Linda Xu

October 23, 2015

Looking Forward: Investing in the Future

What makes the future? Without children, there is no one to inherit the world. UNICEF Headquarters’ Policy and Advocacy Unit strives to make the case that the most underrepresented and the most underprivileged children, like all children, are equally entitled to their rights as defined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Beyond moral obligation, however, we make the case that these children are financially worth the investment in improving health; nutrition; education; social protection; child protection; protection and treatment of HIV/AIDS; and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). Even more effective is investing in all of these sections for a synergistic effect. My work consisted of reviewing the economic research for the individual sections in order to select the most impactful and most convincing points, as well as illustrating visually the interdependence of these seven sections. A summary brief was published in July 2015 for the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, and a more in-depth series of investment cases will be published later this year to influence social and economic policies around the world.