Children and Youth

This report examines nutrition, providing a fresh perspective on a rapidly evolving challenge. Despite progress in the past two decades, around 200 million under-fives suffer from undernutrition. Adding to this toll is rising obesity, which affects 38 million children. All these forms of malnutrition threaten children’s development, while obesity is creating a lifelong legacy of disease. At the heart of this evolving challenge is a global shift towards modern diets that do not meet children’s nutritional requirements. The report provides unique data and analysis of malnutrition in the 21st century and outlines recommendations to put children’s needs at the heart of global and national food systems.

This report is intended to highlight the important role young people play in addressing climate change, and to offer suggestions on how young people might be more effectively integrated as individuals and collective agents of change within the realm of climate change adaptation and mitigation. The report is designed to assist youth and youth organizations in educating themselves and to become more actively involved in combating the threat of climate change. It is also meant to affirm the status of young people as key stakeholders in the fight against climate change. The publication comes at a time when efforts to address climate change are receiving unparalleled attention within the international arena, offering young people a unique opportunity for their voice to be heard in the debate.

This is a biennially recurring publication of the United Nations. This year, it is largely based on an e-discussion with young people and representatives of youth-led organizations on the transition from schools and training institutions into the world of work. It shares the participants’ views, experiences and recommendations on preparing for, entering, and remaining active in the labour force. Young people are crucial stakeholders in the pursuit of decent and productive work for all, often pioneers in their respective fields, yet, too frequently, their voices go unheard particularly with decision-makers. This report brings young people’s voices into the forefront where youth issues are discussed and acted upon.

The World Youth Report 2013 focuses on the topic of youth and migration. It delivers a synopsis of the basic facts on youth migration and development discussing who is migrating, where they are coming from, where they are going to and why. The Report looks at the entire process involved in migration including the planning and preparations and the drivers behind the decisions that young people make. It examines the impact migration has on young people – those on the move as well as those who have been left behind - their experiences in transit and the lives of migrants in their destination countries and the challenges they face. First-hand experiences of youth are woven into the Report, adding another dimension to the material covered.

More than 500 million youths worldwide live on less than $2 a day, 113 million are not in school, 88 million are unemployed and 10 million have HIV/AIDS, all significant challenges for reaching the 2015 goals of reducing poverty by half, increasing literacy, and improving the health of people around the world. Amid this grim picture portrayed in the World Youth Report 2005, there are positive signs. Since 1995, the number of children completing primary school has continued to increase, while the current generation is the best educated in history.

En este Report Card se describen las desigualdades en el bienestar infantil en 41 países de la Unión Europea (UE) y la Organización de Cooperación y Desarrollo Económicos (OCDE). Se examina la desigualdad en el extremo inferior de la distribución, es decir, la brecha entre los niños que se sitúan en la parte baja y los que ocupan la posición media. Al mismo tiempo, se estudia hasta qué punto se deja que los niños se queden atrás en términos de ingresos, educación, salud y satisfacción en la vida.

The State of the World’s Children 2011: Adolescence – An Age of Opportunity examines the global state of adolescents; outlines the challenges they face in health, education, protection and participation; and explores the risks and vulnerabilities of this pivotal stage. The report highlights the singular opportunities that adolescence offers, both for adolescents themselves and for the societies they live in. The accumulated evidence demonstrates that investing in adolescents' second decade is our best hope of breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty and inequity and of laying the foundation for a more peaceful, tolerant and equitable world.

The 2008 report examines the state of child survival and primary health care for children, with a strong emphasis on trends in child mortality.It appraises the lessons learned in child survival over the past century.The centerpiece of the report looks at several of the most promising approaches-community partnerships, the continuum of care framework and health-system strengthening for out-comes-to reach those mothers, new borns and children who are currently excluded from essential interventions. By highlighting examples from countries and districts where these have been successful, as well as exploring the main challenges to their expansion, this report offers practical ways to jump-start the progress.

As the debate about whether the internet is safe for children rages, The State of the World’s Children 2017: Children in a Digital World discusses how digital access can be a game changer for children or yet another dividing line. The report represents the first comprehensive look from UNICEF at the different ways digital technology is affecting children, identifying dangers as well as opportunities. It makes a clear call to governments, the digital technology sector and telecom industries to level the digital playing field for children by creating policies, practices and products that can help children harness digital opportunities and protect them from harm.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agreed by the international community in 2015 represent an ambitious effort to set a global agenda for development that is both equitable and sustainable, in social, economic and environmental terms. The earlier Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) prioritized the reduction of poverty, as well as progress in related social indicators. The 17 goals of the SDGs add to this a series of outcomes associated with inequality, economic development, the environment and climate change, as well as peace and security. In contrast to the MDGs, which primarily applied to low- and middle-income countries, the ambitious agenda of the SDGs is of necessity universal; it thus applies to rich countries, as well as poor.

El 20 noviembre 2009, la comunidad mundial celebra el 20 aniversario de la aprobación por la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas de la Convención sobre los Derechos del Niño, el único documento que establece normas internacionales relativas a la atención, el tratamiento y la protección de todos los individuos menores de 18 años. Para conmemorar este acontecimiento sin precedentes, el Fondo de las Naciones Unidas para la Infancia dedica una edición especial de su informe más importante, el Estado mundial de la Infancia, al examen de la evolución de la Convención, los progresos alcanzados en materia de derechos de la infancia, los retos que quedan por delante y las medidas que es preciso adoptar para garantizar que la promesa que figura en este tratado se convierta en una realidad para todos los niños y niñas.

Los datos y observaciones en este Report Card Innocenti revelan una correlación fuerte y multifacética entre el impacto de la Gran Recesión en la economía nacional y una disminución en el bienestar de los niños desde 2008. Los niños sufren más, y van a sufrir las consecuencias más larga, en los países donde la recesión ha golpeado duro. Para cada país, el alcance y el carácter del impacto de la crisis sobre los niños ha sido formado por la profundidad de la recesión, preexistentes condiciones económicas, la resistencia de la red de seguridad social y, lo más importante, las respuestas políticas. Sorprendentemente, en medio de esta crisis social sin precedentes, muchos países han logrado limitar - o incluso reducir - la pobreza infantil. Era de ninguna manera inevitable, entonces, que los niños serían las víctimas más perdurables de la recesión.

Les données et observations de ce Bilan Innocenti révèlent des relations fortes et multiples entre l’impact de la Grande Récession sur les économies nationales et le déclin du bien-être des enfants depuis 2008. Les enfants souffrent plus et subissent des conséquences plus durables dans les pays où la récession a été la plus marquée. Dans chaque pays, la gravité de la récession, les conditions économiques antérieures, la solidité des dispositifs de protection sociale, et surtout les mesures prises par le gouvernement ont déterminé l’ampleur et la nature des effets de la crise sur les enfants. Étonnamment, malgré cette crise sociale sans précédent, de nombreux pays ont réussi à limiter, voire à réduire, la pauvreté des enfants. Il existait donc des moyens d’éviter que les enfants soient les victimes les plus durables de la récession.