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Children must be prioritized, says World Vision

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worldvisionOn the twentieth anniversary of the first International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (17 October), development organization World Vision will be calling on the European Union to prioritize children in renewed global efforts to eradicate extreme poverty.

“Beyond Europe’s borders, 1.3 billion people, about half of whom are children, live in extreme poverty, on less than $1.25 per day,” says World Vision’s EU representative Marius Wanders. “Extreme poverty contributes to the preventable deaths and life-long physical impairments due to disease and malnutrition for millions of children each year.”

Despite these statistics, the World Vision representative says there is every reason to be optimistic about the ability of the international community to eradicate extreme poverty amongst children over the coming decades.

“Every year since 1990 the number of children under the age of five dying from preventable causes has fallen. This is encouraging and shows progress is possible when families, communities, leaders, governments, multilateral organizations and the UN share a common resolve and work together,” says Mr Wanders.

World Vision is calling on the EU and its member states to redouble their efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goal targets by 2015, while simultaneously agreeing on an ambitious successor framework for sustainable development.

“World Vision believes extreme poverty amongst the world’s children can be eradicated within the timeframe of just one generation, if the political will truly exists” continues Mr Wanders. “The EU is still the world’s largest donor of development and humanitarian aid and is also politically a major global actor. We are calling on the EU to prioritise children in promoting and funding programs and supporting advocacy and accountability, in order to eradicate child poverty over the coming decade.”

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