Governments should mobilize at least one percent of their GDP to ‘social protection scheme’

Save the children is calling on governments to mobilize at least one percent of their GDP to the ‘social protection scheme’ to protect children and end child poverty.
Save the Children stresses that now more than ever, countries need to make progress towards Universal Child Benefits.
“Investing in child benefits not only helps children and their families but also local and national economies, as families spend their money on local goods and services,” Inger Ashing, CEO of Save the Children stated.
According to the recent report of the organization, families of over 594 million children in the globe have not received any financial support from their governments to pass the dare of the pandemic.
As save the children echoed, these 594 million families are found in 68 low and middle income countries. These families have drowned in poverty ever since the start of the pandemic as they have lost their source of income. This as a results affects the children since the families have not received any governmental support. Furthermore, an additional hundreds of millions of families are looking for aid to survive the surge of the pandemic which has widened the drift in income inequality with low income families being hit the hardest.
Even before the outbreak, according to save the children, over 1 billion children in low- and middle-income countries lived in multidimensional poverty deprived of access to education, health, housing, nutrition, sanitation, and water. Since the Coronavirus outbreak, this number has increased by an additional 150 million children, bringing the total to 1.2 billion.
“The impacts of Covid-19 transgresses past health issues. We as a community need to play our part in protecting children from the impacts of this pandemic. Any support we provide to children goes a long way towards improving the economy of the country as a whole,” stated Azmeraw Belay from Save the Children: Ethiopia Country office and Head of CRG, Advocacy and Campaign.
Ekin Ogutogullari, Country Director; Save the Children for Ethiopia’s Country Office also remarked by saying, “Everyone around the globe has been affected by this pandemic; children suffered its consequences more than others. Children are at risk with each passing moment as their parents might lose their job, get sick or die due to Covid-19.”
Save the Children disclosed that before the COVID-19 outbreak only 35% of children globally received social protection benefits. This figure falls to 28% in Asia and as little as 16% in Africa.
Save the children has called on governments, donors and private creditors and the global community at large to create a financial means to improve child focused social protection schemes and universal children benefits.