World Vision, the international development agency has urged UK Prime Minister David Cameron to ensure that the most vulnerable children in the world are not forgotten. World Vision issued the reminder to the British PM at the G7 summit held in Bavaria recently.
New development goals being developed
World Vision’s Geeta Bandi-Phillips who attended the summit as the agency’s External Relations Manager says this year is critical for children because the Millennium Development Goals are all set to expire with new goals for the post 2015 era still being developed. She adds that G7 meetings are an important opportunity for world leaders to show their support for an ambitious post 2015 framework.
“Children need to be in the forefront of these discussions; especially the children who missed out on the success of the MDGs are at risk of being forgotten again. They are the ones who bear the brunt of atrocities and consequences from civil conflicts and humanitarian crises,” adds Bandi-Phillips.
Assistance needs to be scaled up
The crisis in Syria has affected over 6.6 million children. Not only have those that have been affected lost their family, friends and homes, but many have had to witness or experience unspeakable violence. Things will continue to get worse unless world leaders agree to scale up assistance and deal with the roots of the problems.
G7 leaders need to be ambitious
Each year approximately 6.3 million children under the age of five die around the world, with the vast majority of those deaths occurring in the most fragile conflict prone places. Ms. Bandi-Philips says it is these children who suffer the most and should be seen as the priority. She adds that G7 leaders have an opportunity to enact goals designed to ensure no child dies from preventable causes and end extreme poverty and hunger by 2030.
“These leaders will sign up to new goals in September. They have already contributed to the success of halving the number of people living in extreme poverty, and the number of children dying from preventable deaths. But they need to use their power to ensure that come September, the children who live and die invisible to the systems that could help them, are not ignored once again.” Ms. Bandi-Phillips said.
