PRESS RELEASE
UNICEF: Innovation can drive change for most disadvantaged children
On the 25
th
anniversary of the Convention of the Rights of the Child, The State of the World’s
Children report lays out an agenda for change
NEW YORK, 20 November 2014 –
Urgent action is needed to prevent millions of children from
missing out on the benefits of innovation, UNICEF said in a new report launched on the 25
th
anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Connectivity and collaboration can fuel
new global networks to leverage innovation to reach every child, according to the children’s
agency.
The State of the World’s Children Report – Reimagine the future: Innovation for every child
calls
on governments, development professionals, businesses, activists and communities to work
together to drive new ideas for tackling some of the most pressing problems facing children -- and
to find new ways of scaling up the best and most promising local innovations.
The report is a crowd-sourced compilation of cutting-edge innovations and an interactive platform
that maps innovations in countries all over the world and invites innovators to put their own ideas
‘on the map’.
“Inequity is as old as humanity, but so is innovation – and it has always driven humanity’s
progress,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake. “In our ever-more connected world,
local solutions can have global impact -- benefiting children in every country who still face inequity
and injustice every day.
“For innovation to benefit every child, we have to
be
more innovative – rethinking the way we
foster and fuel new ideas to solve our oldest problems,” said Lake. “The best solutions to our
toughest challenges won’t come exclusively either from the top down or the grassroots up, or from
one group of nations to another. They will come from new problem solving networks and
communities of innovation that cross borders and cross sectors to reach the hardest to reach – and
they will come from young people, adolescents and children themselves.”
The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989.
Since then, there has been tremendous progress in advancing child rights – with a huge reduction
in the numbers of children dying before the age of five and increased access to education and
clean water.
However, the rights of millions of children are violated every day, with the poorest 20 percent of
the world’s children twice as likely as the richest 20 percent to die before their fifth birthday,
almost one in four children in the least developed countries engaged in child labour, and millions of
children regularly experiencing discrimination, physical and sexual violence, and abuse and
neglect.
The latest edition of UNICEF’s flagship report argues that innovations such as oral rehydration salts
or ready-to-use therapeutic foods have helped drive radical change in the lives of millions of
children in the last 25 years – and that more innovative products, processes, and partnerships are
critical to realizing the rights of the hardest to reach children. The fully digital report includes
multimedia and interactive content that invites readers to share their own ideas and innovations,