July 2017
About Social Inclusion UNICEF UNICEF is working harder than ever to promote The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) the rights of children everywhere. works in more than 190 countries and territories to put children first. UNICEF Every child has a right to a fair chance in life, has helped save more to live free from extreme poverty and discrimi- In Armenia, UNICEF’s children’s lives than any ‘Together We Can’ campaign other humanitarian organi nation. Fairness has always been at the heart of provides supportive and zation by providing health UNICEF’s work — from the time UNICEF was developmental day care for children with disabilities. care and immunizations, established to meet the needs of children after clean water and sanitation, World War II, to today, as millions of children nutrition, education, are uprooted from their homes due to conflicts emergency relief and more. and wars they did nothing to create. UNICEF USA supports UNICEF’s work through fundraising, advocacy and Despite great progress over the past two education in the United decades to improve the situation for children, States. Together, we are crushing poverty and widening disparities working toward the day in health, education and protection still when no children die from preventable causes and undermine the lives of millions of children. every child has a safe and Between 1990 and 2015, the number of healthy childhood. children who died each year from preventable For more information, causes fell by more than half, from 12.7 million visit unicefusa.org. to 5.9 million. But 16,000 children still die every day from things we can prevent. Children in the poorest households are nearly twice as likely to die as those from the wealthiest households. Nearly half of the people living on
less than $1.90 per day in 2013 were children © UNICEF/UN038653/PIROZZI — even though children only make up a third of the global population. And more than a third these deprivations at once: the same girl who of people living in the most extreme poverty doesn’t have enough to eat is often also out of are less than 13 years old. school; she may also be living with a disability and at risk for exploitation and abuse. Many children are excluded from realizing their basic rights because of their gender, race, Protracted conflicts, often fueled by the ethnicity, geographic location or disability. inequitable distribution of resources and Children are excluded from education because marginalization of ethnic or religious groups they are poor. They are denied health services further compound the suffering of children because they live in remote areas or urban and young people. In humanitarian situations, slums. They are at risk of physical injury and the poorest children are the hardest hit. loss because they live in communities hit Communities devastated by climate-related hard by climate change. Marginalized children disasters often have the fewest resources to are at greater risk for exploitation and abuse. rebuild and recover, and remain at greater risk And many children experience several of to future disasters. UNICEF in Action school expenses and medicine. The program Of all the world’s inequities and injustices, was so successful that it is even impacting Discrimination this is perhaps the most fundamental: Children how the Jordanian government carries creates and growing up in poverty are nearly twice as likely out some of its standard social protection to die before reaching their fifth birthday as programs, improving funds transfers through compounds children growing up in better circumstances. new technology, and using some of UNICEF’s inequity. An unconscionable majority of them die monitoring and evaluation tools. unnecessarily. Most of these deaths could have In the face been prevented with high-impact, low-cost In addition to partnership with governments, of social solutions. UNICEF has found that investments UNICEF also works with civil society actors, in the most deprived children and communities local leaders and families themselves to tackle exclusion, provide greater value for money than the underlying drivers of child poverty and equivalent investments in less deprived exclusion. For example, UNICEF worked with children in groups. Every $1 million invested in the the civil society partner BRAC International in the most dire poorest children and communities saves nearly Bangladesh to unpack the drivers of harmful twice as many lives as equivalent investments social norms and customs that exclude situations that do not reach the poor. By reaching those children from school. This is leading to an are the least poorest communities with cost-effective health increase in school enrollment among children interventions, we can avert 70 million under- with disabilities, girls and other disadvantaged likely to five deaths by 2030. groups. UNICEF also empowers children to have a voice and be agents of change for the receive UNICEF works in direct partnership with world they want. UNICEF’s free, open-source the care, governments to identify who the most SMS platform, U-Report, reached more than vulnerable and excluded children are, and 2 million users in 34 countries in 2016. resources what they need. Through evidence-gathering Through this tool, young people can voice and services and policy guidance, UNICEF helps shape their opinions, share information on what’s social protection systems that affect children happening in their schools and communities, they need. nationwide. UNICEF policy experts help and demand that local leaders make changes governments monitor their budgets to to improve their lives. allocate resources to the poorest and most marginalized children, and design programs UNICEF Social Inclusion Snapshot that will bring the greatest results. UNICEF ● Children make up only a third of the global also champions children’s rights and population, but account for half of the promotes access to justice, ensuring that people living in extreme poverty, living on legal frameworks protect minorities from less than $1.90 a day. discrimination and exclusion. ● There are an estimated 93 million children Cash transfer programs are an important social with disabilities in the world. They are often protection tool that can help keep the poorest, the most marginalized and vulnerable. most vulnerable households out of extreme poverty and ensure access to health care and ● UNICEF invested $330 million in 2016 to quality education. Women-headed households strengthen social protection systems for are often the recipients of these cash grants, children and tackle the underlying drivers which have been proven to strengthen of child poverty and exclusion. women’s financial security, social status and participation in the labor force. In Madagascar, ● UNICEF helps governments in 157 countries UNICEF supported the country’s first national to provide critical social protection programs cash transfer program to increase secondary for the most vulnerable and marginalized school enrollment, reaching 39,000 households children. and 117,000 children. In Jordan, UNICEF provided a monthly cash grant of $28 to ● UNICEF reached an additional 24 million 15,500 families, benefiting 56,000 boys and children with cash transfers in 2016, girls. The program prevented more than half covering a total of 179 million children, of the families from having to cut back on food including 1.4 million children in emergency rations and freed up their limited resources for settings. ●