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	Rich countries’ support for children ‘totally inadequate’: UN report by Gunilla Olsson UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti   The UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has sharply criticized the levels of financial support for children allocated by high-income countries during the pandemic as totally inadequate, in a child poverty report issued on Friday.   The report shows that of the $14.9 trillion spent on domestic financial recovery packages put together by wealthier countries between February and August, just two per cent was allocated specifically to support children, and families raising children. This is despite evidence that child poverty is expected to remain above pre-COVID levels for at least five years in high-income countries.   “The amount of financial relief allocated directly to children and families does not match the severe fallout of the pandemic, nor how long this crisis is expected to impact these countries”, said Gunilla Olsson, Director of the UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti in Florence, Italy.   Business the big winner   The study finds that businesses were by far the largest beneficiary of fiscal stimulus packages, absorbing around 80 per cent of the available funds during this period, and that the most marginalized children will suffer most as a result.   Around a third of the large economies surveyed in the report (from the European Union and OECD group of higher income nations) did not implement any policies specifically aimed at supporting children, during the first wave of the pandemic.   And, on the whole, the social protection measures for children and families that were enacted in other countries – such as childcare, school sustenance and family allowances – only lasted for an average of three months, far too short-term to adequately address the projected length of the crisis and child poverty risks in the long run, the report notes.   As temperatures drop in many parts of the world, and cases rise, UNICEF is urging governments to bring in more balanced recovery plans during the so-called “second wave”, with a greater emphasis on social protection for children, and unconditional income support for the poorest families, allowances for food, childcare and utilities, and rent or mortgage waivers.   http://www.unicef-irc.org/article/2077-child-poverty-will-remain-above-pre-covid-levels-for-at-least-five-years-in-high-income-countries-unicef.html http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/1165-supporting-families-and-children-beyond-covid-19-social-protection-in-high-income-countries.html Visit the related web page
	Decoding Injustice Tools Hub by Center for Economic & Social Rights   Injustices like gender inequality, the climate crisis, racial discrimination, labor abuse, are enabled and exacerbated by economic policies. Our Tools Hub offers visitors some of the essentials for creating evidence that shows to what extent and by what means rights are being violated. By shedding new light on how economic policies harm people’s human rights, Decoding Injustice supports your demands for those in power to live up to their promises and right the wrongs of historic oppression.   Decoding Injustice is a powerful way for activists, campaigners and communities around the world to use research to advance economic, environmental and social justice. It is based on CESR’s approach to human rights research: it should not be unnecessarily complex or legalistic, but rather adaptable to different concerns and priorities, and accessible to all communities and groups fighting for their rights.   In Egypt, the Egypt Social Progress Indicators platform uses data to push back against austerity policies by highlighting their impact on communities. In Scotland, they’ve helped the national Human Rights Commission and civil society allies to incorporate human rights budgeting & the right to an adequate standard of living for all in legislation. In India, it has aided legal empowerment organization Nazdeek to interrogate how the right to water is being threatened amidst the climate crisis.   Decoding Injustice is based on the belief that if we want to understand — and take action to tackle — the way economic policies and systems can harm people’s rights, we need to bring together a wider range of expertise, both technical and lived. To do that, it uses approaches from the fields of systems thinking, participatory action research and data analysis. In the process, it repurposes these approaches in order to make them more useful to civil society groups and communities seeking to engage with economic policy debates.   * Visit the hub via the link below: http://cesr.org/hub/ Visit the related web page
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