Progress on children’s rights has stalled, reversed, or remains insufficient in many countries.
Now, at the midpoint to 2030, most nations face multiple challenges. These include the unequal recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing conflict, displacement, rising living costs, and worsening climate crises. Identifying effective strategies to accelerate progress—and prioritising them in national and global financing—is essential.
This project explores the main barriers to advancing the child-focused Sustainable Development Goals. It draws on recent global literature, two desk reviews, and interviews with UNICEF headquarters, regional offices, and national governments. It also includes children’s perspectives from country offices across regions.
The analysis uses economic, social, environmental, and political lenses to understand how decisions and investments in children are made.
The study seeks to articulate actionable, cost-effective, and evidence-based solutions that will optimise children’s outcomes. It supports of UNICEF efforts, in order to offer evidence to Member States and contribute to shaping critical positioning around the upcoming UN Summit of the Future in 2024, and the second World Summit for Social Development in 2025.
