EXCERPTS from the Introduction
Children born today have a better chance than at any time in history to grow up healthy, educated and protected, with the opportunity to reach their full potential. Even a generation ago, a child was twice as likely to die before reaching age 5, 70 percent more likely to be involved in child labor and 20 percent more likely to be murdered.
In commemoration of its founding 100 years ago, Save the Children is releasing its third annual Global Report to celebrate progress for children. We examine the major reasons why childhood comes to an early end, and find significantly fewer children suffering ill-health, malnutrition, exclusion from education, child labor, child marriage, early pregnancy and violent death. In the year 2000, an estimated 970 million children were robbed of their childhoods due to these causes. That number today has been reduced to 690 million2 – meaning at least 280 million children are better off today than they would have been two decades ago.
A comparison of End of Childhood Index scores finds the overall situation for children has improved in 173 out of 176 countries since 2000. This is welcome news – and it shows that investments and policies are working to lift up many of our children.Tremendous progress for children is taking place in some of the poorest countries in the world, providing ever- increasing evidence that development work is paying huge dividends in countries where needs are greatest.