Poverty and illiteracy await world’s most disadvantaged – UNICEF

A UNICEF annual report has painted a stark picture of what awaits the world’s poorest children if governments, donors, businesses and international organisations did not accelerate efforts to address their needs.

Based on current trends, the report said 69 million children would die from mostly preventable causes, 167 million would live in poverty while 750 million women would have been married as children by 2030.

A statement signed by Innocent Kafembe, the Communication Officer of UNICEF, and copied to the Ghana News Agency, quoted the report, titled: The State of the World’s Children, as saying; “Denying hundreds of millions of children a fair chance in life does more than threaten their future – by fueling inter-generational cycles of disadvantage among other things”

It quoted UNICEF’s Executive Director, Anthony Lake, as saying; “We have a choice: Invest in these children now or allow our world to become still more unequal and divided”.

Ms Susan Namondo Ngongi, a UNICEF Representative in Ghana, was also quoted as saying: “Important progress has been made in Ghana and the national level of poverty which fell by more than half, thereby, achieving the MDG1 target, however, there are still 3.5 million children living in poverty which accounts for 28.3 per cent of all children”.

The statement said investing in the most vulnerable children could yield immediate and long-term benefits to enhance education of the children.

Source: GNA