Newsletter

December 2025

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<<Top picks>>

<<Graphic design visual with the following text: "Quiz question: How many children live in extreme poverty? a)333 million b)400 million c)412 million d)457 million. Continue reading the newsletter to find the correct answer.">> [[link removed]]
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Children in poverty: Latest global trends and measures
<<An event visual featuring a smiling child on a bike in front of a polluted riverbank along with the following information about the webinar: Title: Children in Poverty - Latest Global Trends and Measures Date and time: Thursday, 11 Dec 2025 08:00 - 09:00 (EST) 14:00 - 15:00 (CET)>> [[link removed]]
Measuring child poverty plays this essential role, driving accountability, fostering policy innovation, and inspiring collective action. Reliable, comparable data also enables policymakers to benchmark progress against global commitments such as the SDGs and to mobilize international support where gaps persist.

This Global Coalition to End Child Poverty webinar [[link removed]], happening on 11 December, will summarize the most common global estimates of child poverty in all its forms, both multidimensional and monetary. By providing an overview of different methodologies and data sources, it allows policymakers to better understand what data exists and how it can help to drive action in reducing child poverty. Register to join [[link removed]].
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Ending child poverty: Our shared imperative
<<A banner titled 'The State of the World's Children (SOWC) 2025 launch - Championing Solutions to End Child Poverty.' The visual also features a couple with a child and a report cover for the SOWC 2025 report and a QR code to access it.>> [[link removed]]
More than one in five children in low- and middle-income countries—or 417 million—are severely deprived in at least two essential areas critical to their health, development, and well-being, according to UNICEF’s flagship State of the World’s Children report [[link removed]] released on World Children’s Day, 20 November.

The report shows that child poverty is not inevitable; countries that have made it a national priority have achieved significant progress, reducing child poverty by about one-third since the start of this century. Yet this progress remains fragile, vulnerable to setbacks from crises such as climate change, conflict, and economic shocks.

It also highlights what works: embedding children’s needs into economic policies and budgets, providing social protection programmes, including cash assistance to families, expanding access to essential public services, and promoting decent work for parents and caregivers. What we need now is commitment to implement these proven strategies. Read the report [[link removed]] and check out its launch event at the G20 Social Summit [[link removed]].
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International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (IDEP)
<<An event flyer featuring a photo (Photo credit: UNICEF/UNI534000/Panjwani) of a child sitting on the floor with a woman and coloring a book as well as the following information: INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR THE ERADICATION OF POVERTY Webinar - Poverty Hurts: Child Poverty, Mental Health, and Violence Date: FRIDAY, 17 October 2025 Time: 8.00 AM EST (2.00 PM CEST)>> [[link removed]]
This year’s IDEP on 17 October focused on the theme of “ending social and institutional maltreatment: ensuring respect and effective support for families living in poverty [[link removed]],” which was commemorated at the UN Headquarters in New York, [[link removed]] co-organized by ATD Fourth World, UN DESA, the International Committee for October 17th, and the Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations.

On this occasion, the Global Coalition to End Child Poverty organized a webinar focusing on child poverty, mental health, and violence. The speakers elaborated on how poverty can heighten the risks of poor mental health. Read more and watch the recording [[link removed]].

Also, as part of IDEP, the Chronic Poverty Advisory Network (CPAN) published a set of key messages [[link removed]] relating to priority areas in achieving poverty reduction and climate resilience simultaneously.
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<<News highlights and events>>

Children in monetary poor households: Global, regional, and select national trends in the progress against child poverty
<<Graphic design visual featuring people seen from behind with text overlay: According to new World Bank-UNICEF research 1 in 5 children today are living in extreme poverty. In 2024, an estimated 412 million children aged 17 or younger were residing in households living on less than $3 a day, the extreme poverty line used for low-income countries.>> [[link removed]]
Quiz answer: Correct answer is c. According to this recent World Bank - UNICEF paper [[link removed]], some 412 million children live in extreme poverty, surviving on less than $3 each day.

The paper reveals that globally, child poverty has been on a steady but slow decline since 2014, when an estimated 507 million children lived in extreme poverty. However, the pace of poverty reduction among children has been slower compared to the general population and children continue to be disproportionately affected. The publication presents the first estimates of extreme child poverty and child poverty using the World Bank’s recently revised international poverty lines and trends over 2014–24. Find out more [[link removed]].



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World Summit for Social Development 2025
<<Graphic design visual featuring people holding hands, the logo of the Second World Summit for Social Development, Doha 2025 as well as the following text: "Advancing Solutions, Renewing Hope.">> [[link removed]]
Leaders, policymakers, and civil society representatives have gathered in Doha, Qatar, for the Second World Summit for Social Development [[link removed]]. At the Summit, the UN General Assembly adopted the Doha Political Declaration [[link removed]], renewing commitments to global efforts to eradicate poverty, promote full and productive employment and decent work for all, and advance social integration.

UNICEF and Save the Children co-organized a side event titled Cross-Sectoral Partnerships and Solutions to End Child Poverty: Lessons and Actions [[link removed]]. The session highlighted key lessons on reducing child poverty and emphasized the need for collective action to scale up cross-sectoral solutions and strengthen coordination. Explore the key takeaways and what leaders said about driving collaborative solutions [[link removed]].

Check out Plan International’s key policy and advocacy messages for the Summit [[link removed]] as a critical platform to put girls’ rights and voices at the centre of the global agenda.
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<<Graphic design visual with the following text: A Disproportionate Burden: Children Living in Multidimensional Poverty by the Global MPI 2025 OPHI Briefings>> [[link removed]]

A disproportionate burden: Children living in multidimensional poverty
The OPHI global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2025 covers 109 countries, which are home to 6.3 billion people, of whom 2.1 billion are children under the age of 18. Across these countries, 1.1 billion people live in multidimensional poverty – deprived in the most basic conditions of health, education, and living standards. Among them, 586 million are children. 
<<Read more>> [[link removed]]




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<<Three young girls sitting on the grass seen from behind.>> [[link removed]]

Ending child poverty: What the latest evidence tells us
Several new studies in 2025 highlighted important insights into how poverty declined across different contexts. A blog post by Oliver Fiala, Senior Research Adviser at Save the Children UK and Co-chair of the Global Coalition to End Child Poverty, summarizes the latest evidence on what works to end child poverty. It builds on the “What works to reduce child poverty? Insights from across the globe [[link removed]]” report published earlier this year. 
<<Read the blog>> [[link removed]]




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<<Picture of an empty classroom with the following text: Episode #48: Tackling poverty and disadvantage in schools – Sean Harris>> [[link removed]]

New Poverty Unpacked podcast episode
Addressing poverty and hardship in schools requires looking at all aspects of children’s lives and the whole ecosystem surrounding children and their families. From small but powerful tweaks in classroom practices to big and ambitious policy change that reaches beyond school grounds. The 48th episode of Poverty Unpacked podcast focuses on tackling poverty and disadvantage in schools. 
<<Tune in>> [[link removed]]




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<<Further reading>>

Child poverty analysis
Here are some of the latest child poverty analyses from countries and regions, published on the Global Coalition to End Child Poverty website [[link removed]].

• Argentina: Pobreza monetaria y privaciones no monetarias en niñas, niños y adolescentes en Argentina Serie 2011-2025 [[link removed]] (in Spanish)

• Latin America and the Caribbean region: The impact of climate change on child and youth poverty in Latin America [[link removed]]

• Mozambique: Multidimensional Child Poverty in Mozambique [[link removed]]
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Faith in action for food security
The Trilateral Partnership of Regional Faith-Based Networks for the SDGs convened a high-level virtual roundtable under the theme: “Faith in Action for Food Security, Human Dignity and a Sustainable Future [[link removed]],” gathering over 100 participants from across Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Caribbean, including leaders of faith institutions, UN agencies, policy actors, academia, and civil society. The discussions underscored that hunger and child poverty persist not due to scarcity, but due to policies, systems, and priorities that can be transformed through collective action and moral leadership.
<<Read more>> [[link removed]]

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A dual crisis: The hidden link between poverty and children’s mental health
Living in poverty has a devastating impact on children’s mental health. Money and mental health are inextricably linked; not having enough money leads to parental stress and guilt, which has a knock-on impact on children over the course of their lives. In partnership with Centre for Mental Health and Save the Children UK, this report explores the impact of poverty and benefit conditionality on families’ mental health.
<<Read more>> [[link removed]]

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Two new publications from Eurochild
The report titled Unequal childhoods: Rights on paper should be rights in practice [[link removed]] provides concrete recommendations for countries to strengthen their efforts to protect and promote children’s rights and combat child poverty and social exclusion.  

Another policy paper focuses [[link removed]] on the EU budget and highlights Eurochild’s recommendations for the new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF): the National and Regional Partnership Plans (NRP Plans) and the European Social Fund (ESF).
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Two recent studies from Gender & Adolescent Global Evidence (GAGE) 
Exploring girls’ collective action: Evidence mapping on impacts of and resourcing for girls’ movements [[link removed]] - Across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), adolescent girls often face systemic barriers—such as limited economic opportunities—that restrict their potential and reinforce cycles of poverty and inequality. This review synthesizes existing literature on the impact of girls’ movements in LMICs and crisis contexts, examining how these movements are resourced and where gaps remain.

Adolescent transitions in crisis: Insights on voice and agency from longitudinal participatory research in Lebanon [[link removed]] - This policy brief builds on evidence from a unique longitudinal participatory research with young people in Lebanon (2019–2025) to examine how overlapping crises have reshaped young people’s voice and agency.

Do you have ideas on what to include in the future child poverty newsletters?

Get in touch with us at [email protected] [[email protected]]
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The Global Coalition to End Child Poverty is a global initiative to raise awareness about children living in poverty worldwide and support global and national action to alleviate it, as outlined by SDG Goal 1: No Poverty [[link removed]]. 

Our members [[link removed]] work together as part of the Coalition and individually to achieve a world where all children grow up free from poverty, deprivation, and exclusion. 
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