We’re nearing the completion of the first quarter of the twenty-first century. But here’s The State of the World’s Children 2024 (SOWC 2024) report, which presents three bold, yet possible outcomes—three megatrends—that could set the tone for children’s lives in the coming quarter.
Conflict and calamities included, there are plenty of everyday changes occurring today, why does UNICEF devote its annual report to studying a child’s life in 2050? Because monitoring these trends today will contribute to reshaping the lives of children and young adults tomorrow. Today’s actions and decisions will determine the future children inherit.
So what do today’s actions and decisions look like? What are today’s forces that are shaping tomorrow’s lives? The SOWC 2024 attempts to answer these questions.
The report identifies three prominent megatrends as
- Demographic Transitions,
- Climate and Environmental Crises and
- Frontier Technologies
Let’s explore what each of these trends entails and its impact on how children live, grow, interact, and develop.
- Demographic Transitions
It is estimated that in 2050S, the number of children in the world is predicted to be roughly the same as today, i.e., about 2.3 billion. However, in 2023 alone, 20.8 million children were newly displaced within their countries, mostly because of conflict and disasters.
With environmental disruptions and interstate conflict on the rise, this number is likely to grow in the coming years. For example, projections place nearly 60 percent of children globally to live in urban settings.
Impact – With a large number of children occupying high-density cities by 2050, equal access to water, health care, and education will need to become every state’s priority. Additionally, exposure to violence and environmental hazards will also need targeted intervention to ensure every child’s well-being.
- Climate and Environmental Crises
If gut-wrenching news reports of infants and children developing respiratory disorders owing to toxic air conditions are to go by, the climate crisis is not a thing of the future; it is a veritable reality. When exposed to harmful pollutants at an early age, the under-developed brains, lungs, and immune systems face severe damage.
Projections pose about 8 times more children to be exposed to extreme heatwaves and 3.1 times more children exposed to extreme river floods by 2050.
Impact – The climate crisis is a child rights crisis. There is an urgent need to address climate change, as the consequences for children’s health and well-being remain profound.
- Frontier Technologies
While on one hand technological advancement is seeing rapid growth, the digital divide also seems to growing deeper and wider. Today, nearly 26 percent of people in low-income countries are connected to the Internet, compared to over 95 percent in high-income countries.
Unless we make targeted efforts to remove these barriers for children in low-connectivity countries, we deprive talented children of true progress.
Impact – Digitalization can both empower them and expose them to inline risks. However, digital exclusion only widens the accessibility gap, especially in countries with regions with rapidly growing child populations.
Children Will Inherit the Future We Reshape Today.
The State of the World’s Children offers a vision based on the patterns of the past and present, more importantly though, it offers a chance to take prompt collective action. All those who hold a stake in the future of their children must urge states to promote and protect the rights of all children, only then can we face the megatrends staring down on the future of our children.
