Young Lives e-newsletter November 2012 Young Lives is a unique 15-year study of 12,000 children in 4 countries (Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam) that aims to challenge policymakers to effect change.
"Unless I work, we cannot run our house." Today, Thursday 11 October 2012, is Universal Children’s Day – the anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989. The Convention represented a dramatic shift in approaches to children’s development, providing a framework for addressing not only fundamental rights like shelter, nutrition, and education, but also for children’s participation in events and processes that affect them. Many children’s rights are still not respected, but before the Convention was approved there wasn’t any legal instrument to support them. Our study children tell us about their everyday experiences in our Facebook photo gallery while Young Lives Senior Research Officer Virginia Morrow and Policy Officer Kirrily Pells outline three key challenges in a comment piece.
Other news
Multidimensional response needed to tackle multidimensional inequalityUnderstanding how poverty and inequalities impact on children is the major goal of Young Lives. A new paper for the UN Women/UNICEF consultation on inequalities summarises our key findings so far, with a focus on 8 key policy-relevant messages. It argues that inequalities in children’s development originate in multiple disadvantages, but that the middle and later years of childhood are also significant for long-term outcomes, with children's experiences playing a crucial role in the transmission of poverty. We conclude that since inequalities are multidimensional, so too must be the response. Equitable growth policies, education and health services, underpinned by effective social protection, all have a role to play.
• Inequality of opportunity highlighted in UK parliamentary inquiry into post-2015 agenda
• Call for papers: Inequalities in Children’s Outcomes in Developing Countries
• Young Lives India country website launched
• Young Lives research features in Save the Children flagship report on inequality
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