Innovate to address children's problems, says Unicef

The United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) Thursday called for addressing the most pressing problems facing children and driving innovations for the most disadvantaged ones.

Marking 25 years of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Unicef released a report on the State of the World's Children, calling on governments, development professionals, businesses, activists and communities to work together on this matter of innovation, Xinhua reported.

Noting that innovations are already happening at local level to help children gain access to services and opportunities, the report, titled Re-imagine the Future: Innovation for Every Child, said that such innovations should be brought to benefit more people.

To maximise the benefits for the most disadvantaged children, the innovative solutions should involve participation of disadvantaged and vulnerable people, based on a better understanding of their realities and needs, said the report.

UN statistics illustrate the existence of inequity - 79 percent of the richest children under age 5 have their births registered but only 51 percent of the poorest have an official identity.

Compared to 20 percent of the world's richest children, 20 percent of the poorest ones are twice likely to be stunted by poor nutrition and to die under age 5.

"Inequity is as old as humanity, but so is innovation -- and it has always driven humanity's progress," said Unicef executive director Anthony Lake.

The report illustrated several innovative cases to demonstrate the importance to listen to children. Viraj Puri, a 14-year-old boy, created Bullyvention, a way to leverage the power of people and technology to track and advocate against cyber-bullying based on algorithms that analyse social media messages.

"Children and young people are natural innovators. They are also acutely aware and deeply concerned about the challenges facing their communities," said the report.

"Nurturing their creativity and critical thinking is key to helping them develop their potential to address these problems."

The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989.