Queen Rania attends UNICEF ‘Champions for Children’ event in New York

AMMAN — Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah attended UNICEF’s Champions for Children: Child Rights at the Heart of the SDGs reception event in New York on Sunday, which took place on the sidelines of the High-level Week of the 78th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

Hosted by UNICEF’s Executive Director, Catherine Russell, and featuring the First Lady of the United States, Dr Jill Biden, as a keynote speaker, the event aims to place children at the heart of achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by focusing on their empowerment and the need to invest in their future, according to a statement from Her Majesty’s office.

Convening around the release of a new UNICEF report addressing progress on child-specific indicators in the SDGs, the event shed light on children’s vulnerability and highlighted the unprecedented opportunity to shape the future for children, transforming and accelerating progress. 

According to the report, Progress on Children’s Well-Being: Centering child rights in the 2030 Agenda, two-thirds of child-related indicators are off-pace to meet their 2030 SDGs target. The report warns that as of today, only 6 per cent of the world’s child population living in just 11 countries have reached 50 per cent of child-related targets met. If this trajectory continues, it is expected that only 60 countries — home to just 25 per cent of the world’s children — will have met their targets by 2030, leaving around 1.9 billion children in 140 countries behind.

The analysis weaves together over 20 years of data across more than 190 countries, comparing where countries stand today against where they aim to be in the next seven years, and identifying the challenges and opportunities for accelerated action. The findings show a mixed picture of both progress and backsliding against the global goals.

The report also reveals that accelerated development is possible with strong national commitment, effective policies and adequate financing, with some low and lower-middle-income countries making the fastest rate of progress.

Attended by youth advocates, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors, and several high-profile guests, the event featured a segment on ways to champion children in areas like health, education, climate and peace-building efforts.

Other prominent speakers included Queen Mathilde of Belgium and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, actor Orlando Bloom.