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"History has shown that children and women are particularly vulnerable to economic turmoil," the UN Children's Fund warned in the report.
"Financial and economic shocks in developing countries prior to the 2008-2009 global economic crisis have led to higher under-five mortality rates, lower school enrollment, rising insecurity and children forced to work in dangerous environments."
And it stressed: "Reductions in public expenditure on health and education have driven children and their families into poverty traps that are not easily escaped once the crisis has passed."
With the global outlook still uncertain, UNICEF said governments should work to shelter children and families from the economic crisis by maintaining social protection programs.
"Protect budgets for essential services," it urged. "Safeguarding, and even increasing, social budgets should be an integral component of countries' responses to shocks."
UNICEF said data collected from 120 developing countries from 1975 to 2000 showed that increasing education spending by just 1.0 percent of GDP over 15 years could lead to universal primary school enrollment, while reducing poverty by around 17 percent.
"Missing the window of opportunity to invest in children has clear adverse implications for children's survival and development prospects. It can also limit a nation's future growth potential," the report warned.
UNICEF highlighted initiatives in Mexico and Brazil which it said had led to falling infant mortality rates.
And it said after the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand implemented or strengthened nutrition programs for children and bolstered access to education through schemes such as scholarships.
"For the crisis not to leave a legacy of deprivation for generations, the choice has to be to safeguard, support, and if possible, expand, the essential services, protection and participation that are the right of all children at all times," UNICEF said.
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Image: A young mother waits for her baby to be examined at a health centre in Gbarnga, Liberia in 2008 (AFP/File/Georges Gobet).
"Financial and economic shocks in developing countries prior to the 2008-2009 global economic crisis have led to higher under-five mortality rates, lower school enrollment, rising insecurity and children forced to work in dangerous environments."
And it stressed: "Reductions in public expenditure on health and education have driven children and their families into poverty traps that are not easily escaped once the crisis has passed."
With the global outlook still uncertain, UNICEF said governments should work to shelter children and families from the economic crisis by maintaining social protection programs.
"Protect budgets for essential services," it urged. "Safeguarding, and even increasing, social budgets should be an integral component of countries' responses to shocks."
UNICEF said data collected from 120 developing countries from 1975 to 2000 showed that increasing education spending by just 1.0 percent of GDP over 15 years could lead to universal primary school enrollment, while reducing poverty by around 17 percent.
"Missing the window of opportunity to invest in children has clear adverse implications for children's survival and development prospects. It can also limit a nation's future growth potential," the report warned.
UNICEF highlighted initiatives in Mexico and Brazil which it said had led to falling infant mortality rates.
And it said after the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand implemented or strengthened nutrition programs for children and bolstered access to education through schemes such as scholarships.
"For the crisis not to leave a legacy of deprivation for generations, the choice has to be to safeguard, support, and if possible, expand, the essential services, protection and participation that are the right of all children at all times," UNICEF said.
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Image: A young mother waits for her baby to be examined at a health centre in Gbarnga, Liberia in 2008 (AFP/File/Georges Gobet).
