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SOWCmech2 12/9/99 5:29 PM Page 1 THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S CHILDREN 2000 e yne THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S CHILDREN 2000 The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) © The Library of Congress has catalogued this serial publication as follows: Any part of THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S CHILDREN 2000 The state of the world’s children 2000 may be freely reproduced with the appropriate acknowledgement. UNICEF, UNICEF House, 3 UN Plaza, New York, NY 10017, USA. ISBN 92-806-3532-8 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: www.unicef.org UNICEF, Palais des Nations, CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland Cover photo UNICEF/92-702/Lemoyne Back cover photo UNICEF/91-0906/Lemoyne THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S CHILDREN 2000 Carol Bellamy, Executive Director, United Nations Children’s Fund Contents Foreword by Kofi A. Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations 4 The State of the World’s Children 2000 Reporting on the lives of children at the end of the 20th century, The State of the World’s Children 5 2000 calls on the international community to undertake the urgent actions that are necessary to realize the rights of every child, everywhere – without exception. An urgent call to leadership: This section of The State of the World’s Children 2000 appeals to 7 governments, agencies of the United Nations system, civil society, the private sector and children and families to come together in a new international coalition on behalf of children. It summarizes the progress made over the last decade in meeting the goals established at the 1990 World Summit for Children and in keeping faith with the ideals of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. And it presents the disparities between the visions and hopes of a decade ago and today’s reality. Undeclared war: Despite the progress made, the last decade has also witnessed countless abuses 19 of women and children. This section of the report discusses four of the most daunting obstacles to full human development: HIV/AIDS, armed conflict and violence, increasing poverty and gender discrimination. In a single generation: The picture that ultimately emerges in The State of the World’s Children 37 2000 is a hopeful one, based on the belief that intergenerational patterns of poverty, violence, disease and discrimination can be broken in a single generation. This section offers compelling arguments about the power of early childhood care, quality education, and participation and development for adolescents in ensuring children’s rights and human development. Finally, the essay concludes with an invitation to a grand, broad-based international alliance, necessarily visionary and pragmatic at once, committed to realizing the rights of women and children. We start the 21st century with a vision and a commitment: Ten pages of evocative photographs showing the strength of families, communities, women, children and adolescents. 52 Leadership in the best interests of the child: Fifty-two individuals, representing hundreds of thousands more, who have distinguished themselves by their work on behalf of children, are noted. 62 Maps Six maps illustrating child and adolescent populations; life expectancy; learning and education; children and adolescents at special risk; rich world, poor world; and unstable environments. 67 2 The State of the World’s Children 2000 Statistical tables 81 Eight tables, with 193 countries listed alphabetically, regional summaries and world totals, present the latest available data on the well-being of children. Countries are first ranked in descending order of their estimated 1998 under-five mortality rate and this ranking is then included in each of the tables: basic indicators, nutritional status, health status, educational levels, demographics, economic indicators, the status of women and the rate of progress since 1960. Panels 1. SOUTH AFRICA:HELPING CHILDREN BY HELPING FAMILIES 9 2. INDONESIA’S DESPAIR 21 3. CHILDREN’S RISKS IN SOCIETIES ON THE EDGE 25 4. ZAMBIA:HOPE IN THE AIDS EPICENTRE 31 5. SEEDS OF PEACE:YOUNG PEOPLE IN COLOMBIA 41 6. THE EDUCATION AGE, PAST DUE 47 Text figures FIG.1 THE GROWING GAP BETWEEN THE RICH AND POOR COUNTRIES 20 FIG.2 THE DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME IN THREE LARGE ECONOMIES 24 FIG.3 INCREASE IN NUMBER OF COMPLEX EMERGENCIES 28 FIG.4 PREVALENCE OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN BY AN INTIMATE MALE PARTNER IN ANY RELATIONSHIP 28 FIG.5 POVERTY AND HIV PREVALENCE 30 FIG.6 GROWING WEALTH AND DECLINING ODA 38 FIG.7 MONEY SPENT ON HIV/AIDS 45 References 64 Glossary 66 Index 118 Contents 3 Foreword here is no trust more sacred than the one the world holds with children. There is no duty more important than ensuring that their rights are respected, that their welfare T is protected, that their lives are free from fear and want and that they grow up in peace. The State of the World’s Children 2000 is a rallying call to us all. It is a call to governments, civil society, the private sector and the whole international community to renew our commit- ment to children’s rights by advancing a new vision for the 21st century: a vision in which every infant has a healthy beginning, every child a quality education and every adolescent the oppor- tunity to develop his or her unique abilities. It is a call to families and communities – and to children and adolescents themselves – to make their voices heard in helping translate this vision to reality in their daily lives. This report tells of the many ways the world’s commitment to children has been translated into action – particularly since the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989 and the World Summit for Children the following year. More children are born healthy and more are immunized; more can read and write; more are free to learn, play and simply live as children than would have been thought possible even a short decade ago. But as The State of the World’s Children 2000 so eloquently tells us, this is no time to stand on past achievements. Millions of children continue to endure the dreadful indignities of poverty; hundreds of thousands suffer the effects of conflict and economic chaos; tens of thousands are maimed in wars; many more are orphaned or killed by HIV/AIDS. The State of the World’s Children 2000 begins and ends with the premise that the wellspring of human progress is found in the realization of children’s rights. It spells out a vision in which the rights of all children, without exception, are realized. The challenge, as so often, lies in the implementation of good intentions. Let us summon all our courage and commitment to make it so. Because a child in danger is a child who cannot wait. Kofi A. Annan Secretary-General of the United Nations 4 The State of the World’s Children 2000 A vision for the 21st century UNICEF/93-1837/Andrew A girl from Mozambique stands by a tree trunk in a transit camp. 5 An urgent call to leadership s the 21st century begins, the over- what needs to be done – for all women and whelming majority of the people in all children – before the first decade of the A the world who live in poverty are new millennium ends. children and women. They are also the Taken as a whole, these many organiza- overwhelming majority of civilians who are tions and the millions of people they repre- killed and maimed in conflicts. They are sent – neither cowed nor intimidated by the the most vulnerable to infection with challenges ahead – will form an unprece- HIV/AIDS. Their rights, as set forth in the dented international movement on behalf Convention on the Rights of the Child and of children. Many have worked long years the Convention on the Elimination of All to better the lives of children, adolescents Forms of Discrimination against Women, and women: bringing the Convention on are violated every day in numbers of such the Rights of the Child into being in 1989, magnitude as to defy counting. setting goals and plans of action the follow- But the pall that these abuses of poverty, ing year at the World Summit, striving in conflict, HIV/AIDS and gender discrimination the decade since then to be true to their have cast on lives around the globe can be promises. Others have embraced the cause lifted. The conditions are neither inevitable of child rights more recently, drawn by a nor immutable. Nor is the international particular issue such as child soldiers, child community about to abandon women and labour or the trafficking of children for children to them. Government bodies and prostitution. civil groups, organizations of the United Together, they share a belief that human Nations system and non-governmental progress and overall development lie in organizations, philanthropies and responsible the progress of women and children and the corporate citizens – as well as children and realization of their rights. They are animated adolescents themselves – have formed by what has already been accomplished: the alliances to redress these wrongs. proven child survival gains of the 1980s and Ready to take the necessary next step in 1990s, the tenets of the Convention on the advancing the well-being of the world’s chil- Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination dren, representatives of these various groups against Women (CEDAW), the law and are to gather in an extraordinary meeting in spirit of the Convention on the Rights of the New York autumn of 2001, that will be the Child and the achievements in nearing linked to a Special Session of the General the World Summit goals.

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