Reaching every child: The promise of equity >> Why focus on equity now? overall progress masked glaring – and sometimes growing – gaps between children from the poorest households and those from the richest households. We cannot afford to let that history repeat itself. To meet the 2030 goals, the pace of progress in the next 15 years will have to outpace that of the MdG period. The consequences and costs of failure are enormous. in fact, if the trends of the past 15 years continue for the next 15 years, by 2030, an estimated 167 million children, the great majority in sub-Saharan africa, will still be living in extreme poverty. approximately 3.6 million children under age 5 will die that year, still from mostly preventable causes. and there could still be more than 60 million primary-school-aged 5 children out of school. far more than the MdGs that preceded them, the 2030 goals recognize the critical importance of promoting equity. The 17 goals and 169 associated targets that the world’s governments have committed to achieving are universal, linked by a pledge “that no one will be left behind … and we will endeavour to reach the 6 A group of young girls eat furthest behind first.” lunch at Salam #9 Primary redeeming that pledge must begin with delivering progress for the children School for Girls in the Abu who have been left behind. and the need to do so is urgent. Shouk camp for internally displaced people, Sudan. The United nations has projected increasing humanitarian needs and a grim 7 © UNICEF/UNI165741/Noorani outlook for children in 2016. The United nations high Commissioner for refugees estimated that by 2015, at least 60 million people had fled their homes because of conflict and violence.8 9 Chinmaya Shrestha warms half of them are children. The her three-day-old grandson number of children experiencing prolonged and complex disasters, such as the 10 at the primary health centre conflict in the Syrian arab republic, is growing. in Gorkha District, Nepal. The intensifying effects of climate change are also exacerbating the risks to © UNICEF/UN016489/Shrestha the most disadvantaged children. Globally, more than half a billion children live The STaTe of The World’S Children 2016 4