Debt and the Effect on Children

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The Progress of Nations, 1999¹ report by UNICEF, suggests that debt is killing children².

It is pointed out that as countries are diverting resources away from social provisions to repay debt, those most affected are the poor, especially women and children.

The State of the World's Children 2000³ report, also by UNICEF, points out that in 1960 the income gap between the richest one-fifth of the world's population and the poorest was 30-1. In 1997 it was 74-1.

According to UNICEF's Progress of Nations 2000 report, 30,000 children die each day.⁴ Yet, they "die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death." That is just under 11 million children each year dying from poverty.

UNICEF defines these as children under the age of 5. The numbers would be even higher if they considered children to be those under the age of say 6, or 7, for example.

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1. http://www.unicef.org/pon99/
2. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_400000/400877.stm
3. http://www.unicef.org/sowc00/
4. http://www.unicef.org/pon00/immu1.htm