More than 400 million children globally live in poverty by State of the World’s Children 2025 UNICEF   Nov. 2025   More than 1 in 5 children in low- and middle-income countries – or 417 million – are severely deprived in at least two vital areas critical for their health, development, and wellbeing, according to UNICEF’s flagship report issued on World Children’s Day today.   The State of the World’s Children 2025: Ending Child Poverty – Our Shared Imperative draws on data from over 130 low- and middle-income countries to assess the breadth of multidimensional poverty by measuring deprivations across six categories: Education, health, housing, nutrition, sanitation, and water. The analysis shows that 118 million children experience three or more deprivations, and 17 million face four or more deprivations.   “Children growing up in poverty and deprived of essentials like good nutrition, proper sanitation and shelter, face devastating consequences for their health and development,” said UNICEF Executive Director, Catherine Russell.   “It doesn’t have to be this way. When governments commit to ending child poverty by implementing effective policies, they can unlock a world of possibilities for children.”   The highest rates of multidimensional poverty among children are concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. In Chad, for example, 64 per cent of children face two or more severe deprivations, and just under 25 per cent face three or more.   Sanitation is the most widespread severe deprivation, with 65 per cent of children lacking access to a toilet in low-income countries, 26 per cent in lower-middle income countries, and 11 per cent in upper-middle income countries. A lack of adequate sanitation can increase children’s exposure to diseases.   The share of children facing one or more severe deprivations in low-and-middle-income countries dropped from 51 per cent in 2013 to 41 per cent in 2023, largely due to prioritising child rights in national policies and economic planning. However, progress is stalling.   Conflict, climate and environmental crises, demographic shifts, mounting national debt and widening technological divides are compounding poverty. At the same time, unprecedented cuts to Official Development Assistance (ODA) risk deepening child deprivation across low- and middle-income countries.   Yet progress towards ending child poverty is possible. For example, Tanzania achieved a 46-percentage point reduction in multidimensional child poverty between 2000 and 2023, partially driven by government cash support grants, and empowering poor households to make their own financial decisions. While in Bangladesh, child poverty dropped by 32-percentage points over the same period, thanks to government-led initiatives that increased education and electricity access, improved housing quality, and investment in water and sanitation services that reduced open defecation from 17 per cent in 2000 to zero in 2022.   Poverty undermines children’s health, development, and learning – leading to weaker job prospects, shorter lifespans, and increased rates of depression and anxiety. The report highlights that the youngest children, those with disabilities, and those living in crises are particularly vulnerable.   The report also examines monetary poverty, which further limits children’s access to food, education, and health services. According to the latest data, more than 19 per cent of children globally live in extreme monetary poverty, surviving on less than US$3 per day. Nearly 90 per cent of these children are in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.   The report includes an analysis on 37 high-income countries, showing that about 50 million children – or 23 per cent of the child population in these countries – live in relative monetary poverty, meaning their household has significantly less income than most others in their country, potentially limiting their ability to participate fully in everyday life.   While poverty declined, on average, by 2.5 per cent across the 37 countries between 2013 and 2023 – progress has stagnated or reversed in many cases. In France, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, for example, child poverty increased by over 20 per cent. During the same period, Slovenia reduced its poverty rate by more than a quarter, largely thanks to a strong family benefits system and minimum wage legislation.   The State of the World’s Children 2025 highlights that ending child poverty is achievable, and underscores the importance of centering child rights, as outlined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, in all government strategies, policies and actions aimed at poverty reduction, by:   Making ending child poverty a national priority. Integrating children’s needs into economic policies and budgets. Providing social protection programmes, including cash support to families.   Expanding access to essential public services, such as education, healthcare, water, sanitation, nutrition, and housing. Promoting decent work for parents and caregivers to strengthen their economic security, which is closely linked to children’s progress.   The report comes at a time when many governments around the world are scaling back foreign assistance. Cuts in development aid could result in the deaths of 4.5 million children under the age of 5 by 2030, according to The Lancet. At the same time, recent UNICEF estimates show the cuts could leave six million more children out of school by next year.   “Too many children were already deprived of their basic needs, even before the global funding crisis threatened to make things far worse,” said Russell. “This is not the time to retreat. It’s a time to build on the hard-earned progress for children that has been made over the years.   Governments and businesses can do that by strengthening investment in key services for children to keep them healthy and protected and ensuring that they have access to essentials like good nutrition, especially in fragile and humanitarian contexts. Investing in children delivers on a healthier and more peaceful world – for everyone.”   http://www.unicef.org/reports/state-of-worlds-children/2025 Visit the related web page
	Protecting Children From Conflict: An Unwavering Priority amidst the surge in Conflict Worldwide by Dr. Najat Maalla M’jid Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict   Aug. 2025   Annual Report of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Dr. Najat Maalla M’jid to the UN General Assembly.   Global overview of trends, emerging issues and challenges   Multidimensional conflicts, including across regions, protracted conflicts, the emergence of new armed actors and the use of new technology have continued to adversely affect the protection of children in conflict situations. Grave violations against children have continued to increase.   In 2024, for the third consecutive year, grave violations against children in armed conflict reached unprecedented levels, with a staggering 25 per cent surge compared with 2023. Children bore the brunt of relentless hostilities, indiscriminate attacks, failure to respect international humanitarian and international human rights law, disregard for ceasefires and peace agreements, and deepening humanitarian crises.   The United Nations officially verified 41,370 grave violations, of which 36,221 were committed in 2024 and 5,149 were committed in previous years but verified in 2024 only. Violations affected 22,495 children, one third of them girls. While non -State armed groups were responsible for nearly 50 per cent of these violations, government forces were the main perpetrators of the killing and maiming of children, attacks on schools and hospitals, and the denial of humanitarian access.   A 17 per cent increase in the number of children subjected to multiple violations through the convergence of abduction, recruitment and sexual violence represented an alarming escalation in brutality.   United Nations data showed a persistent and blatant pattern of grave violations induced by a lack of respect for the special protections afforded to children by conflict-affected States and armed groups, compounded by the use of private security companies.   Warfare strategies included deliberate attacks on children, the deployment of increasingly destructive weapons, the use of explosive weapons in populated areas and the systematic exploitation of children through their participation in hostilities.   Deliberate harm was inflicted on children, instilling terror among entire communities, affecting their mental health and recovery opportunities, and driving mass and prolonged displacement. The urbanization of conflicts and their intensification across borders, the climate emergency and regional insecurity increased the vulnerabilities of children.   State and non-State armed actors continued to commit grave violations with impunity, depriving children not only of justice and reparations but also of their fundamental rights to life, protection, education, health and a future.   The violations verified at the highest levels were the killing (4,676) and maiming (7,291) of 11,967 children, denial of humanitarian access (7,906), the recruitment and use of children (7,402) and abduction (4,573). The number of children detained for actual or alleged association with armed groups, including those that are currently under sanctions enacted by the UN Security Council, or for national security reasons surged from 2,491 in 2023 to 3,018 in 2024, further depriving children of their rights.   The highest number of grave violations were verified in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (8,554), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (4,043), Somalia (2,568), Nigeria (2,436) and Haiti (2,269). The sharpest percentage increase in violations was verified in Lebanon (545 per cent), Mozambique (525 per cent), Haiti (490 per cent), Ethiopia (235 percent) and Ukraine (105 per cent).   Children were killed and maimed in appalling numbers using explosive ordnance, including explosive remnants of war, mines, explosive weapons in populated areas and improvised explosive devices, and by crossfire between parties to conflict, often creating lifelong disabilities, if not death. The conflicts in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Sudan, Myanmar and Burkina Faso were the deadliest for children.   Denials of humanitarian access reached an alarming scale, with more humanitarian workers, including United Nations personnel, killed in 2024 than ever before and unprecedented numbers of children prevented from gaining access to basic and humanitarian services, including life-saving services.   Parties to conflict attacked aid convoys and personnel and water and sanitation facilities, arbitrarily detained humanitarian personnel, restricted humanitarian activities and movements, adopted bureaucratic and administrative barriers, and interfered with humanitarian operations, leaving children without access to healthcare, education, protection and life -saving assistance.   The destruction of critical infrastructure deepened crises and exacerbated malnutrition, preventable and non-preventable diseases, and the displacement of children. The highest numbers of denial of humanitarian access were verified by the United Nations in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Afghanistan and Haiti.   Recruitment and use of children persisted at very high levels, with 7,402 children recruited and used by State and non-State actors, most commonly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria and Somalia. The violation was often compounded by other grave violations, such as killing and maiming, abduction and sexual violence. Abduction was the fourth highest verified violation in 2024, affecting 4,573 children. Nigeria, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo had the highest numbers of abducted children.   Rape and other forms of sexual violence increased by 35 per cent compared with 2023, with cases of gang rape increasing dramatically, underlining the systematic use of sexual violence as a deliberate tactic of warfare to enhance territorial control, displace populations and target the specific ethnicity or gender of children, among others. Girls were disproportionately affected by sexual violence.   The persistent underreporting of this violation due to stigma, risk of retaliation, harmful social norms, absence or lack of access to services, and impunity and safety concerns in a context of limited and eroding legal protections underscores the urgent need for age - and gender-sensitive responses and strengthened accountability mechanisms. The United Nations verified the highest numbers of cases of sexual violence in Haiti, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.   Attacks on civilian objects and infrastructure, including schools and hospitals, significantly heightened the vulnerability of children and increased by 44 per cent during 2024. A total of 2,374 attacks on schools and hospitals were verified, with most attacks verified in Ukraine, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Haiti.   Similar trends and patterns with regard to grave violations against children were observed in the first half of 2025. The drawdown of United Nations peace operations and the global decrease in humanitarian funding had a negative impact on child protection by significantly reducing the capacity of the United Nations to verify and respond to grave violations.   Sustained and reinforced funding for child protection should be prioritized at a time of unprecedented humanitarian and protection needs of children. Any further reductions in resources will have direct and devastating impacts on the lives of conflict-affected children, straining operations and protection capacities and limiting children’s access to life-saving assistance.   * Note: The United Nations officially verified statistics of grave violations against children cited in this report represent a minuscule fraction of the reality of the suffering children are experiencing in current conflict situations. Unicef reports that over 473 million children—more than one in six globally—now live in areas affected by conflict, with the world experiencing the highest number of conflicts since World War II. The percentage of the world’s children living in conflict zones has doubled—from around 10 per cent in the 1990s to almost 19 per cent today.   http://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/2025/08/protecting-children-from-conflict-an-unwavering-priority-amidst-surge-in-conflict-worldwide/ http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/not-new-normal-2024-one-worst-years-unicefs-history-children-conflict http://data.stopwaronchildren.org/ http://www.warchild.net/news/ http://www.forchildreninwar.org/press-release/ http://www.savethechildren.net/news/number-children-facing-malnutrition-conflict-fails-improve-global-goal-end-hunger-track http://www.ohchr.org/en/stories/2025/09/even-times-conflict-childrens-rights-are-not-optional   Sep. 2025   On the International Day to Protect Education from Attack, the Inter-agency for Education in Emergencies (INEE) and the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (the Alliance) jointly condemn all forms of attacks on education and call for all parties to conflict to respect international humanitarian law, to protect schools from attack and military use, and to ensure children can continue their education in safe and protective school environments.   Schools, students, and teachers are not targets. From 2023 to 2024, and now into 2025 we have seen an alarming increase in attacks on education with schools deliberately targeted and destroyed. In this year’s Report of the Secretary General on Children and Armed Conflict, grave violations against children increased by 25% from 2023 to 2024. Globally, 234 million school-age children are affected by conflict, with 85 million children completely out of school due to destruction, attack and displacement. This has to stop.   When education facilities are destroyed, it’s not just physical buildings that are lost, it’s the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of thousands of children; for many children affected by conflict and crisis, school is one of the few places they can feel safe and protected. It’s a place where they not only receive education, but also, psychosocial support, a chance to safely socialise with their peers and, in some cases, food, immunisations, and clean water and sanitation.   Quality education functions as a protective service, where child protection and education actors can work together. School can protect children from exposure to child protection risks, including violence and abuse, recruitment into armed forces, child labour, and early marriage. If schools are closed due to attack or military use, children lose the protection they provide.   In too many conflicts in the world today education systems are systematically targeted, from Palestine, to Sudan, to Ukraine, schools are attacked, students and teachers killed and children are denied their right to education.   In Gaza, all schools have been closed with nearly 97% of school buildings damaged or destroyed, meaning 625,000 students have nowhere to learn. In Sudan, attacks on education have increased fourfold year on year, with most schools closed and 18 million children out of school due to the conflict. In Ukraine 3,524 educational institutions have been damaged since the start of the full-scale invasion, with 360 completely destroyed.   These devastating figures are just some examples of the extent to which attacks on schools are increasing and how conflict is disrupting education around the world.   Together, INEE and the Alliance call on parties to conflict to ensure children’s rights are respected as enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and that international humanitarian law is upheld, that schools remain safe from attack and military use, and students and teachers are protected as civilians.   We call on all states to use their influence to ensure this basic level of protection for children and education systems is enforced, and violators held to account.   We also call on states to recognise and endorse the Safe Schools Declaration and guidelines, now in their 10th year; they ask states to commit to keeping schools, teachers and students safe and accessible during conflict.   Finally, INEE and the Alliance call upon humanitarian leadership, donors, and governments to ensure integrated child protection and education responses are prioritised and funded for the growing number of children impacted by crisis and conflict so they can be better protected, and so education can continue safely.   http://alliancecpha.org/en/technical-materials/joint-statement-international-day-protect-education-attack http://protectingeducation.org/news/education-under-fire/ http://eua2024.protectingeducation.org/ http://ssd.protectingeducation.org/   Oct. 2025   “The deliberate targeting or military use of schools is a disregard for one of humanity’s most vital institutions,” warned Farida Shaheed, Special Rapporteur on the right to education, presenting her report on education in armed conflict to the General Assembly today.   “States must treat attacks on education, protected facilities and personnel as serious violations of international law,” Shaheed said.   The Special Rapporteur noted that international norms protecting the fundamental right to education continue to apply in situations of armed conflict.   “The obligation to respect, protect and fulfill the right to education remains in force. Protections do not cease,” she said.   Shaheed said the collapse of education systems undermines entire societies, perpetuating cycles of violence and poverty. “In war, a functioning school can mean safety from recruitment, sexual violence, child labour, forced and early marriage and exploitation. It can offer psychosocial healing and preserve the continuity of communities,” she said.   Shaheed presented a policy brief on education in armed conflict and outlined eight policy actions to protect education in armed conflict, from prohibiting attacks and military use of schools and criminalising such acts under national law, to strengthening accountability, remedy and reparations, prevention of ideological manipulation of education, enhanced data collection and ensuring continuous, inclusive and quality education during crises.   She called on the international community to translate commitments into action: adopt national laws, prosecute perpetrators, fund education in emergencies and endorse and implement the Safe Schools Declaration.   The call comes amid an alarming rise in attacks on schools and protected civilian school personnel. She noted that global conflict has intensified, with nearly 130 armed conflicts recorded in 2024 and over 6,000 reported attacks on schools and universities, students and educators. Globally, an estimated 234 million school-aged children and adolescents, are affected by crises, including armed conflict. Alarmingly, this number has increased by at least 35 million in the past three years. More than 52 million children in conflict-affected countries were out of school last year.   “Education cannot be a casualty of war,” Shaheed said. “Protecting education is not only a humanitarian imperative, it is a legal duty and a moral test of our shared humanity. Every destroyed school is a wound to the future. Each child denied learning is a warning that peace is slipping away.”   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/10/education-during-armed-conflict-offers-lifeline-protection-stability-and http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc5941-right-be-safe-education-report-special-rapporteur-right http://www.ohchr.org/en/events/forums/2025/2025-social-forum http://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/opinion/2025/11/24/aid-cuts-kids-caretakers-are-clear-about-what-save-education
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