GENEVA: The number of children living without access to social protection is increasing year-on-year (YoY), leaving them at risk of hunger, poverty, and discrimination, a report released by UNICEF and International Labour Organization (ILO) revealed on Thursday.
It said that an additional fifty million children aged up to 15 years missed out on a critical social protection provision, especially child benefits between 2016 and 2020, bringing the total number to 1.46 billion.
Director Social Protection Department at the ILO Shahra Razavi said that
consolidated efforts to ensure adequate investment in universal social protection for children, especially through universal child benefits to support families, is the rational and ethical choice, that paves the way to social justice and sustainable development.
Report shows drop in family, child benefit coverage rates
The report said that family and child benefit coverage rates dropped or stagnated in every region around the world between 2016 and 2020, leaving no nation on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of getting substantial social protection coverage by 2030.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, coverage fell significantly from approximately 51% cent to 42%. In many other regions, coverage has stagnated and remains low.
In Central Asia and South Asia, East Asia and Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and West Asia and North Africa coverage rates have been at about 21%^, 14%, 11% and 28%, respectively, since 2016.
