By IANS,
United Nations : The UN Children’s Fund has welcomed a new initiative of the Mexican government to improve child welfare, saying it’s a “breakthrough” to improve social equity for children and adolescents.
“Mexico’s economic trends are promising. But behind positive national averages and Mexico being one of the world’s 15 largest economies in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), lies a reality of poverty and marginalization of thousands of children,” Susana Sottoli, Unicef representative in Mexico, said in a statement Wednesday, Xinhua reported.
While parts of the country have development levels close to those of Scandinavia, she said, others are more in line with sub-Saharan Africa.
In rural Mexico, 27 percent of children live in extreme poverty as compared to eight percent who live in cities.
Children from indigenous communities are often the most marginalized due to lack of access to quality education and other crucial services.
The new initiative has allocated $41 billion, over 15 percent of the total annual budget, for children’s education, health and nutrition, and protection against abuse and violence.