The State of the World’s Children 2014 in Numbers: Every Child Counts
Revealing disparities, advancing children’s rights
The report presents the latest data on the situations of children along with a brief essay discussing the numbers and their potential to spur positive change for the world's 2.2 billion children.
The approaching 25th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and culmination of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) provide critical opportunities to reexamine the commitments the world made to its children, and to reaffirm the importance of monitoring as a means to identify gaps in implementation and right the wrong of exclusion.
Many actors contribute to this effort including non-government organizations, governments, universities and local communities, making it possible to address children's needs and advance their rights using the facts derived from data to target investments and interventions that reach the most vulnerable children.
Reaching all children requires recognizing and building on the positive strides that have been made. Some 90 million children who would have died if mortality rates had stuck at their 1990 level have, instead, lived past the age of 5. However, it is also necessary to recognize that there is far more work to be done. Some 6.6 million children under 5 years of age died in 2012, mostly from preventable causes.
Data alone do not change the world. They enable change by identifying needs and providing an evidence base for action, investment and accountability.
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