Children of the Recession: The impact of the economic crisis on child well-being in rich countries

Innocenti Report Card 12 – Children in the Developed World: The data and observations in this report card reveal a strong and multifaceted relationship between the impact of the Great Recession on national economics and a decline in children’s well-being since 2008.

For each country, the extent and character of the crisis’s impact on children has been shaped by the depth of the recession, pre-existing economic conditions, the strength of the social safety net, and policy responses to the recession.

This report finds that the Great Recession could have lasting and damaging effects on children’s future wellbeing in many of the countries presented throughout the report. It finds that children have been largely neglected by the global response to the recession and that governments and policy makers need to follow the principles and recommendations presented:

• Make an explicit commitment to end child poverty in developed countries
• Rescue, prevent and give hope
• Produce better data for informed public debate