TheCable

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says the COVID-19 pandemic is the worst crisis it has seen in its 75-year history.

In a report released on Thursday, UNICEF said COVID-19 is challenging decades of progress made on alleviating poverty, improving access to education, nutrition, and mental well-being.

Henrietta Fore, UNICEF executive director, said the widespread impact of COVID-19 continues to worsen poverty, entrench inequality and threaten the rights of children.

Fore said in an era of a global pandemic, growing conflicts, and worsening climate change, never has a child-first approach been more critical than today.

“While the number of children who are hungry, out of school, abused, living in poverty or forced into marriage is going up, the number of children with access to health care, vaccines, sufficient food and essential services is going down,” Fore said.

“In a year in which we should be looking forward, we are going backward.

“We are at a crossroads, as we work with governments, donors and other organisations to begin charting our collective path for the next 75 years.

“We must keep children first in line for investment and last in line for cuts. The promise of our future is set in the priorities we make in our present.”

The agency said 100 million children are estimated to be living in multidimensional poverty because of the pandemic, a 10 percent increase since 2019.

It added that in 2020, over 23 million children missed out on essential vaccines — an increase of nearly four million from 2019 and the highest number in 11 years.