By Sarah L Dalglish, Anthony Costello, and Awa Coll-Seck, April 20, 2021
In February, 2020, we published the WHO–UNICEF–Lancet Commission report A future for the world's children? The Commission called for a new global movement to put the health and wellbeing of children and adolescents at the centre of national and global efforts to achieve sustainable development. Events have reinforced our message, as children's needs have not been prioritised during the COVID-19 pandemic. In many countries, children and adolescents have missed out on months of education and social contact with peers, gone hungry, missed immunisations, or been exposed to violence or abuse, contributing to adverse impacts on their mental health and wellbeing. Although the epidemiological evidence is still emerging, negative effects on the sexual and reproductive health and rights of adolescent girls are also a concern. During the pandemic's first wave, only 2% of the fiscal stimulus in high-income countries was allocated specifically to support children. And despite lockdowns in countries around the world, carbon dioxide emissions fell by only about 6% in 2020 and have already rebounded, revealing the lack of urgent, dedicated action on the climate crisis, which continues to jeopardise the future of all children.
Our Commission's report sounded the alarm about stalled progress on the health of children and adolescents. The evidence is incontrovertible: successful societies invest in their children and young people, producing lifelong, intergenerational benefits for health, wellbeing, and the economy. We called on governments to work across sectors to deliver children's entitlements, as specified by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, by leveraging high-level political leadership and engaging communities, families, and children themselves. We drew attention to emerging threats to children, notably, the climate crisis and the insidious commercial exploitation of children through inappropriate marketing of products and services, such as alcohol, tobacco, sugar-sweetened beverages, breastmilk substitutes, and gambling apps, often by exploiting children's developmental vulnerabilities and social media data.
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