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LatinNews Daily - 10 May 2018

Over half of Mexican children live in poverty, says Unicef

Development: On 9 May, a new report published by the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (Unicef) found that 51.1% of Mexican children and teenagers lives in poverty in 2017.

Significance: Some 19.6m children and teenagers living in Mexico are living in poverty, reported the non-governmental organisation. Speaking to local media, the head of Unicef Mexico Christian Skoog argued that analysing the underlying causes of inequality was the key to alleviating the problem. Skoog highlighted nutrition, education, and social security as areas for improvement.

  • Unicef’s annual 2017 report found that Mexico’s biggest shortfall is the lack of social security, which six out of 10 children do not have access to. This includes access to health services and basic living support, for example.
  • The lack of quality education also contributes to high levels of inequality. In Mexico, 80% of children and teenagers do not have the knowledge required for their grade, the report found. Over the years, school attendance rates in Mexico have improved and of children between six and 14 years old, 96.2% go to school. But Unicef reported that “more than four million are not in school and more than 600,000 are at risk of dropping out”.
  • With regards to nutrition, Mexico is the global leader for childhood obesity, the report found. Over 33.2% of children aged between six and 11 are classified as overweight or clinically obese. On the other end of the spectrum, another problem is chronic malnutrition that affects 20% of children under the age of five in rural areas.
  • As for child safety, half of children and teenagers said they had suffered from psychological abuse from a family member. Another 60% of children in Mexico reported parents had used physical violence to discipline them (such as ear pulling, smacks, slaps or beatings).
  • Despite these challenges, Skoog praised Mexico’s “solid” institutions and “advanced” local laws for child protection policies. He stressed that Mexico was one of the first countries to sign the international Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, but called for greater efforts to give children access to the services they need to develop.

Looking Ahead: Unicef has committed to carrying out further studies about children living in poverty in Mexico – including who they are, what they do and what their needs are- said Skoog. To do this, Unicef has launched a joint programme with the federal government to consolidate data for the national children and teenage protection system (Spinna).

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