One in five children in the world lives in extreme poverty

A few hours after departure International Conference on Child Grants, organized by UNICEF, ILO and ODI in Geneva, international organizations released figures from their latest joint report, which they agreed domain.com. Depending on the job, one in five children live in extreme poverty (ie with less than US $ 1.90 per day) and about half of all children in the world live in "moderate" poverty (less than $ 3.10 per day).

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The report calls for rapid expansion of benefits for the youngest, with the aim of achieving the universal social protection of children, as well as achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In this context, he realizes that on a global scale only 35% of children are on average covered by social protection programs, which reaches 87% in Europe and Central Asia, 66% in the Americas, 28% in Asia and 16% in Africa.

"The evidence clearly shows that money transfers play a vital role in breaking the vicious circle of poverty and vulnerability," said the agencies involved, while identifying this type of public policy as "essential. "to improve access to information. nutrition, health and education, in addition to reducing child labor, poverty and vulnerability.

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Alexandra Yuster, Associate Director of UNICEF and Social Policy Officer, asked countries "to prioritize children and protect each other with social protection to permanently end poverty" . "Poverty strikes children harder because its consequences can last a lifetime.Malnutrition and the loss of years of education are tragic results for the individual and his community and for the l & # 39; 39, the whole society, "he said.

"With adequate social protection, child poverty could be reduced rapidly," he said. Isabel OrtizDirector of Social Protection, ILO, during the presentation of the report. "Improving the lives of all children is a question of priorities and political will: even the poorest countries have fiscal space to extend social protection levels," he added.

Argentina

When we talk about social programs for children, Unicef ​​and the others ILO They agreed that the universal social protection of children is not a privilege of rich countries. In this context, international organizations have stressed the need to Universal allocation by child (AUH), which celebrates its tenth anniversary in October, as the State's policy of state coverage of minors.

In addition to Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mongolia and South Africa are among the leading examples of developing economies with universal (or near universal) coverage.

However, both Unicef as the ILO They noted that in many other countries, social protection programs for children suffer from limited coverage, low benefit levels and weak and fragmented institutions. "Some governments that are currently going through fiscal consolidation processes are even reducing subsidies instead of extending the benefits that countries want in terms of sustainable development," the report says.

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Despite the progress made at the local level, in Argentina, the pension reform approved at the end of 2017 by the Congress affected not only retirees, but also children and adolescents benefiting from family or universal allowances.

The standard adopted in the context of a long and tense session, which was to be evoked at the first attempt in the framework of an armored Congress by the security forces, and of dozens of wounded and detainees, has amended the pension and cash benefits update form. social security, including contributory family allowances (AAFF) and universal child benefit, two of the three channels through which the state transfers resources to families with minors.