The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development puts the principles of equality and non-discrimination at its heart, with a commitment to leave no one behind and reach those furthest behind first. Centring children in our efforts to drive sustainable development is a human rights imperative with the power to break harmful cycles of poverty and continued rights violations. But as the midpoint of our vision for a more equitable world nears, how successful have we been in bettering the lives of children?
To answer this question, UNICEF examined the available data on the 48 child-related Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators, which the agency regularly monitors. Organized around five domains of child well-being – Survive and Thrive, Learning, Protection fromHarm,Safe and Clean Environment, and Life free from Poverty – these indicators capture the breadth of children’s lived experiences. When viewed together – rather than as individual sectors – they provide a rich, nuanced picture of children’s lives that tell us which children are thriving and which children are being left behind. (...)
