29 Jun 2016

The UNICEF annual report which was released recently calls on the world to focus more on the plight of its most disadvantaged children.

The State of the World’s Children, UNICEF’s annual flagship report reveals that based on current trends, 69 million children less than five years will die from mostly preventable causes.

It further says 167 million children will live in poverty while 750 million women will have been married as children by 2030.  

A press release from UNICEF in Gaborone says the report paints a stark picture of what is in store for the world’s poorest children if governments, donors, businesses and international organizations do not accelerate efforts to address their needs. 

 According to the release, significant progress has been made in saving children’s lives, getting children into school and lifting people out of poverty, but this progress has been neither even nor fair. 

Across much of South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, children born to mothers with no education are almost three times more likely to die before they are five than those born to mothers with a secondary education. 

Botswana is one of the few African countries that has dramatically reduced poverty levels, achieved universal access to HIV treatment and strengthened social services such as education and health, says the report.

The release states that although there is much to celebrate, a lot can still be done in Botswana as research points out those children of poorer families are not just dropping out of school earlier, they are disadvantaged since conception.

Those children do not get the care they need when they are ill and they are subject to more potentially life-threatening dangers when growing up because they are more exposed to violence. Ends