PART 2 An unfairly distributed future Twenty-five years ago, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Since then, millions of children have benefited from progress. When governments, their international partners, businesses and communities have matched their obligations under the Convention with money and energy, they have saved and improved the lives of hundreds of millions of children. While the magnitude of progress has been profound in key areas – child survival, education, access to clean water – too many children still confront the future with their needs unaddressed, their rights unrealized and their potential thwarted.
The world’s low-income countries remain home to concentrations of poverty and disadvantage, but many impoverished children live in middle-income countries – countries plagued with large income inequalities. Here, as elsewhere, deprivation is disproportionately concentrated in urban slums and remote rural areas and among such marginalized groups as ethnic minorities and people with disabilities. Even the safety of a child’s arrival in this world remains subject to the lottery of where she was born and whether her family is well off – and the inequity extends throughout childhood and beyond.
Reimagine the future: Innovation for every child
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