Dear colleague,

Vast numbers of children worldwide continue to suffer from disproportionate levels of poverty, a problem that affects both developing and developed countries alike.  A recent report from the World Bank estimates that 400 million children under the age of 13 are extremely poor. At the same time, economic crises in high income countries has seen child poverty increase in many, increasing the perception that children often bear the brunt of poverty. Poverty violates children?s rights, denies children and youth the opportunities they need to develop and thrive, and is especially unjust because children are not responsible and cannot be held responsible for their poverty.

Much remains to be defined within the new development agenda, but it seems likely that eradicating extreme poverty will form a central role of the new set of goals. Many consider child poverty a critical issue and yet, there has been little debate about how children, as a major group of the extreme poor, can be included as part of this worthwhile goal.

To help better identify how child poverty can be reflected in the emerging post-2015 framework and identify priority areas to address child poverty, we are running a public consultation to hear your views. The discussion is co-moderated by the UN Major Group on Children and Youth, ODI and UNICEF and will take place from 24 March to 13 April.

The results of this consultation will be summarized into a short synthesis report and will be shared publically on the worldwewant2015 website and widely with government and civil society partners.  Results will serve as a potential input in major upcoming Post-2015 reports and work-streams. 

To kick off the global conversation, we invite you to reflect on the following questions: 

1.    What importance should child poverty be given in the post-2015 development goals?

2.    How can we track progress on the number of children who are poor?

3.    How can we make a difference for children growing up poor?

The discussion will be moderated by Simran Vadyvas, Wilson Kivati (UN Major Group on Children and Youth), David Walker (OID) and Antonio Franco Garcia (UNICEF).

We look forward to hearing from you on how to best reflect the critical issue of combatting child poverty in the Post-2015 Framework.