Programme
Equity for children
Children need safe environments and access to relevant and quality birth registration, health, nutrition, care, education, and water, sanitation and hygiene services for their comprehensive development.
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The challenge
There are persistent injustices affecting children due to their gender, ethnicity, place of residence, living conditions or different abilities:
- In 2016, 11 out of every 1,000 babies died during the first month of life, largely from preventable causes.
- In 2016, 43.6 per cent of children aged 6 to 35 months suffered from anaemia; in some Andean zones, the rate reached 76 per cent. Suffering from anaemia restricts a child’s physical, cognitive and socio-emotional development and can result in learning problems.
- 26.6 per cent of households lack access to the public water system; in some Amazon regions, this figure reaches 75 per cent. Furthermore, 35.8 per cent lack access to the public sanitation network, which put’s children’s health at risk.
- Only 13 per cent of children under 3 years had access to early childhood development programmes in 2015.
- 383,000 children under the age of 12 are out-of-school and more than 643,000 are at risk of dropping out.
The solution
To tackle these inequities, UNICEF works with the State and civil society partners to:
- strengthen policies and regulatory and budget frameworks for rural, indigenous and Afro-Peruvian populations for civil registration, full development in early childhood, preschool and primary education, water and sanitation services, disaster risk management and environmental protection;
- improve collaboration and activate coordination mechanisms among the various government institutions and levels;
- develop relevant and high-quality models for the application of policies at the local level;
- strengthen social and community surveillance, participation and monitoring of services and policy management; and
- strengthen the capacity of service providers in prioritized regions and the training programmes of public institutions.
