Aspiration
#5
Every child grows up well-nourished and with access to the basic necessities
of life.
Children growing up live in conditions of poverty and experience hunger and malnutrition;
they lack access to safe drinking water, sanitation, adequate nutrition, and adequate shelter
or housing. Hunger and malnutrition are major causes of underweight children, stunted
growth, ill health and death among children in Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most
food-deficient of all regions of the world, with 25 per cent of its population having faced
hunger and malnutrition during the period 2011-2013, a modest 8 per cent improvement
from the level experienced during the period 1990-1992. A lack of safe drinking water
leads to diarrhea-related deaths. A lack of sanitation creates an enabling environment
for disease. To survive and grow up to become adults, children need uninterrupted access
to nutritious food; access to sources of safe drinking water; sanitation and hygiene; and
access to shelter or housing. In all African countries, some children – such as children
with disabilities; orphans, abandoned children and other children without parental
care; children heading households; homeless children surviving on the streets; children
of marginalised or stigmatised ethnic and other minority communities; refugee and
internally displaced children; and children of indigenous communities; girls -- live at the
margins of society. They are vulnerable to human rights abuses, and are at greater risk
of neglect than other children. Poverty and violence often affect them more acutely than
other children. Children with disabilities have largely been neglected, mistreated, socially
excluded and made invisible in African societies. Very low rates of education are registered
among children with disabilities and indigenous peoples’ children, especially those living a
nomadic life style. Orphans and other children without parental care, particular those in
child-headed households, bear a heavy burden of chronic poverty.
By 2040:
• Children who are most at risk are identified in their respective communities
and their rights are prioritised and improved.
• Extreme poverty, measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day, is
eradicated among all children.
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