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Testtttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt Country Office Annual Report 2019 Mexico Update on the context and situation of children The last year of the 2014-2019 Country Programme was marked by a complex political, social and economic context. It was the first year of the new Government, during which radical changes in social development and poverty alleviation policy occurred, with a commitment to reach traditionally excluded groups such as indigenous populations and persons with disabilities, as well as to reduce access barriers and support more universal approaches. Changes derived from the so- called “Fourth Transformation” represent a break from “traditional” politics, which created concerns over policy predictability(1). Well-known programmes such as Prospera, one of the pioneer cash transfer programmes and a world- renowned example of social protection for families without social security; and Seguro Popular, one of the largest health insurance schemes in the world, disappeared to create new direct cash transfer schemes and health institutions. Estancias Infantiles, the main childcare scheme targeted to the poorest families with children under 6 years of age, also disappeared. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), GDP figures showed that Mexico entered a technical recession in the first quarter of 2019, and with a subsequent minute expansion of a mere 0.01% in the third quarter (2). In terms of human development, the latest HDI score worsened from 0.774 in 2017 to 0.767 in 2019, ranking 76 globally, as a high development country (3). Important challenges remain in terms of the number of people, particularly children, living in poverty (SDG1, Target 1.2): in 2018 41.9% of the population was poor (7.4% lived in extreme poverty), and 49.6% of children lived in poverty (9.3% in extreme poverty). (4) Inequalities prevail among indigenous children (particularly girls) who live in rural areas. In Mexico, socio-economic status was a strong predictor of educational outcome. Students coming from low socio-economic background are outperformed by 81 score points in reading compared to those coming from higher socio-economic levels in the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) (OECD average: 89 score points) (5). The 2018 PISA showed that students in Mexico scored lower than the OECD average in reading, mathematics and science. Only 1% of students performed at the highest levels of proficiency (Level 5 or 6) in at least one subject (OECD average: 16%), and 35% of students did not achieve a minimum level of proficiency (Level 2) in all three subjects (OECD average: 13%). (5 Ibid.) Furthermore, UNICEF´s Situation Analysis (SitAn) showed that 82% of students in 6th grade do not achieve satisfactory learning in language and communication, and 77% do not achieve satisfactory learning in mathematics (6), and that the out-of-school rate was 1.2% for primary school and 6.5% for lower secondary (12-14 years old) in 2018 (7), proving that Mexico still has many hurdles to overcome in meeting SDG 4 on quality education. Obesity and overweight in children and adolescents continue to be a public health concern. Data from ENSANUT 2016 and 2018, indicate that the percentage of children with overweight and obesity was 33.2% (5-11 years old) in 2016, and 35.6% in 2018. Among those under 5 (SDG 2, Target 2.2), it was 9.7% in 2016 and 8.2% in 2018. (8). For adolescents, percentages rose from 39.2% among girls and 33.5% among boys in 2016 to 41.4% and 36% respectively in 2018. (8Ibid). 2019 was also heavily marked by an increase in violence. As the EIU analyses, despite a change in the president’s security strategy to address social factors behind violent crime —including poverty, unemployment and prison conditions—one should not anticipate a significant reduction in violence unless a more comprehensive security strategy emerges. According to the Global Peace Index of 2019, Mexico ranked 140 among 163 countries in terms of peacefulness (9). Among OECD countries, Mexico has the highest homicide rate of 29.3 homicides per 100,000, an average of 100 deaths per day; out of which 3.7 victims of homicide are children under 18 years of age (10). Violence, particularly against women and children, continues at an alarming rate (SDG 3, 5 and 16). The adolescent birth rate was 1.6 (10-14 years old) and 65.4 (15-19 years old) per 1,000 girls, in 2016 (11). According to the ENADID 2018 the birth rate for girls 15-19 rose to 70.6 per 1,000 girls. Mexico is highly vulnerable to the impact of natural hazards. Two-thirds of the country are exposed to seismic risk. It is also vulnerable to hurricanes and intense rains that cause floods and landslides. The country is ranked “high” in the 2019 Index for Risk Management and is among the nine countries in the world with the highest values for hazard and exposure. Nevertheless, Mexico has a solid reputation in the region for its emergency response capacity. Migrant flows from Central America continued throughout 2019 and remains a challenge both for the country and for UNICEF Mexico, specifically due to constantly changing migration policies impacting child and adolescent migrants. There was an increasing presence of children and families, especially unaccompanied children, along Mexican borders and in transit, in need of protection and physical integrity. Officially, 157,691 people from Central America entered Mexico in 2019 through its border with Guatemala (12). Another 59,236 asylum seekers to the USA from the Migrant Protection Programme (MPP) were present in Mexico during 2019. Mexicans affected by organized crime violence in Guerrero and Page 1 of 7 Page 1 of 7 Testtttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt Country Office Annual Report 2019 Mexico Michoacán compose an important number of migrants seeking asylum to the USA. Prevailing austerity measures that have heavily impacted the 2020 federal budget for social programmes targeting children and adolescents, particularly for early childhood and child protection institutions, give a sense of uncertainty on policies and programmes to guarantee child rights. Still, on a positive note, there is openness, positive engagement and political will among some key government sectors to change indicators in insecurity and violence, education and health. ENDNOTES (1) Country Report December 2019. Economist Intelligence Unit. Outlook for 2020-24. Political stability. P. 4 (2) Country Report December 2019. Economist Intelligence Unit estimates. 25 November 2019. (3) UNDP, 2019 Human Development Index Trends. http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/2019-human-development-index- ranking (4) CONEVAL, 2018. Estimates based on MCS-ENIGH 2018. (5) OECD. OECD Country Note Mexico, Results from PISA 2018, OECD Website. www.oecd.org, accessed 3 February 2020. (6) PLANEA 2018. SEP (7) ENIGH 2018. INEGI (8) ENSANUT 2018. INEGI-INSP (9) Global Peace Index 2019, p.9. Available at: http://visionofhumanity.org/app/uploads/2019/06/GPI-2019-web003.pdf. Accessed on: 8 January 2020. (10) INEGI. Estadísticas de mortalidad, defunciones por homicidio. 2018. (11) ENDIREH 2016. INEGI (12) Unidad de Política Migratoria. Ministry of Interior (SEGOB). Major contributions and drivers of results In 2019, being the last year of the 2014 – 2019 Country Programme and the first year of the López Obrador Government, UNICEF Mexico focused its efforts on building new relationships and partnerships with the new administration. Mexico CO provided technical advice to the Ministry of Finance as it formulated the 2020-2025 National Development Plan, by providing inputs in the areas of child poverty, health and nutrition, education, social protection and prevention of violence against children. This year also marked the last year of the 2014-2019 country programme, which meant finalizing certain lines of actions while continuing with interventions that are reflected in the new CPD. The following results were achieved this year, in line with the 2018-2021 UNICEF Strategic Plan: Using the power of evidence to drive change for children UNICEF Mexico produced the Child Poverty Brief, in partnership with the Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL), which generated an important discussion among different ministries towards addressing child poverty in the country, as envisioned in Outcome 1 of the CPD. Findings revealed that Mexico has not improved very much in the last eight years in terms of poverty, which only decreased by 0.8 per cent; and that in 2019, 49.6 per cent of Mexico’s approximately 40 million children live in poverty. The Brief also highlighted that the greatest deprivation for children and their families is the lack of adequate access to social protection, as 60.8 per cent of children do not have access to it. As a way to contribute to the social protection in the country, in line with Mexico’s UNSDCF 2020-2025 Outcome 1, Direct Effect 2 on access to social protection, UNICEF Mexico finalized a study on how to strengthen social protection in Page 2 of 7 Page 2 of 7 Testtttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt Country Office Annual Report 2019 Mexico emergencies and presented its recommendations to the Ministry of Wellbeing, including specific improvements to the operational guidelines of the recently created Programa para el Bienestar de las Personas en Emergencia Social o Natural (Programme for the Wellbeing of People Affected by Social or Natural Emergencies), a cash transfer programme for emergency-affected populations. At the subnational level, UNICEF Mexico collaborated