Report Card 9: The Children Left Behind New report reveals rich countries letting poorest children fall
2010-12-03
A landmark report by the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre has found that children in many wealthy counties suffer greater inequity than children in numerous industrialised nations.
'Report Card 9: The Children Left Behind' ranks 24 OECD and 7 other countries in terms of equality in health, education and material well-being for their children. The approach of the report is to compare children who are most disadvantaged with what is considered ‘normal’ in their country, and ask how far behind are rich nations allowing their children to fall. Italy, the United States, Greece, Belgium and the United Kingdom, for example, are seen to be allowing their most vulnerable children to fall much further behind than countries like Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Switzerland and the Netherlands.The Children Left Behind argues that the heaviest costs of ‘falling behind’ are paid by the individual child, but the problems also translate into significant costs for society. It also shows evidence that greater equality can be achieved without sacrificing efficiency and economic performance.