More than a billion reasons: the urgent need to build universal social protection for children

The number of children without access to social protection is increasing year-on-year, leaving them at risk of poverty, hunger and discrimination, according to this new report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and UNICEF. More than a billion reasons: The urgent need to build universal social protection for children warns that an additional 50 million children aged 0-15 missed out on a critical social protection provision – specifically, child benefits (paid in cash or tax credits) – between 2016 and 2020, driving up the total to 1.46 billion children under 15 globally.