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Every year advocates globally hold governments, and stakeholders to account on their commitments to UHC and health progress for all children.

The impact of conflict in combination with the rising cost of living is contributing to general economic hardship in communities in Niger, which is being worsened even further by the impact of the climate emergency and COVID-19. All of these challenges are affecting girls’ welfare. Limited access to food, jobs and income can put women and girls at increased risk of gender-based violence and negative coping mechanisms such as child marriage and sexual exploitation.

In this blog Sacha Myers, former Head of Media for Save the Children Afghanistan talks about the impact of the school ban on girls in Afghanistan. Read it to hear firsthand the stories of Afghan girls who have been turned from students into child labourers against their own will.

There are nearly 240 million children with disabilities in the world. These children are 20 per cent less likely to have expectations of a better life compared to children without disabilities. In 2016, it was estimated that globally 52.9 million children younger than five years old experienced a developmental disability, such as sensory impairment, intellectual disability, and autism spectrum disorders, and 95% of them lived low-middle income countries. To change this, children with disabilities must be supported through early intervention and their rights to rehabilitation and assistive technologies must become reality.

In light of the recent 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), Dr Montira Pongsiri, SEA SAN Council Member and Senior Advisor on Climate and Health at Save the Children, reflects on how the science-policy interface and evidence-based decision-making is critical in addressing the planetary health crisis.

Today, Kenya, along with the rest of the Horn of Africa, is experiencing one of the worst droughts in 40 years. Over 4.35 million Kenyans are going hungry while over 942,000 children require urgent treatment for acute malnutrition. One of the main causes of this unprecedented two-year drought is climate change, which has generated a lot of debate at the ongoing COP 27 summit, with climate change adaptation being one of the key highlights of this year’s discussions. Climate change is a long-term threat to food security and nutrition; it reduces crop yields, impairs nutrient quality and dietary diversity, and disrupts water and sanitation. Save the Children’s recent Generation Hope report shows that 774 million children in the world are exposed to high climate risks. It found that over 100 billion dollars could be saved every year responding to disasters if contingency planning, social protection and financial inclusion were improved.

The climate crisis is pushing children and their families to flee their houses and their countries in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region. Extreme weather combined with other vulnerabilities such as poverty and inequalities, have undermined food, water, and even economic security.

More than two years after schools around the world shut their doors in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Transforming Education Summit (TES) in September couldn’t have been more timely. Global education was in dire crisis before the pandemic, with millions of children around the world out of school and not learning from a quality, safe and inclusive education. With the extended school closures, disparities in access to online and distance learning, inadequate resources to support students to return to school, and the impacts of conflict and climate change, the learning outcomes of the poorest and most marginalised children are now even more at threat.