Protect for the Future: Placing Children’s Protection and Care at the Heart of Achieving the MDGs

Summary

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have done much to galvanise support for health, education and poverty alleviation in the developing world, and, ten years on from their inception, progress has been made against several of the MDG targets. However, in many parts of the world the poorest and most vulnerable are still unable to gain their basic rights to survival and education, and concerns have been raised that, without a change in approach, many MDG targets will not be met by 2015. The evidence presented in this report clearly shows that the widespread abuse of children’s rights to care and protection is in part responsible for hindering progress against the MDGs.

These rights include a recognition of the central importance of family-based care for child wellbeing, and children’s right to be free from violence, exploitation, abuse and neglect. A consideration of children’s protective rights will also help to ensure the equitable achievement of the MDGs by focusing on hard to reach and highly vulnerable groups such as those without parental care, engaged in harmful forms of work, living on the streets or married early.