The first nomination for the next President of the World Bank came this week from the United States, following the resignation of David Malpass. It has yet to be seen whether other countries on the Bank's Executive Board will put forward or vote for alternative candidates, breaking with the outdated tradition of the role going by default to an American citizen.
This change in leadership at the World Bank comes at a significant time. There is increasing pressure from all corners of the globe for deep transformation of the global financial architecture. For example, from Kenya, Barbados, and the United Nations HQ, to name a few. Civil society activists, are also calling for urgent change, especially young adults and children. See for example Vanessa Nakate’s powerful intervention at the UN Environment Assembly, and Pedro and Nafisa at the recent Education Cannot Wait High Level Conference.
During this time of “polycrisis”, the Bank’s twin goals to end poverty and advance shared prosperity have taken on new complexity and urgency. The new President must ensure the Bank and its shareholders do everything in their power to fill urgent and growing development and climate financing gaps, meeting the ambition of the recently published Evolution Roadmap while keeping a laser focus on poverty eradication.
It goes without saying that excellent leadership and diplomacy skills will be critical for the successful delivery of this agenda by the new President. However, another attribute is equally important but less talked about. That is: unwavering commitment to the rights of children, both those alive today and future generations.
WHY IS COMMITMENT TO CHILDREN'S RIGHTS SO IMPORTANT?
The world’s 2.4 billion children make up around a third of the global population. 135 billion more children are likely to be born in the next millennium. This will outnumber the adults that have lived and died in the past 50,000 years. Yet these children of today and tomorrow are a constituency that have no formal route for influencing policy or making their interests and preferences known to those in power.
This is hugely problematic. Children’s unique needs and vulnerabilities means that they are disproportionately affected by poverty, emergencies and shocks. These include the climate emergency, the linked global hunger crisis and the growing number of conflicts across the world. Our research found that a staggering 774 million children are affected by both high climate risk and poverty. Of these, 183 million are also affected by conflict.
Save the Children recently consulted with over 54,000 children across the world. We wanted to understand their experiences and perspectives of climate change and inequality. The children we spoke with shared many, often heart-breaking examples of the impacts that these interlinked crises are having on their lives. From food availability and quality, to undermining their health and education. “Children or poor families are the most affected negatively from climate change because they don’t have the ability to handle the huge dangers,” said a 14-year-old boy from Gaza.
With their lives stretching ahead of them, children also have longer to live with the impacts. And with the climate emergency growing, they are likely to experience more extreme weather events than adults in their lifetime. A child born in 2020 is likely to experience nearly seven times as many heatwaves as their grandparents. This rises to 18 times as many in some countries, like Afghanistan.
DESPITE ALL THIS, CHILDREN ARE STILL NEGLECTED IN POLICY MAKING.
This shows in national climate plans, also known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Only 34% of NDCs were assessed as being sensitive to the rights and needs of children. In 2022, only a third of national reviews of progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) included reference to children and young people as partners in SDG implementation. As an 18 year-old boy in South Africa told us, “The actions we do today… we are going to be the ones suffering from the consequences, so they should include us. Nothing about us, without us.”
Global neglect of children’s needs and rights fails children. It robs them of their futures and opportunities to reach their full potential. This means it also robs entire societies and economies of essential human capital.
Research indicates that racism and sexism have drained trillions from the global economy through undermining innovation and productivity. Failure to protect and invest in children is a similar drain on the future health and prosperity of the planet. Research suggests that every dollar invested in child nutrition can yield a return of $45. Investments in primary education can yield around 10% returns in GDP per capita. Given the depth of the challenges that the world currently faces, it has never been more important to invest in the next generation of leaders, innovators and businesspeople.
UNITY ACROSS GENERATIONS IS KEY.
Mia Mottley, prime minister of Barbados, recently added her voice to the widespread call for genuinely inclusive recruitment processes for major international institutions like the World Bank. She argued that reform should get underway as soon as the new president is in place to ensure that new rules are ready for next time. Given the importance of the role for children’s lives, serious consideration should be given to allowing children to have a voice in future selection processes.
Regardless of the outcome of this recruitment process, the change in leadership at the World Bank presents an opportunity to inject new energy and ambition into the global fight against poverty, inequality and polycrisis, and to put children’s rights front and centre.
In practice, this means that the new president must commit to working for children – ensuring that the rights of current and future generations of children are paramount in all decisions and policy making.
They must also commit to working with children, listening to their experiences and ideas, and acting on them. As a 15-year-old girl in Guatemala told us when asked about potential solutions to the climate and inequality crisis, “Giving young people a voice and platform to speak from would be the most useful thing; they already have the ideas.”
A child in India hit the nail on the head when they said, “Unity is the greatest strength of all, so we need to stand together in this fight.”
Unity - with children, and across generations - is the key to a greener, fairer future for all.
