Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was created in 1945.  UNESCO’s mission is to assist in building peace, decrease poverty, and develop an intercultural dialogue, with education as a principal activity aiming towards this achievement. Their vision is one of holistic and humanistic quality of education worldwide, with the assumption that everyone has a right to education and the understanding that education plays a fundamental role in human, social and economic development (UNESCO, 2014).

As I explored the site, I read an article, “The Review of Social Protection Indicators in Early Childhood” (Mahon & Heymann, 2012).  The report looked at different ideas of social protection as it related to children/families and current international and regional ways to observe and assess the social protection of them.  Current sources of social protection data are examined, and those significant to the welfare of children are identified. Following the review, a selection of indicators is defined. The outcomes are developed and studied to determine how children are affected and in turn what outcomes were measured and the recommendations.

This report had four recommendations.

(1) Ensure that working families can maintain a decent standard of living through such forms of social protection as minimum wage policies and family allowances;

(2) Policies and programs in place that allow families to maintain a decent standard of living when parents are unemployed or unable to work, such as unemployment insurance, work injury and disability benefits, and sickness benefits;

(3) Policies and programs that assist families in meeting their needs when special circumstances arise or significant life events occur, such as maternity and paternity benefits, and benefits paid for sick and disabled children; and,

(4) Forms of protection that give children adequate access to parental time, such as working time polices, maternity, paternity, sickness, and annual leave policies. (Mahon & Heymann, 2012)

This report was very shocking. Globally there are agreements which recognize social protection as a human right but there still remains inadequate social protection for most of the global population. Recent estimates state more than half of the global population is without access to any form of social protection, and in the world’s poorest regions fewer than 10% have protection.  In the absence of adequate social protection coverage, the adverse effects of poverty, defenselessness and exclusion are heightened. Families are left vulnerable to extreme material deprivation (Mahon & Heymann, 2012).

It is crucial that children and their families have social protection. When they do not there are detrimental effects on the physical, cognitive and emotional development of children. Globally organizations that advocate for children and their families are important. We see the same theme globally as we do locally; children must have protection and support to develop in an appropriate manner.

My hopes are that we globally align for children by protecting them and giving them opportunities to be the best that they can be.

References

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/),

Mahon, A., & Heymann, J. (2012). The Review of Social Protection Indicators in Early Childhood. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002157/215740E.pdf: McGill Institute for Health and Social Policy.