A new inquiry from UNICEF’s investigative branch has exposed that one in five kids in the world’s most affluent countries are living in poverty. The investigation examined the economic support policies of nations belonging to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the European Union (EU). It discovered that while there was a general decrease in poverty of 8% over seven years, there were still more than 69 million children living in households making less than 60% of the average national income.
Poland and Slovenia were found to have the most success in tackling child poverty, followed by Latvia and the Republic of Korea. But some of the wealthiest countries in the report had the lowest scores. Bo Viktor Nylund, Director of UNICEF’s Innocenti research center, commented on the effects of poverty on children, saying it can lead to a lack of nutritious food, clothes, school supplies, or a warm place to call home, and can stop the realization of rights and bring about poor physical and mental health.
The report also detailed the long-term effects of poverty, such as children having less chance of finishing school and earning lower wages as adults, and in some countries, a person born in a deprived area is likely to live 8-9 years less than a person born in a wealthy area. It also highlighted the huge inequalities in the countries surveyed, with children living in single parent families being over 3 times as likely to be living in poverty than other children, as well as those with disabilities or from minority ethnic/racial backgrounds being at an above-average risk.
The study authors explained that while many countries reduced child poverty, some of the wealthiest saw the most significant reversals. They also noted that countries with similar levels of national income, such as Slovenia and Spain, experienced stark differences in child poverty rates – 10% and 28% respectively. To eliminate child poverty, the authors proposed that governments and stakeholders should immediately expand social protection for children, including child and family benefits to supplement families’ household income, as well as ensuring access to quality basic services, like childcare and free education, creating employment opportunities with adequate pay and family-friendly policies, and adapting measures to the specific needs of minority groups and single-headed households.