Posted on April 21, 2012
The State of the World's Children 2012: Children in an Urban World
The State of the World's Children 2012: Children in an Urban World
More than a billion children worldwide live in cities and towns, and while urban areas offer the promise of economic development and accelerated progress toward the Millennium Development Goals, those in poor neighborhoods are denied essential services and social protection, a report from UNICEF finds. The report, The State of the World's Children 2012: Children in an Urban World (156 pages, PDF), argues that while aggregate data on well-being find that children fare better in urban settings than they do in rural areas, millions of urban youth — many of them living in slums — are deprived of basic necessities such as health care, education, water, sanitation, and hygiene. The report calls for a focus on equity in urban settings, which would require a better understanding of the scale and nature of urban poverty and exclusion with respect to children; development solutions that eliminate barriers that prevent marginalized children and their families from accessing services, expose them to violence and exploitation, and exclude them from decision-making processes; policies and practices that promote partnerships between the urban poor and government; and collaboration among international, national, municipal, and community stakeholders.
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