Poverty and destitution in childhood: the urgency facing Argentina

Unicef ​​made available new data on the situation that children and adolescents face today in Argentina, as it has done continuously since 2016. The scenario throws up multiple challenges: estimates for the second half of 2023 place extreme child poverty at 19.4%, five percentage points more than the first half of the year, which is equivalent to 634,000 girls, boys and adolescents who add to the 1.8 million who were already in this situation.

These data are part of the monitoring of the situation of children and adolescents that Unicef ​​carries out to contribute to government decision-making, based on the mandate established in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which in the country has rank. constitutional.

There is global evidence that shows that the combination of public policies and the protection of budgetary resources allocated to children is key to responding to the levels of poverty that affect households with children and adolescents.

The budget constitutes a key tool of fiscal policy to strengthen the sustainability and appropriate use of public resources for the fulfillment of children's rights, and for the social and economic development of a country.

Within the framework of the socioeconomic challenges facing the country, in the last three years there has been a decrease in the national budget allocated to children and, so far this year, it shows a drop of 75% in real terms compared with 2023. The increases in the amounts of the Universal Child Allowance (AUH) and the Food Benefit at the beginning of this year contributed to mitigating the impact of price increases on households in poverty.

In any case, in recent years, the purchasing power of both benefits has shown a significant drop.

To counteract this reality, it is important to be able to advance a new mechanism for updating benefits that integrates price variations, avoids long delays and rethinks the current conditionalities for accessing these programs.

The implementation of policies that tend to reduce disparities between households and improve income protection schemes are central to improving the lives of millions of girls and boys.

In this sense, within the framework of the current fiscal reorganization process, we consider it essential to maximize efforts to prioritize the national budget aimed at children.

Avoiding reductions in financing through the provision of resources that guarantee the sustainability of policies will open the way to a better present and future for each childhood.

At Unicef ​​we seek to ensure that the information we make available to society and government authorities each year on a sustained basis can contribute to the protection and promotion of the rights of girls and boys.

Rights - among others - to education, health, decent housing, a safe habitat and full well-being that allows growth and development with all its potential for the benefit of the present and future of the country.

Luisa Brumana

is a representative of Unicef ​​in Argentina.

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