Prospects for Children in 2025: Building Resilient Systems

The world is facing a new and intensifying era of crisis for children. Many of these crises – including climate change, conflict and economic instability – are closely interconnected. They reflect a world of rising geopolitical tensions and competition among nations, which are hindering the implementation of solutions.

To uphold children’s rights and well-being, action is needed to rethink and strengthen systems. Systems approaches (i.e., approaches that go beyond mere service delivery) are essential to build resilience into every area of children’s lives, whether it is disaster preparedness frameworks that safeguard schools and communities, education systems that can adapt during emergencies, or inclusive health-care systems that respond to immediate needs while planning for future risks.

These systems must not only address current global challenges but also anticipate and prepare for what lies ahead, including in the thematic areas covered in this report’s ‘Issues to watch’ section.

Flagship Report

Prospects for Children in 2025: Building Resilient Systems for Children’s Futures is the latest edition of the Global Outlook, a series of reports produced each year by UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight, which look to the key trends affecting children and young people over the following 12 months and beyond.

Access the report by clicking here.

Trends that have the greatest potential to impact children in 2025

1. Geopolitics

Children’s lives, rights and well-being are increasingly under threat in conflict. Over 473 million children – more than one in six globally – lived in areas affected by conflict in 2023, a number that is likely to have risen in 2024. The percentage of children affected by conflict has almost doubled to almost 19 per cent today from around 10 per cent in the 1990s.

The road ahead: Strong legal frameworks foster an environment where compliance with child-rights law and international humanitarian law is non-negotiable and accountability inevitable. For these to be realized, international standards need to be translated into enforceable national law, policy and security-sector practice.

2. Economics

Economic prospects in emerging markets are discouraging, with growth well below the 7 per cent target set in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A mix of pandemic scarring, climate shocks, and resource constraints means emerging markets’ growth prospects have fallen from historical averages of 5.6 per cent to just 4 per cent by 2026–2029.

The road ahead: In 2025, the global financial system faces crucial decisions about reforms to the international financial architecture (IFA) – the “framework of institutions, policies, rules and practices that govern the global financial system” – that could reshape the financial landscape, prioritizing sustainable development, intergenerational equity and investment in children. Key themes could include a ‘Children’s Debt Reset’, automatic triggers for debt service suspension, improved access to concessional finance and increased transparency in ODA.

3. Environment and climate change

The outlook for children is increasingly worrying in a world that is now on track to see global temperatures rise by at least 2°C by 2100. Children are disproportionately impacted by climate change due to their unique physiological and developmental characteristics. Children under 5 years of age bear 88 per cent of the global disease burden associated with climate change.

The road ahead: To address the critical intersection of climate action and child rights, action is needed to ensure national policy frameworks more explicitly incorporate child rights through dedicated commitments, timelines and funding allocations. On funding, climate finance should include earmarked funding for child-centred climate initiatives. On regulation, strengthening legally backed climate reporting and monitoring are key to effective climate action for children.

4. Technology

Amid rapid adoption around the world, digital public infrastructure (DPI) can fundamentally shift how governments engage with citizens. DPI is sometimes compared to physical infrastructure: just as roads and railways connect people and allow them to access goods and services, DPI provides the basis for the large-scale delivery of digital public services, including for children and their families.

The road ahead: DPI systems have immense potential to transform public services for children and families. In doing so, they must prioritize children’s rights and truly serve the best interests of every child. Key priorities include enabling seamless, safe and secure data exchange between health, education and social services to create a holistic support system for child development; factoring in the needs and sensitivities of vulnerable and marginalized groups; and empowering children, youth and their families through digital financial inclusion and literacy.

5. Global governance

New and ongoing crises will continue to challenge the future of global governance. In 2025, nations and institutions must address the critical question of whether the global multilateral framework will unify to form a cohesive response to our shared challenges or fragment further, risking a loss of collective action.

Progress for children requires stronger alignment between global and national priorities. Strengthening national systems and aligning them with global frameworks is central to achieving shared global goals in areas such as health, education, safety, poverty eradication and climate adaptation. Such alignment creates a foundation of resilience, by harmonizing standards and approaches, pooling resources and integrating responses to crises.

For more information on these trends, click here.

Source: UNICEF