Blog: Children at the Heart

By Jenny Vaughan and Neil Raw – Senior Policy Advisors Child Health and Anja Nielsen, Senior Policy Advisor –Education

The development of a ten-year International Development Strategy presents a timely opportunity for the UK to accelerate progress for millions of children around the world. COVID-19 has put millions of children’s futures at risk, making it even more essential that we get this right. 

The UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) believe the Government’s new Strategy must be anchored in an approach which places children’s rights, including their access to essential healthcare and quality education, at the heart. This will be imperative if we are to be successful in safeguarding children’s futures against the transnational challenges of climate change, enabling the global economic recovery from COVID-19 and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

Centering Children’s Rights will have Transformative Results  

The realisation of children’s rights is intrinsically connected with the long-term development objectives on which the UK has positioned itself as a global leader.  Ending preventable deaths, championing inclusive education, promoting economic prosperity and the delivery of the SDGs all require children’s rights to be protected, respected, and realised.  

To enable all children to attain a quality education the UK strategy must emphasise the inclusion of girls, children with disabilities, refugees and displaced children, whilst supporting flexible pathways for learning and supporting disaster preparedness measures.  

To enable access to quality healthcare, the Strategy should set out how the UK will support all children to access routine immunisation services, adequate nutrition, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities through strengthening and prioritising investment in primary health care services.  

Investments in strong, resilient, and inclusive health and education systems will lay the foundations to withstand the climate related shocks we know are coming, and indeed are already witnessing, with over one billion children living in extremely high-risk contexts. In 2020, there were 9.8 million weather related displacements of children that led to disruption of children’s education and access to healthcare. Global responses to climate change must prioritise safeguarding children’s health and education against the adverse effects of climate change which are set to disrupt children’s access to health and education through displacement, increased susceptibility to disease. Improved access to health and nutrition services will considerably reduce the climate risk for 460 million children.  

As a duty-bearer to the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), the UK should fully incorporate rights within the Convention into its international development policy through the creation of a Child Rights Hub.  

By placing child rights at the heart of international policy and decision making, the UK will increase the opportunities available to children to achieve their full potential which will have a transformational impact for its wider development ambitions.  

The Global COVID-19 Response can Catalyse Change for Children 

Progress made towards attaining child rights and improving child health and education globally has never been more at risk. The pandemic threatens to reverse years of progress on enabling children around the world to realise their rights to good health and education.  

However, the global COVID-19 response has the potential to catalyse investments in essential services for children, sharpen the focus on the realisation of children’s rights and lead the way to overcoming longstanding barriers to accessing essential services that existed prior to the pandemic.  

No child should die from diseases that we can prevent. Yet even prior to the disruption caused by COVID-19, each year 1.5 million children died from preventable causes and over 20 million children were not reached with routine vaccines.  

The global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines offers an opportunity to reimagine immunisation while developing stronger and resilient immunisation infrastructure and the health systems. If this dual effort is successful, we will facilitate the global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines and increase the uptake of lifesaving vaccines for children thereby delivering on Immunisation Agenda 2030 simultaneously.  

Strengthening immunisation and health systems will be vital in delivering the critical and attainable goal of ending preventable child deaths by 2030. To deliver this, efforts to strengthen global health systems must include the full range of primary healthcare interventions needed to ensure child health including adequate nutrition and access to WASH facilities.   

Seizing the UK’s comparative advantage 

A global leader, the UK is uniquely placed to utilise its leverage in the global development arena to ensure major donors such as development banks, multilateral organisations and other bilateral donors prioritise investments and policies that advance child rights, particularly in relation to access to health and education.  

As president of the G7 and host of COP26 in 2021 the UK must be prepared to lead the world now and sustain the legacy of these events for the future, whilst holding world leaders to account on the UK led G7 2021 Declaration on girls’ education and the UK’s commitment to vaccinating the world. 

Our track record demonstrates the UK’s exceptional ability to invest and lead the way towards the realisation of children’s rights globally. The new International Development Strategy should build upon this by putting children’s rights at the centre.