logiquement en découler...

An African high-level ministerial meeting on ending violence against women and girls was held in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa to prepare a common position for Africa during the 57th Session of the UN Commission on The Status of Women-CSW

Gratiane de Moustier has been following young Indonesian girls training to be servants overseas, where they often encounter abuse and exploitation.

Data shows that the number of missing girls exceeds boys by over 100

The International Reporting Project (IRP) has sent ten new media journalists to India to report on child survival. You may recall, the Indian Ministry of Health along with UNICEF and USAID convened the latest Child Survival Summit earlier this month where, of course, child survival reigned top on the agenda.

The Winter 2013 Child Indicator newsletter features the following articles and information

Ten years after new legislation, still no one has been charged

Shocking figures published this week show that in some parts of the UK, nearly half children live in poverty. Nowhere is free from child poverty, and even in the most affluent areas, families are struggling to get by from day to day.

The UN Commission on the Status of Women meets next month to discuss ways to eliminate violence against women and girls. But how effective are global high-level meetings at tackling the problem? Can they be effective or does grassroots community work hold the key?

Which parts of the country have the worst child poverty? The latest estimates show a country of huge variations. This map shows those estimates by parliamentary constituency. Click on a constituency to explore the data, and use the drop down menu to see which party controls that parliamentary seat. Search for a place in the box below and hit 'share view' to share map on Twitter and Facebook.

Bollywood actor Aamir Khan, who has been at the forefront of a debate on gender equality, blamed the "patriarchal mindset" of people for the lesser status of women in society.

To celebrate our 20th Anniversary we've released an album with Parlophone Records that brings together some of the best tracks from our five albums - including the legendary 'HELP' one from 1995 , which raised £1.5million. Subsequent releases have featured the hottest names in music and raised not only funds, but profile, for our vital work.

Across the world, over 60 million girls are out of school. For every one of them, this is a tragedy of promise unfulfilled.

World Vision, a development and advocacy organisation, has implemented a project to tackle child malnutrition in Coimbatore since January. It has been taken up in collaboration with Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), a Central Government-sponsored social welfare scheme.

Money is central factor, experts say in letter to Guardian

Last week, the Government of India held a star-studded National Summit on child survival, “co-convened”* with USAID and UNICEF. The high-profile meeting featured politicians (the Minister of Health & Family Welfare, the US Ambassador to India), heavy-hitters in global child health (Bob Black, Zulfiqar Bhutta, Mickey Chopra, Geeta Rao Gupta) along with some Indian stars of child health (Vinod Paul, Abhay Bang, Yogesh Jain), and even a Bollywood actress/“child rights activist” Nandana Sen (daughter of Nobel Laureate and Professor Amartya Sen), to name a few.

The Maternal Health Channel, a weekly glossy TV show, hopes to raise awareness and boost maternal health across Ghana

JOHANNESBURG, 12 February 2013 (IRIN) - Girl child soldiers are often thought of only as “sex slaves”, a term that glosses over the complex roles many play within armed groups and in some national armies. This thinking contributes to their subsequent invisibility in the demobilization processes - in fact, girls are frequently the most challenging child soldiers to rehabilitate.

The UK is below average in an international comparison of social mobility within school systems.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) - which works for children's rights, their survival, development and protection - expects the rate of diabetes in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to increase to almost 59 million people by 2030.

This week, ONE and Save the Children gathered close to 200 Liberians, including several Liberian ONE members, at a popular event in Monrovia, which included an exhibition and panel on transparency and accountability in the city’s iconic City Hall.


Uncertainty still rules supreme over the global economic outlook… The IMF forecasts a sluggish global growth of 3.6% for 2013, saying that the prospects have deteriorated further and risks increased.

OTTAWA – A new report says Canada’s social fabric is being torn by rising income inequality and stagnant child poverty rates.

With a burgeoning number of refugees from conflict in northern Mali arriving in neighbouring Mauritania, the international community steps up its response for refugees and host communities.

After 10 years and $1 billion, an ambitious, federally-funded study of child health has not gotten off the ground, and outside observers say it is in serious trouble. Outsized expectations, bureaucratic rigidity, and lack of strong scientific leadership — all played a role in creating “a national embarrassment.”

In 2004-05 , 2% of households suffered from hunger at some point during the year and about 25% of people were below the poverty line, but as many as 45% of children below the age of five years were malnourished.

The number of cases of insulin-requiring type 1 diabetes rose sharply in children under the age of Philadelphia over a two decade span, paralleling increases seen across the United States and in Europe, according to a US study.

That's the number from working families who will be affected by benefit cap, minister admits

A United Nations joint mission to the western Syrian governorate of Homs has found that 420,000 people, half of whom are children, need immediate humanitarian assistance.

MANILA, Philippines–The United Nations Children’s Fund has appealed for nearly a billion pesos in additional assistance for the Philippines to fund humanitarian emergencies affecting children in Mindanao due to conflict and the aftermath of deadly Typhoon “Pablo.”

Alarmingly low levels of asylum support are forcing thousands of children and their families seeking safety in the UK into severe poverty, putting babies’ and mothers’ lives at risk, a parliamentary inquiry reveals today.

During the last 10 years, around 10 million children are estimated to have been killed as a result of war.

GENEVA — The U.N. Children's Fund is appealing for $1.4 billion in 2013 to meet the immediate, life-saving needs of tens of millions of children gripped by conflict, natural disasters and other complex emergencies in 45 countries and regions. As in previous years, most of these emergencies are in Sub-Saharan Africa.

WASHINGTON -- In the last 24 hours as many as 10,000 children and their families have fled from Syria into Jordan.

Healthcare access and treatment, public-private partnerships, and innovation are among the many issues being addressed at the World Economic Forum this week. To aid the discussion ahead, the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship partnered with the Executive Office of UNICEF and designed a debate at the strategic intersection of these issues. Core to the framing of this debate is an interview with UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake.

Which countries have a national youth policy?

Hi everyone, I wanted to share this video clip of a recent experience I had that is very close to my heart. I have been volunteering for many years for charity organization UNICEF, and just a few weeks ago, I traveled to Haiti to learn more about the recovery efforts since the devastating earthquake in 2010 and the nationwide cholera epidemic in 2011.

Government admits statistic that Labour says shows children are victims of Tory 'games' and 'economic failure'

Thousands of children are struggling in poor families. Housing providers should not turn away from this tricky problem

UNICEF Emergency Specialist Mark Choonoo was recently in Homs. He describes the situation there and the impact the conflict has wreaked on children and families.

Between 2008 and 2010 the number of out-of-school children in Sub-Saharan Africa increased by 1.6 million. As national governments and the international community strive to achieve universal primary education by 2015, we need to understand why too many countries’ progress has stalled or gone into reverse. One factor that acts as a significant break on progress and that is the low quality of much of the schooling currently provided. There is a danger of seeing the issues of access to school and education quality as separate. In reality they are intimately linked because without improvements in learning outcomes it will not be possible to achieve 100% access.

HAVING well-educated parents is more important for a child's well-being than being part of a family where a mother and father live together.

Government-funded child welfare agencies have been established in only a minority of China's county-level regions, an official with the Ministry of Civil Affairs has revealed.

Almost three years after a devastating earthquake struck Haiti, preliminary results of a new United Nations-backed national household survey show substantial progress for children there in the education, nutrition, health and sanitation sectors since 2006.

Meet Jon Schwartz and his creative work using the blues to teach just about everything. Jon, his ideas and his students are what "school" can and should be. I love the stories he shares he about using music in deep and rich learning.

KHATI GAUN and BIRALTOLI, Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, 9 January 2013 - Deep in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains, Pashupati Saud is up early, harvesting herbs and vegetables from her small garden. She cooks them into a sauce and gives them to her 8-year-old son, along with a bowl of rice soaked in buffalo milk.

Former senior adviser for policy at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Nicole Goldin has joined the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) to help lead a new initiative on global youth wellness.

The international charity organisation ‘Save the Children’ says as world leaders have been occupied with one economic crisis after another, a hunger and malnutrition crisis affecting millions of children has gone unchecked.

(WNN) Bangui/Dakar, AFRICA/GENEVA, UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said today that it had received credible reports that rebel groups and pro-government militias are increasingly recruiting and involving children in armed conflict in the Central African Republic (CAR).

The High Level Panel - co-chaired by Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, and British Prime Minister David Cameron - will meet later this month to discuss a new system to replace the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which expire in 2015.

David Cameron has said the decision to remove child benefit from better-off families is "the right approach".

Amy Mina is Save the Children's Country Director in Iraq. She has worked with the organization since 2004 in the Middle East, Haiti and Latin America. Save the Children is currently responding to the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. Mina recently completely her second trip to refugee camps in Al Qaem, Iraq.

Thousands of children were separated from their families and forced to become soldiers in a country ravaged by war

SAVE THE CHILDREN has enlisted the rock group OneRepublic to write a song that incorporates the actual heartbeats of young people and serves as the centerpiece of a public service advertising campaign.

In the past year, experts and practitioners in the field, whole child partners, and ASCD staff have shared their stories, ideas, and resources to help you ensure that each child, in each school, in each community is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged and prepared for success in higher education, employment, and civic life. These are the top 10 posts you read in 2012.

The nation has reduced stunting in children under 5, but the rate has fallen more slowly than it has in other developing countries and regions. The percentage of wasting children has held steady at 20 percent. That malnutrition rates in India are worse than in Bangladesh is not a surprise for nutritionists comparing public health indicators between the two nations. India has not collected basic data on nutrition since 2006.

QUETTA: A report presented by Unicef officials revealed that over 24,000 children die of Pneumonia in the country every year which is caused by a bacterium called Streptococcus Pneumonia.

NAIROBI — Officials say violence against children in Kenya is exceedingly and unacceptably high, with the United Nations estimating as many as 10 percent of girls and five percent of boys have experienced at least one episode of sexual violence in the previous 12 months.

UNICEF is on the ground helping children and families affected by the Super Typhoon Bopha, which hit the south-eastern coast of Mindanao in the Philippines in early December 2012.

A SHOCKING report indicates that more than 30 percent of Namibia's children live in poverty, more so than the general population, of whom 28,7 percent are considered poor.

America's children and their families are showing greater resilience and support in the face of rising poverty that has now wiped out the historic financial gains of the 1990s, according to the Foundation for Child Development's annual child well-being index.

The Syrian conflict has now entered its 21st month and is showing few signs of abating. Over the course of this period between 40,000 and 55,000 Syrians have been killed and about 1.2 billion people are said to be displaced.

The OECD Gender Initiative was launched to explore economic aspects of gender equality and develop knowledge on why barriers to greater equality persist, focusing on three key dimensions: education, employment and entrepreneurship (“the three Es”). The Gender Initiative also identifies policy practices that can reduce the gender gaps in economies around the world.

As winter approaches, executive director Dennis McKinlay says UNICEF is expanding its operations within Syria to help the children and families affected by the conflict.

There is no doubt that there is a close link between the increases in financial support for families with children over the past decade and the fall in child poverty

Working in partnership to provide effective and innovative support for parents affected by alcohol misuse is key to ensuring children stay safe and happy.

Worrying is the increase in the number of girl victims, who make up two thirds of all trafficked children. Girls now constitute 15 to 20 per cent of the total number of all detected victims, including adults, whereas boys comprise about 10 per cent, says the Report, which is based on official data supplied by 132 countries.

KIGEME, Rwanda, 10 December 2012– The clapping grows louder as hundreds of onlookers cheer for their six young friends from the Democratic Republic of Congo who dance in front of the new education facilities.

The Central African Republic is home to a number of rebel groups that use child soldiers – with devastating consequences. This is the first despatch of our campaign.

Recently, I read yet another article in the Indonesian press about child malnutrition. Or rather, it was less an article about malnutrition per se and more a presentation of the standard format: a study, statistics and a solution.

Child poverty has worsened in Canada over the last decade, a UN official said Friday as she completed a tour of the country. "Canada can afford to do better," said Marta Mauras, vice president of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, citing figures from UNICEF that rank the North American country 24th out of 35 industrialised countries.

An effective school culture is established by the work we do together on a daily basis, with values determined through a synergistic process. Our culture defines us and our ability to positively impact students and their learning. So how do we truly shift our school cultures toward positive changes that align with supporting the whole child? And how do we develop a collective mindset that leads to dynamic changes and, ultimately, sustains school improvement?

New Save the Children report reveals findings of research with over 1,000 African children and key stakeholders

NEW YORK, 4 December 2012 – UNICEF and UNESCO launched today a “global online conversation” to ensure that education is effectively addressed as a priority in the post 2015 development agenda.

UNICEF wants to prevent HIV and AIDS among youth in Haiti. To address the issue the non-profit is arming kids with technology that they can use to help identify risks of sexual abuse in the city of Port Au Prince. Rhazi Kone, project manager at UNICEF, described the project in a panel at Mediabistro’s Media App Summit today.

Juba — South Sudan's Deputy Minister of Gender, Child and Social Welfare said Sunday that violence against women is one of the major contributing obstacles to the country's development.

As Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas pushes on Thursday for the U.N. General Assembly to upgrade the Palestinians’ status in the international body to that of “observer state,” his movement’s experience of a year of full membership in the U.N. cultural body, UNESCO, suggests that such diplomatic upgrades are not always favorable to the Palestinian cause.

New York — New HIV infections in children are down, but reaching the goal of an AIDS-free generation requires treating more pregnant women and children living with HIV, UNICEF said today.

Teachers should be evaluated on the atmosphere they create in their classrooms and the degree of trust they have established with their students. Several findings from the Schools of Integrity and other research literature support examining both classroom culture and teacher-student relationships.

With the world turning its attention away from the violence in Gaza, back to the turmoil in Syria and the rising floodwater here in the UK, there's not much room left for the beleaguered country I've just returned from.

A report into the health of Indigenous children in the Northern Territory shows improvements have been made but there is still a long way to go.

Brussels — One hundred and ninety million - that's more than the populations of Germany, France and Poland combined. It is also the number of children affected by vitamin A deficiency around the world.

The latest edition of the Global Education Digest reveals the urgent need to address the high numbers of children repeating grades and leaving school before completing primary or lower secondary education. New data from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation's ( UNESCO) Institute for Statistics (UIS) show that about 32.2 million primary pupils were held back a grade in 2010, and 31.2 million dropped out of school and may never return.

Activists in Syria say a government jet has dropped a cluster bomb on a playground, leaving 10 children dead.

A new report by the Child Poverty Action Group calls for better employment opportunities for London mums

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO, 21 November 2012 - “We are on the ground and are reaching out to children affected by the crisis,” says UNICEF Representative in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Barbara Bentein.

On Universal Children’s Day, Unicef issued a new research paper highlighting global demographic shift forecast for the coming generation of children that present major challenges to policy makers and planners.

New York, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 19 November 2012 – They were too young to understand the violence that would kill them. Bearing the brunt of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict on their shrouds, four children from the Dalu family were buried amidst continued bombardment in Gaza City, occupied Palestinian territory. Their family home was turned into rubble by missile attack on Sunday.

Save the Children is calling for an immediate end to the conflict in Gaza and Israel as the number of child casualties mounts.

DOHA, QATAR — Sheika Moza bint Nasser, wife of the emir of Qatar, has created a program that seeks to educate the 61 million children worldwide who have no access to formal schooling.

International charity Save the Children has warned 200,000 Syrian refugee children are at serious risk from freezing temperatures, as winter sets in the Middle East.

Instead of doing something about children living in poverty, the coalition has launched a consultation on how to measure it

Rwanda has been selected among the regional countries that will benefit from Educate A Child (EAC), an initiative that focuses on bringing quality primary education to remote areas.

Family breakdown, drug addiction, debt and education results are among the factors that could be used to measure child poverty in future, ministers say.

The international advocacy organisation World Vision has called on the public to get involved in improving child and maternal health.

Family planning a human right and sound economic investment as number of young people in developing countries surges.

Millions of children have little to celebrate and their life is marked by struggle

On October 10, 2012, President Goodluck Jonathan presented the 2013 budget proposal to a joint session of the National Assembly. A total sum of N426.53 billion was proposed as allocation to the education sector.

12 November 2012 – The United Nations and its partners today called for greater efforts to eradicate pneumonia, the number one killer of children under the age of five, as they marked the fourth annual World Pneumonia Day.

Growing homelessness and child poverty are fueling truancy in the earliest grades across Illinois, but efforts to fight the problem are often thwarted by dwindling resources and weaknesses in state law, school administrators say.

Indonesia’s infant mortality rate matches that of significantly poorer Bangladesh, and blame for the alarmingly high rate lies with the government, an activist says.

In his first 100 days of this new administration, President Obama has the opportunity to take on issues of poverty and hunger, and to lay the ground work for bold initiatives over the next four years.

Partnership for Nutrition in Tanzania (PANITA) in collaboration with Save the Children has mentioned Tanzania as one of 21 Africa Union (AU) countries which continue to have very high burdens of under nutrition among its people.

More children at risk should be put into care, says a committee of MPs examining child protection in England.

Election Day is here, and the candidates for president barely mentioned the importance of strengthening programs that benefit poor children. It is a silence that could reverberate for decades to come.

How does one ensure meaningful participation of children in matters concerning them, and what needs to be done to guarantee effective and efficient government investment in children?

Hundreds of children living rough in London and other cities may have no nationality, the BBC has found.

Making sense of the contradictions and bipolar reality of Uganda's health indices

Liu Jie remembers clearly when her mother violated China's one-child policy and gave birth to her little brother. The family was living in Hunan province, where her mother worked as a teacher, and the illegal addition to the family cost her mother the job.

Global inequalities in wealth are at their highest level for 20 years and are growing, according to a new report by Save The Children.

Organization mobilizes staff and resources to hardest-hit areas of New Jersey to ensure children’s needs are addressed in the aftermath of the ‘superstorm.’

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) pledged to continue working with Viet Nam's National Assembly to implement educational and protective programmes for Vietnamese children.

Stressed-out parents are more likely to have obese children, U.S. researchers suggest.

KATHMANDU, Oct 29: Child development experts say that to increase the effectiveness of the preliminary child development center, the government should increase the facilitators’ monthly salaries.

Even the most established filmmakers fear to venture into the documentary genre, a highly respected niche known to be hard to nail. Few Ugandan filmmakers who have tried the loathed and respected genre have left little to be desired.

Teachers report more children turning up for school hungry and unready to learn

Childhood obesity has become so epidemic in this country that kids today risk having shorter life spans than their parents. The American Heart Association reports that about one in three American kids is overweight or obese. Those statistics have nearly tripled in about 50 years. As a result, many young children today are plagued with risk factors for heart disease, including high cholesterol, elevated blood pressure, high triglycerides, raised insulin, physical inactivity, and obesity. Many also suffer from low self-esteem and depression. Is there a solution in sight?

I completed a study a while ago for the Early Childhood Development Research Foundation. It is a survey of school children from Primary 4 to Secondary 3. Conducted early this year, the survey attempted to pursue an investigation of the interaction between parents and children.

Today, as the publication this week of UNESCO's Education for All Global Monitoring Report shows, we the world continue to fail our children.

Children are more exposed to the risk of poverty and social exclusion than the overall population of the EU. Today 115.7 million (23.4%) people in the EU are exposed to the risk of poverty and social exclusion and 25.4 million (27%) of these are children.

Rising income inequality has serious consequences for children today, and for South Africa's future.

The silence from the Obama campaign on the issue ended when a detailed response arrived Saturday.

The millennium pledge made by international leaders that all children would have a primary education by 2015 is going to be "missed by a large margin".

Walang tutong sa taong nagugutom, a Filipino proverb says. “There’s no burnt rice to a hungry person.”

News that a 14-year-old Pakistani girl was gunned down by the Taliban simply because she wanted to go to school has sparked a wave of protests and condemnation across the world.

Married at the age of 8. That fact alone is hard to fathom. It's even more difficult to stomach when you think of the resulting forced sex, physical abuse and early pregnancies that often result. But for girls in more than 50 countries around the world, this is their reality. The reality of child marriage.

Today is our human family's first-ever International Day of the Girl

Madrid, Oct 9 (Prensa Latina) Some 2.267 million children wereliving below the poverty line in Spain at the end of 2011, said Tuesday the United Nations Fund for Children - UNICEF

A 14-year-old rights activist who has campaigned for girls' education has been shot and injured in the Swat Valley in north-west Pakistan.

Plans to cap the benefit payments of poor families who choose to continue having children when they cannot afford them have been branded 'abhorrent' by children's charities.

Kotlowitz, a Chicago-based writer, journalist and a producer of the documentary The Interrupters writes and reports about poverty and crime -- particularly as it relates to children -- in Chicago.

The latest report of the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation has punched holes in the tall claims made by the central government about addressing malnutrition in children.

Wednesday night’s presidential debate in Denver was not only notable because of the reset it gave Mitt Romney’s floundering campaign. Or because it was a wake-up for a seemingly somnambulant President Obama. The 90-minute showdown will be notable for what was never discussed: Poverty. In particular, child poverty.

In Zambia, about 591 maternal deaths occur per 100,000 live births while the infant, neonatal and under-five mortality rates are at 70, 34, and 119 per 1,000 live births, respectively. By any standard, these mortality rates are unacceptably high and call for a more enhanced mother and child healthcare system.

From advancing efforts to tackle the complex crisis in Africa’s Sahel region to generating new commitments to ensure education for millions of children, this year’s high-level segment of the United Nations General Assembly produced substantial progress, a top official said today.

Today, one in five children in the United States lives in poverty -- income of just over $23,000 for a family of four.

Tanzania is on track to achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of lowering the under-five mortality, a recent UN report indicates

High-level political and private sector officials today met in New York to fight childhood and maternal under-nutrition with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praising the progress made so far, while stressing the importance of continuing to boost efforts on this front.

The U.S. government on Wednesday added South Sudan, Suriname and Vietnam to its list of 74 countries where adults and children as young as 5 are subjected to serious labor and human trafficking abuses in prostitution, mining and other dangerous work.

Catching mental illness and intervening earlier in childhood may heighten the likelihood of a better outcome in adulthood.

Poverty remains the greatest risk for a child's development in Germany, according to a long-term study released on Tuesday.

Children in Syria are subjected to "appalling" torture, imprisonment and abduction according to Save the Children. The harrowing testimony is captured in the slideshow attached http://bit.ly/QhsoKc

A large children's hospital in Durban, South Africa, is being rebuilt two decades after it closed owing to apartheid.

Growing up in poverty has pernicious, enduring, but preventable effects on children.

To accompany Save the Children's First survey into poverty in the UK, award winning photographer Spencer Murphy records the view from one East London borough.

There's always something rather Dickensian and Mr Micawber about the issue of child poverty

Tax credit data was used to find the proportion of children in low income families in regions across the United Kingdom.

As my three daughters sharpen pencils, don their backpacks, and head back to school, it pains me to remember that far too many primary school aged children -- an estimated 67 million worldwide -- will never enroll in school.

INCOME LEVELS: THE INCOME OF households with children fell almost five times more than childless households between 2009 and 2010, new CSO figures have shown

The cost of raising children is rising faster than the rate of inflation, leaving those earning the minimum wage unable to afford the basic needs of their children, a new report has warned.

The charity Save the Children, best known for helping some of the world's poorest families, has launched an appeal to help UK children.

There’s more to consider than just a family's income when it comes to measuring poverty and its impact on a child’s well-being, a new study finds. The report by Child Trends Center, a non-profit research organization, is the first to examine the impact of geographic variations and cost of living on child outcomes.

Child poverty costs New Zealand as much as $10 billion a year and three-quarters of that cost is avoidable, a public health conference in Wellington has been told.

Over 22 million boys, girls and adolescents in Latin America and the Caribbean are not in school or are at serious risk of dropping out, according to a new United Nations report, which calls for a joint effort across sectors to ensure that all children can complete their education.

Jobless rates among young people will get even worse globally as the spillover of the euro crisis spreads from advanced to emerging economies, according to an ILO paper titled “Global Employment Outlook: Bleak Labour Market Prospects for Youth”.

The government’s poverty reduction program- Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) is further expanding to reach out to children in need of special protection around the country.

“Is your child able to choose her own clothes to wear each day if you tell her to?” the researcher asks the HIV-positive mother of an HIV-positive three-year-old girl. The mother looks at Potterton as though she has come from another planet: “When I am sick, she must dress herself and make herself food.”

In front of the blackboard in a classroom in Nabari village, northern Ghana, tightly packed rows of dishevelled wooden benches give a sense of the number of primary school children crammed into this room, obediently copying the dictation by rote. They are surrounded by filthy walls and a weather-beaten corrugated ceiling

Some 7.4 percent of children under 17 live below the poverty line in the Czech Republic, Pavla Gomba, director of the Czech UNICEF office, told CTK Wednesday.

Jobs and the economy are taking center stage these next two weeks as each party attempts to position itself as the leader with the way out. But the focus is on stop-gap, short-term solutions. To truly put this country back on track, and in a position to lead in the 21st century global economy, we must commit to starting where we'll have the greatest impact: early childhood literacy.

Geography is the most important factor in determining whether a child will survive to his or her fifth birthday in Vanuatu, a new analysis of child poverty has shown

This year, we're about to begin again one of the most sacred acts of a democratic country -- the election of our next president. Ads are sprouting up, the familiar posturing is once again on our screens, billboards, newspapers and websites... Even more, this year UNICEF released a report stating that the U.S. had the second-highest level of child poverty in the developed world. Only Romania ranks higher.

Mustafa* wipes his tears with the green camouflage headscarf he has worn for the past year and a half spent associated with an armed group in the Central African Republic known as Convention of Patriots for Justice and Peace (CPJP).

Cutting child mortality around the world is a key millennium development goal. Mortality rates are falling but not fast enough to meet the aim of reducing the rate by two-thirds by 2015, the MDG deadline. Explore the data on where in the world mortality rates are highest, why the cost of saving children varies by region and what the leading causes of death are.

An intense focus on countries with the highest levels of child mortality combined with the availability of cheaper vaccines and medicines can lead to a development breakthrough, according to a senior UN health expert.

The political and economic health of countries are key measures of the welfare of nations. A country that fails its citizens politically and economically can make little claim to legitimacy.

Bringing up a child in most societies is considered the exclusive duty of the mother. But the role of a father is as important as a mother's in a child's development. Numerous studies have revealed that children with involved fathers are at an advantage, socially and academically, over children who have little or no relationship with their fathers.

Months after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called malnourishment among children a national shame, the Union Ministry of Women & Child Development (WCD) has now written to the Chief Secretaries of all States and Union Territories asking them to get “serious about fighting malnourishment especially among the children and women”.

With a view to merging inspiration with technical expertise, UNICEF announced today the launch of its Innovate for Children website. The site draws attention to health and education challenges faced by children in developing countries – and the potential for innovative product design and inventive use of technology to find solutions

With a quarter of women's deaths in childbirth caused by bleeding, a pill to prevent or stop haemorrhage is a godsend, say many. But the evidence for the safety and efficacy of misoprostol, which can also be used to bring about abortion, continues to be furiously contested

Last week, we released a report analyzing the impact of the proposed Miller/Harkin increase in the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.80 in three incremental steps of $0.85. Across the country, working families have rallied around the proposed legislation.

Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) has dismissed the government’s Children Results Action Plan to support vulnerable children as a public relations exercise. While improving specific aspects of children’s health and access to early childhood education are good in themselves, the report fails to grapple in any meaningful way with the drivers of poor outcomes.

Unicef say lessons can be learnt from the Netherlands study commissioned by Every Child Counts.

Children’s organisation Plan International will receive US $1.5 million from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to improve food security and nutrition among indigenous children and women in Guatemala.

Children exposed to ethnic and political violence in the Middle East are more aggressive than other children, a new study shows. And the younger children are, the more strongly they are affected, in a "chain of violence" that goes from political and ethnic strife, to violence in communities, schools, and families, and ends with their own aggressive behavior.

Children in a refugee camp in South Sudan are dying at more than twice the rate internationally recognised as an emergency, according to new figures released by Médecins sans Frontières (MSF).

Recent debate in Parliament’s question time about whether or not the measurement of child poverty is important will cause concern for the many New Zealanders who want government action on poverty, says Every Child Counts.

Yesterday, the same day that the London Olympic Games came to a close, British Prime Minister David Cameron co-hosted a hunger summit with Brazilian Vice-President Michel Temer. The event brought together world leaders, representatives from the private sector and NGOs to focus political attention, mobilise support and agree concrete action to tackle childhood malnutrition and stunting between now and the next Olympic Games in 2016 -- and, we hope, provided a springboard for wider action to tackle the root-causes of hunger.

More than two out of every three pupils who have finished two years of primary school in east Africa fail to pass basic tests in English, Swahili or numeracy, according to a new report, Are our children learning?.

I am glad that, amid all the wonderful celebration of sporting achievement, world leaders have been able to use the London games as an opportunity to think about helping children who are without the most basic means of building a productive life: adequate, nutritious food.

‘Violence Free Society for Children’ seeks to break the culture of silence and prevent child abuse. Several activities will be conducted across the most vulnerable and high risk districts to build awareness on violence against children and child abuse in communities, schools, homes and among politicians; and to develop the capacity of the child protection system to better identify and effectively respond to victims of violence and abuse.

Women and Child Development minister Krishna Tirath has sought stronger partnership with the United Kingdom in the field of child development and nutrition, saying tackling malnutrition was the top priority for her government. Krishna sought stronger cooperation in these fields in a meeting with UK's Secretary of State Andrew Mitchell in London.

TANZANIA has made impressive progress in child development in the continent moving up 30 places Child Development Index (CDI). The report published in late July 2012 by Save the Children titled "The Child Development Index 2012, progress, challenges and inequality," cited more than halving of the country's child mortality and proportion of underweight children as the key to this success.

Western Australia's performance when it comes to the wellbeing and development of children up to eight years of age is lagging behind other states and territories.

The word “diet” usually brings to mind a chat among friends who are looking to lose a few extra pounds (or kilos). It’s hard to imagine that a conversation about diet would become a high priority policy discussion in Latin America. But believe it or not, it has—and it is an urgent one!

ZAATARI REFUGEE CAMP, JORDAN—Hani Hamid’s older cousin and a friend waited for him outside his home in Daraa, Syria, one morning not long ago, and being a typical 11-year-old, Hani rushed to join them. They were headed out to play and perhaps scrounge up some firewood when Hani heard the whistling of an approaching Syrian army shell and ducked back into his house.

The UK prime minister, David Cameron, has committed himself to reducing child malnutrition rates in poor countries as Britain takes over the presidency of the G8 group of leading industrialised countries next year.

Having been here for only three months it feels like I am still getting my head around the customs and daily life in Fiji. It is a beautiful place, and it is easy enough to imagine days spent lying on perfect white sand beaches, with cocktails and intermittent dips in crystal clear water.

Apps on multi-touch devices like the iPad or Android smartphones have the potential to revolutionize early childhood education, and help build a stronger foundation for lifelong learning in the 21st century. But, this potential needs to be realized. It is not a given that technology in the hands of young children will benefit their development.

Syrian troops have tortured children and used them as human shields on tanks to prevent attacks by opposition forces, a UN report says.

Summit aims help prevent 25 million children under five suffering stunted growth by the time of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

David Cameron's opportunism was predictable – but the professional inadequacy of his comments and proposals to introduce competitive team sports in primary schools beggars belief.

AS we have spent the past two weeks watching the fittest, strongest and most talented human beings compete at the London Olympics, we have witnessed more than the summit of individual achievement

The Catherine Ferguson Academy is on its summer schedule, and the custodians’ floor-polishing has pushed much of what is unique about the Detroit charter high school into the halls. A line of high chairs blocks a row of lockers. A table with built-in chairs for four infants stands near a pushcart designed to hold nine of them. And everywhere are posters of rainbow-colored condoms.

Over 600 million children worldwide live in absolute poverty -- an estimated 1 in 4. In many countries, rates are much higher with over 60 percent of children living in households with incomes below international poverty lines. We need to find that "internal olive branch" and decide to change.

According to an Australian study published online in the Journal of Happiness Studies, the key to adults' well-being is positive social relationships during childhood.

For the first time, the U.S. Department of Education has reported that the number of homeless students in America has topped one million while another new report estimates that 23 percent of children in the U.S. live in “relative poverty.”

For Nepal, a country where a quarter of the population is extremely poor and suffers severe deprivation, understanding how poverty affects children can help to formulate policies and programs that effectively break intergenerational poverty.

Here's a more human window than we usually get into the realities of the present economy. The Annie E. Casey Foundation says that one in three children in this country are in families where neither parent has full-time, year-round employment. And that that situation does things to those kids and their prospects.

The images of Gaza you see on the news are only half of the story. Images of destruction, reconstruction, poverty and conflict do not do justice to the lives that people lead in the densely populated and besieged Gaza Strip.

The little girl who miraculously survived the bullet that narrowly missed her eye and exited through the top of her head. The mother whose arm was blown off as she rushed to help the child whose head was blown away. Most of the newly injured in Congo's latest eastern rebellion are, for the first time, civilians, and the majority are the most vulnerable – women and children.

Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once said, “We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”

JUST a few weeks ago, I attended the Global Network of Religions on Children (GNRC) in Dar es Salaam in the company of His Eminence Yona Lwanga the Metropolitan of Uganda and His Grace Dr John Kakembo the Archbishop of the SDA in Uganda. While there, we teamed up with Hon. Loyce Biira Bwambale, Chairperson National Council of Children.

More than 80% of children in Puerto Rico live in high-poverty areas, according to a recent report. That's a sharp difference from national figures measured by the same study, which indicates that 11% of minors across the United States live in high-poverty areas.

Mary Haddow is a specialist nurse working on a new scheme that forges links between healthcare professionals and community services to tackle obesity

Yemen has announced plans to vaccinate the 1 million children born in the country each year against the most severe form of diarrhoea, rotavirus. Rotavirus is often fatal for under fives. The vaccination campaign is supported by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisations (Gavi).

A small, dusty, sparsely furnished building of mud bricks serves as a classroom for pupils at a primary school in Buterere, a town on the outskirts of Burundi's capital.

PARENTS who keep their children out of valuable early childhood education programs often do so because they see parental care as better.

Inequalities in South Africa are threatening economic growth, with children born into poor families unlikely ever to escape poverty or reap the rewards of living in Africa's largest economy

International Aids specialists gather in Washington, DC, to develop a road-map for continued research and to find a cure for HIV. Over 25 000 scientists, activists, people living with HIV and other important policymakers refocus on a strategic plan of action to end the un-needed suffering.

CHILDCARE use in the first year of life has no discernible bad effects, according to a series of Australian studies that track children through to age eight or nine.

Concerned regarding the rights of children under the age of 6 years, civil society groups have asked the government to focus on a comprehensive approach towards providing a sound foundation for survival, growth, protection, development and early learning under the proposed Early Childhood Care and Education Policy

Women are still bearing the burden of the HIV/AIDS three decades into the epidemic and need to be a priority in research, care, treatment at all levels, experts told delegates today at the XIX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) taking place in Washington, D.C. this week... Women’s childbearing role means that they have to contend with issues such as mother-to-child transmission of HIV. The responsibility of caring for AIDS patients and orphans is also an issue that has a greater effect on women.

More than 330,000 children are still being born with HIV around the world every year, even though there are proven ways to prevent them becoming infected that would also save the lives of their mothers, an international conference has heard

The "Kids Count" report, one of the most widely cited surveys of how children are faring in the United States, hasn't offered much good news in recent years, and this year's edition, released on Wednesday, offered few surprises.

ChildCare Education Institute (CCEI), an accredited, online training institution dedicated exclusively to the early care and education workforce, is proud to announce the addition of SOC103: Gender Bias and Stereotypes to the child care training online course catalog.

Children who grow up in institutions instead of with families have major deficits in brain development, a study of Romanian orphans has shown.

Speaking at a satellite session today at the XIX International AIDS Conference, Ambassador Eric Goosby, the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, and Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), commended countries and their international partners for recent progress in preventing new HIV infections among children and saving mothers’ lives.

This startling Foreign Correspondent special exposes the shocking explosion of global obesity in places where just a few decades ago hunger was a headline health concern.

The United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, the driving force that helps build a world where the rights of every child are realised, is supporting the Libyan Government to enhance the availability and quality of Early Childhood Development services to children across the country.

On the eve of the first International AIDS Conference in the United States in two decades, Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), joined US Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and others to launch Youth Score—a series of events to mobilize young people to lead the way to an AIDS-free generation.

The latest UNAIDS report shows falls in the rate of transmission of HIV from mother to child across the worst affected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The report also highlights unexpected falls in the cost of treating HIV and AIDS, meaning that such improvements will hopefully become the norm over the coming years. Our interactive graphic shows mother-to-child transmission rates in 2009 and 2011 for twenty Sub-Saharan African countries identified by UNAIDS as priorities for the elimination of new infections to children.

One year ago, on 20 July 2011, the United Nations declared famine in two regions of southern Somalia, the flashpoint in a humanitarian crisis gripping the Horn of Africa. After an outpouring of international support, the famine ended in February 2012, and countless lives across the region were saved. But 8 million people in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya remain in need of humanitarian assistance, and UNICEF’s relief efforts must continue

The best anti-poverty program is a job. That was the mantra of the 1996 welfare reform, which changed the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program into the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, for the first time requiring able-bodied welfare recipients to work or prepare for work in order to receive government assistance.

Funding worth nearly £42 million a year to support Wales’ most vulnerable and disadvantaged families has been announced by the Welsh Government

India fares poorly among middle-income countries when it comes to overall well-being of children even as the world witnessed significant progress in child health, education and nutrition during the last decade

For the first time in a decade, the number of children suffering from hunger and malnutrition has risen, threatening the substantial progress made in child health and education in the developing world.

Twelve comprehensive reproductive health care centers and 26 primary health care centers will be built near slums and other densely populated areas of Bangladesh as part of an $81 million project to improve urban primary health care financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Here at Early Ed Watch, you usually find us writing about education policy. But as we have often written, education is most powerful when it is combined with high-quality health care, parenting, child care, and nutrition. Last week, the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, a 22-agency team that collects and reports data on child and family welfare, released a new report, “America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being.”

Around 50% of children in Pakistan are out of school due to poverty, lack of infrastructure and social mindset.

Museums can play a pivotal role in alleviating child poverty in Wales, the children’s commissioner for Wales said yesterday.

Growing numbers of pupils in England are now entitled to free school meals – with the extra demand pushing up the cost of dinners.

The class action lawsuit the ACLU announced last week against both Michigan and a tiny Detroit area school district for failing to educate its own children raises this question: Can schools ever compensate for the ills of poverty?

In an informal settlement of 10,000 people on the outskirts of Papua New Guinea’s capital, Port Moresby, Tembari Children’s Care – a new grassroots initiative – is providing protection, food and education to orphans and abandoned children who would otherwise join the high numbers of child labourers in this Melanesian country

Africa is in the midst of a remarkable demographic shift with profound consequences for the continent's future. Our population is growing faster than in any other region (pdf). The median age is now 18, which is seven years younger than in south Asia and 16 years below China.

While the infant mortality rate, premature births, and teen births are declining, more children are living in poverty.

To build a strong house, we must begin with a foundation that can stand up to nature's challenges and the wear and tear of everyday life. Without that, no matter how well we build the rest, or how much we invest in it, the structure is compromised, and the house cannot provide reliable shelter.

AllAfrica examines the impact of investing in the health of Africa's women and children, and the consequences of failing to do so. A summit on family planning has shown that African women stand to benefit the most from greater access to contraception.

The United Nations today reaffirmed its commitment to protect and promote the rights of 16 million Iraqi children, on the occasion of the Day of the Iraqi Child, which commemorates the deaths of dozens of children who were killed by a car bomb on 13 July, 2005.

Annual statistics compilation notes increases in poverty, drop in secure parental employment

HUNDRED and one Fiji children under the age of 15 were sexually abused in the first six months of the year.

Barnardo’s have joined up with Save the Children and The Children’s Society to host an event where experts will talk about child poverty ahead of a Government consultation looking to redefine the way it is measured in the UK

The UK Government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with the support of UNFPA and other partners, hosted the international Family Planning Summit in London on 11 July. See how the media are covering this issue.

Three leading charities have called for income to remain a central component of the way child poverty is measured, ahead of a Government consultation on the issue.

I’m often asked, what is the single most important intervention to improve the lives of women and girls in developing countries? I usually answer by urging investment in girls’ education. But a close second—and in some cases I would put first—is birth control.

'I want to stop giving birth' Governments and donor groups have pledged to provide access to family planning services to an additional 120 million women in many of the poorest countries by 2020.

Finance Minister Amara M. Konneh yesterday alarmed that Liberian children are being exploited, which paints a blur picture for the country's future and its dream of achieving a middle income status by 2030.

The camera pans in. The grins of smiling school children fill the frame. An enthusiastic teacher, played by a famous Bollywood actress, sits in the centre. The scene is a "remote picturesque setting". And all are munching happily on Domino's Pizza.

Why should we put more money into early childhood development interventions? Does this help children in secondary education? Should we invest in preschool programmes or more in home stimulation or parenting classes? What is most cost-effective? These are key questions that policymakers are grappling with at a time when early childhood development is emerging as a priority issue for many developing countries.

A group of kids in a shelter for homeless children in New Delhi have a few lessons for the world's international bankers. They have invented a financial system of their own to save for a brighter future. In a shelter for homeless runaway teens in New Delhi, a tiny, self-starting democracy has sprung up. The residents have created an unlikely society where everything from healthcare to banking has been initiated, implemented and executed by the kids themselves.

The number of children living in vulnerable families could rise to more than one million by 2015, three leading UK charities have warned. Research for the NSPCC, Action for Children and The Children's Society suggests struggling families will be badly hit by cuts to tax and benefits.

A new study estimates fewer than half of developing countries are likely to reach the Millennium Development Goal to reduce child hunger. It says about 110 million children worldwide are moderately or severely underweight, while nearly 150 million others are mildly underweig

ABUJA — Nigeria's Center for Disease Control says poverty and pollution have reduced the national life expectancy to 47 years old, one of the lowest in West Africa. And while health officials dispute the number, none dispute the urgency of improving health care in the remote rural areas

This new series from the Guardian focuses on how and why family planning in the developing world has become a global priority, what is driving this renaissance of interest, how to tackle the practical – and political – challenges of expanding access and what is at stake in these debates.

A lack of rain, drought, and poor harvests as well as rising food prices are some of the factors leading to increasing food insecurity in Chad, which is leading to an increase in malnutrition, especially in children.

More than 1m Kyrgyz children (45%) live below the poverty line, Mira Itikeyeva, executive director of the Centre for Protection of Children said July 2, according to KyrTAG.

In Texas, 1 in 5 children live in poverty. That's 1,764,516 children total, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Research shows that growing up in poverty gives children a poor start in life: they are less likely to have access to health care, are six times more likely to live in homes with low food security, and have fewer safe outdoor spaces to play in. An estimated half a trillion dollars are lost each year across the nation due to the lower productivity, higher crime, and poorer health that result from growing up in poverty.

Another report on family planning – in what I suspect will become a deluge as the London summit nears – is published today. This one is by Save the Children and I find it particularly interesting because it broadens the debate.

Four years ago, UNICEF began promoting key family practices (KFP) for child health, hygiene and nutrition – behavioural interventions, with women taking the lead, that have the greatest impact on reducing under-five mortality and morbidity; helping to insulate families against future shocks.

A tool designed to help teachers gauge children’s ability as they started school lacked “clarity of purpose” and asked too much of the profession, according to a damning report.

The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) has said, the alternative education policy of “No Child Left Behind” which promises to make education Free, Continuous and Compulsory from Kindergarten to Senior High level, will go a long way to prevent poverty, when majority of the Ghanaian population attain at least high school education and become employable in the next decade.

The Chinese government has recently made early childhood development a national priority, recognizing the social and economic dividends that quality early learning opportunities reap for its human capital in the long term.

For more than five years, evidence has been mounting that children in Britain are worse off than those in other developed countries.

OVER THREE million Filipino children worked in risky conditions last year, latest government data show, a situation traced by experts to poverty and lack of job opportunities among parents.

A group of 100 parents in China who have lost an only child want to sue the government for better financial compensation as they grow older.

Last week the government announced plans to change the way child poverty figures are calculated. In a speech, work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith said child poverty was “not about income alone”.

There is growing evidence that what happens – or doesn’t happen – to children in the earliest years of their lives has immediate effects on their well-being and their future. Early childhood development is emerging as a priority issue on the policy agenda in developing countries. The International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) in partnership with University College London and the Centre for the Evaluation of Development Policies at the Institute of Fiscal Studies are holding an international conference entitled Promises for Preschoolers: Early Childhood Development and Human Capital Accumulation in Developing Countries, taking place in London, UK on June 25-26, 2012.

As the London family planning summit looms closer, the debate begins over how much money is needed, what it should pay for and whether the fundamentally important issues of women's reproductive rights will be addressed

An epidemic has swept across America, threatening the well-being of its most vulnerable residents, according to Save the Children, who launched today its Freedom from Poverty campaign to give a voice to the 16 million children bearing the brunt of the U.S. poverty crisis.

Aid agencies working in northern South Sudan are worried about refugees from Sudan's war-torn Blue Nile State who are reaching under-resourced camps in increasingly poor health. MSF said malnutrition was above emergency levels and particularly prevalent in children under five, for whom diarrhoea can prove fatal. "Four out of eight children in the family have diarrhoea" from drinking dirty water, said Junjal.

The latest Global Monitoring Report analyzes the impact of recent food price spikes on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), paying particular attention to the negative consequences that temporary food price shocks may have on nutrition.

Let me start with a Kenyan proverb. It was shared with me and my fellow Elders by a young activist from the Middle East: "The world was not given to you by your parents; it was lent to you by your children."

The World Bank approved new financial help to improve maternal and child health services and prevent the further spread of HIV in Madagascar. The Bank will finance a cost-effective program of health, nutrition, and sexually transmitted STI/HIV/AIDS services. These will address urgent needs of vulnerable groups including pregnant women and children under five, as well as those most at risk of STI/HIV/AIDS, such as youth, military, and sex workers m

It's known that obese children are prone to health hazards such as asthma and diabetes. Now, a new study has found they are more likely to struggle in the classroom as well. Researchers in the US found that youngsters who were overweight from the ages of three to nine performed worse on a maths test than their slim peers.

A bulletin entitled “Poverty in Northern Ireland 2010-11” containing statistics for the period April 2010 to the end of March 2011, has been published by Analytical Services Unit in the Department for Social Development.

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete emphasised the link between poverty and child suffering at the Fourth Forum of the Global Network of Religions for Children (GNRC) in Dar es Salaam on Saturday (June 16th), Tanzania's Daily News reported.

The rapid growth of child poverty in Colorado has increased hunger and food insecurity for thousands of children in the state, many of them Hispanic, according to figures revealed by the Hunger Free Colorado organization.

How bad is child poverty across Britain? While Iain Duncan Smith looks at different ways to measure poverty, HM Revenue of Customs already have a way of examining child poverty: children who live in families where, either the parents have an income of less than 60% of the average, or are claiming poverty-related benefits such as income support, job seekers allowance or tax credits.

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics and the Global Monitoring Report recently released new numbers for out of school children. According to the data, 61 million children of primary school age were not in school in 2010. At first glance, this seems like an improvement over the 67 million kids reported out of school in 2009. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

The annual report of the Secretary-General that provides an overview of the grave violations committed against children in conflict zones this year presented a “mixed picture”, correspondents were told at Headquarters today.

In the United States and Europe, child deaths are incredibly rare. They occur at a rate of less than 1 in every 100 children born and are almost never due to preventable causes like tetanus or pneumonia.

In March 1999 Tony Blair promised to abolish child poverty by 2020, and halve it by 2010. Statistics out tomorrow are likely to show that this halfway target was missed.

Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, will today take the first steps to downgrade the Labour government's commitment to eradicate child poverty in 2020 by announcing that he is to publish a green paper looking at a range of new non-income indicators of poverty.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called for the establishment of a protective environment where all children in Ghana would grow up free from violence, abuse and exploitation

Seven-year-olds who have lived in poverty since infancy perform substantially worse in a range of ability tests than those who have never been poor, even when family circumstances and parenting skills are taken into account, researchers have found.

Newborns now account for 40% of preventable child deaths worldwide, but only a tiny fraction of international aid targets newborns, according to a report to be published in the medical journal Health Policy and Planning Tuesday

Some people within the government, as well as some outside it, have criticised the previous Labour administration's approach both to measuring child poverty and to reducing it. They say it was hugely expensive and looks set to have failed. Are these criticisms warranted?

ISLAMABAD: The International Labour Organisation (ILO), UNICEF and UNESCO, in a joint statement on the occasion of ‘World Day Against Child Labour’, have called for renewed efforts to end the worst forms of child labour in Pakistan.

Childhood pneumonia and diarrhoea, two conditions that should ordinarily be treated and cured, are killing two million children under the age of five each year.

AUSTRALIAN toddlers will be screened for mental illness under a new, federal government funded program that some critics fear may medicalise normal childhood behaviour

The economy of Africa is growing. According to the African Economic Outlook for 2011, the continent rebounded in 2010 and is set for 3.7% growth in 2012. West Africa in particular has a higher projected growth figure of 5.9%.

Today is World Day Against Child Labour. Launched in 2002 by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), World Day Against Child Labour is intended to highlight the plight of child workers and serve as a catalyst for change. It is an opportunity for companies to examine their processes and explore what they can do to ensure that children are not being used in their supply chains.

Decrying the persistent practice of employing children in various sectors, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) today batted for amendment of the Child Labour Act and for inclusion of adolescent labourers under its purview.

THE number of destitute children who struggle to make a living through the worst forms of labour in Tanzania is shocking. A Child Labour Survey made in 2001 indicated that 1.5 million children were engaged in illegal labour in urban centres. Those who toiled for a living in rural areas were not counted.

In a speech in 1999 honouring William Beveridge, the architect of the welfare state, Tony Blair promised to end child poverty by 2020. "Our historic aim… will take a generation," he said. "It is a 20-year mission, but I believe it can be done."

The 20-year-old video predated YouTube, yet it has since gone viral, with 20 million views. Its picture is grainy but the words are crystal clear. “We’ve come 5,000 miles to tell you adults you must change your ways.”

Rachel Hall was part of a Unicef UK group that prepared a list of priorities that young people want to be taken up at the summit. She explains what they expect from world leaders

UNICEF is calling for global commitments to ending the loss of life from pneumonia and diarrhoea among poor children. The international community will tackle child survival at an upcoming meeting on June 14-15, 2012.

A quarter of a million malnourished children in Yemen will die “within months” unless proper food is delivered to them by aid officials, the Gulf News reported on Thursday, in shocking claims which spotlight the prospect of a major humanitarian crisis in the Middle East’s most impoverished country.

The Social Protection and Advocacy Consultant of the United Nations Children Education Funds (UNCIEF), Emily Garin, says of the 1.8 million children in Liberia, 48% between the ages of 0 to 5 were living in an extreme poverty , while 43% between the ages of 5 to 9 were school dropout.

Consider these facts: One half of New York City parents say they would feel forced to quit their job if their child no longer had access to child care. More than a third of New York City parents say they would feel forced to quit their job if their child no longer had access to after-school programs.

Stress may affect brain development in children, altering growth of a specific part of the brain and abilities associated with it, a new study has suggested.

Hungary’s child poverty rate is among the highest across 29 countries in Europe, a report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has found. About 30 per cent lack items such as three meals a day, a quiet place to do homework and educational books at home. UNICEF says ten per cent of Hungarian children live below the poverty line, that is, in families living on below 50 per cent of median income.

Charity report claims children's care homes are magnets for groomers and traffickers

Researchers have long recognised the risk smoking poses to babies, such as suffering from heart and brain defects. Now a new study from Spain provides evidence that babies born to mothers who smoke do in fact weigh and measure less. Presented in the journal Early Human Development, the findings show the babies' corporal dimensions are much lower compared to children of whose mothers did not smoke.

Sustainable development took centre stage as the UNICEF Executive Board opened its 2012 Annual Session at UN headquarters in New York today.

In Jordan, Save the Children and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) are assisting refugee children to enroll in nearby schools and are providing ongoing support to the families of these children.

When my parents decided to pack up their life as they knew it and move half way across the world to Australia with mini-me in tow ten years ago, they did so for one reason, and one reason only: to give me the chance to have a better childhood and live a better life.

Emphasising the medically proven links between malnutrition and sanitation, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking his support in sustaining a hike in the 12th Five Year Plan's allocation for drinking water and sanitation.

When water is all around you, how do you keep your children safe? That is the question haunting the village of Mubarakpur in Netrakona district, northern Bangladesh.

Bulgaria marks this Friday the International Children's Day, established in 1925 during the World Conference for the Well-being of Children in Geneva, Switzerland.

Overcrowded classrooms, too few trained teachers, insufficient schoolbooks and few toilets, often without separation between boys and girls: these are some of the problems facing primary school students in Sub-Saharan Africa. A statistical survey of school and teaching resources in the region by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) highlights these challenges which undermine children’s chances to succeed in their studies*

Admirable as the sentiment may be, the target to all but eliminate child poverty by 2020 was never likely to be conclusively met. Now, after the worst financial crisis since the 1930s and with the lingering threat of worse to come, even a statistical triumph is looking firmly out of reach.

Around 40 social development ministers and government representatives from more than 15 Latin American and 13 African countries today started in Brasilia, Brazil, a three-day forum to exchange experiences—and increase cooperation—to reduce poverty.

Cuts by the government could make UK child poverty worse, says the children's charity Unicef.

Canadians should be doing much more for children growing up in poverty, according to a new UNICEF report that finds Canada lags many other advanced countries.

The UK did better than many other rich countries in reducing child poverty and deprivation during the early years of the financial crisis. But the current government's policies to reduce spending will reverse this, and more children will grow up in poverty.

Only when the last case is gone will children be free from this scourge. The plan is there, now all depends on money. IN OCTOBER last year, against the backdrop of the largest-ever gathering of Commonwealth leaders, Australia called the world's attention to the urgent need to end polio forever. Standing shoulder to shoulder with Pakistan, Nigeria, Britain and Canada, Australia announced a landmark commitment of $50 million to purchase and deliver polio vaccines that will protect children around the world from this debilitating disease.

The impacts of that day in New York became an unexpected thread in my Unicef work and the current research I lead at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where we monitor trends in vac

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