Global Coalition's 11th annual meeting: Shaping the future of child poverty

On February 4th, the Global Coalition held its 11th Annual Meeting, where the 2025 workplan and priority themes were discussed. This year, the Coalition aims to focus on policymakers—examining their current positions, understanding, and knowledge gaps regarding child poverty. Stay engaged with the Global Coalition’s initiatives to keep abreast of upcoming events and publications!

Africa Children’s Summit 

The 2nd Africa Children’s Summit will take place in Johannesburg, South Africa, from April 5-7. Hosted by the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, in collaboration with Arigatou International and other partners, this landmark event aims to champion child participation in shaping the continent's future. The summit will gather over 200 children from across Africa to discuss critical issues related to child wellbeing and develop actionable recommendations.

Following the inaugural summit in Nairobi in April 2023, which brought together over 300 children under the theme "Seen, Heard, Engaged," this year's summit continues to emphasize the importance of meaningful child participation.

Global solicitation on best poverty reduction practices

The International Poverty Reduction Center in China (IPRCC) has launched its annual Global Solicitation on Best Poverty Reduction Practices Campaign, inviting submissions of cases on poverty reduction. Over the past years, five campaigns have collected more than 3,700 cases and selected 529 outstanding examples from 78 countries and regions.

The campaign aims to leverage these case studies to share practical experiences, summarize effective poverty reduction models, and disseminate poverty governance solutions from various countries.

You can find more information on the IPRCC website. Please send your submissions to the organization at [email protected].

Children’s realities in Europe

The fourth episode of the Eurochild podcast delves into Eurochild's flagship report, Children's Realities in Europe: Progress & Gaps. This episode explores insights from 57 members across 31 European countries, examining how poverty impacts all other rights and questioning whether current policies and promises across Europe are genuinely improving children's lives.

Listen to the episode and discover more about the challenges and progress in children's wellbeing across Europe.

Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) 69

On March 13, UNICEF, in collaboration with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and partners, hosted a CSW69 side event titled “Years of Her Life: Gender-Responsive Social Protection Across the Life Course.” The event highlighted how discrimination limits women's and girls' economic and educational opportunities, resulting in workforce and income disparities, and emphasized the need for gender-responsive social protection. Speakers included Lord Collins, the Minister for Africa, Spokesperson for Equalities, UK, and Sah Sudi, Minister of Women, Children, and Senior Citizens of Nepal, among others.

A call for action on financing social protection

More than half of the world’s population is covered by at least one social protection benefit. This is welcome progress, yet an alarming 3.8 billion people, including 1.8 billion children, remain unprotected.

During the third preparatory committee meeting of the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development, a side event focused on safeguarding social protection expenditure. At the event, the Global Partnership for Universal Social Protection (USP2030) Financing Working Group and the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights launched a call for action, highlighting four actionable solutions for progress.

Malnutrition remains a critical global challenge, particularly affecting vulnerable women and children

At the Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit on 27-28 March 2025 in Paris, World Vision will advocate for stronger nutrition commitments through the ENOUGH campaign to end hunger and malnutrition. Their efforts will focus on increasing financing for nutrition, influencing commitment makers, and elevating the voices of 10,000+ participants from the Nutrition Dialogues initiative across 54 countries. Find out more about the ENOUGH campaign and nutrition advocacy and World Vision's presence at the summit.

You can also check out this article on how school meal programmes can support livelihoods, promote climate resilience, engage children and communities in creating long-term solutions for food security, and transform entire food systems.

The empathy fix: Why poverty persists and how to change it

Parents in poverty are not poor parents. Yet the responsibility for reducing poverty – and thereby the blame if it doesn’t work – is often individualized. It leads to paternalistic, pejorative and sometimes punitive policies, which can do more harm than good. In The Empathy Fix – a new nonfiction book – Keetie Roelen draws on global evidence to come to grips with the individualization of poverty and the power of empathy to help change it. 

Find out more and get the book.

Identifying gender disparities in education and child nutrition using multidimensional poverty index (MPI)

The Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) presents a methodological study titled "Analyzing individual disadvantages alongside household poverty to illuminate gendered and intrahousehold disparities." This paper utilizes indicators such as school attendance, child nutrition, and completed years of schooling in South Asia.

The study shows how to reveal gender disparities among the poor and non-poor and directly measure intrahousehold inequalities in child deprivation.

Prospects for children in 2025: Building resilient systems for children’s futures

As the world faces a new era of crises impacting children, urgent action is needed to ensure that children and young people are protected, supported, and able to thrive. The latest edition of the Global Outlook, titled "Prospects for Children in 2025: Building Resilient Systems for Children’s Futures," produced annually by UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight, delves into key trends affecting children and young people over the next 12 months and beyond. Discover the insights and strategies that will shape their futures.