Climate change, junk food, marketing by tobacco manufacturers ... Children's health everywhere faces an "immediate threat" and no country in the world is satisfactorily protecting their future, warns the United Nations (UN) . Advances have been made over the past 20 years in the field of child and adolescent health, but "these advances are today at a standstill" even "threatened", say the authors of a report published Wednesday in the British medical journal The Lancet .
To reach this harsh conclusion, this group of 40 independent child health experts from around the world, convened by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Unicef, has constructed a new index measuring the possibility of children flourish, using data from 180 countries (mortality, health, nutrition, education indicators, etc.).
Norway in first position, France 4th
Unsurprisingly, these are rich countries that come first with Norway in first position, followed by South Korea, the Netherlands and France. Conversely, the bottom of the ranking is occupied by countries in sub-Saharan Africa: Central African Republic, Chad, Somalia and Niger.
But the authors of the report, entitled "A future for the children of the world?", Compare this classification with "sustainability" measures (evolution of CO2 emissions, income inequality ...) and stress that "so much from high income countries have a very good score on the flourishing index, they are close to the bottom of the ranking for their contribution to ecological sustainability ”. As for the poorest countries, if their greenhouse gas emissions are among the lowest, "many are exposed to the most severe effects of rapid climate change".
"Protect the world they will inherit"
Only nine countries are able to reach the targets for reducing CO2 emissions per capita set for 2030 at the same time while being in the top 70 scores for the flourishing index: Albania, Armenia, Grenada, Jordan, Moldova, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Uruguay and Vietnam.
"Countries need to rethink their approach to child and adolescent health by making sure not only to take care of them today, but to protect the world they will inherit," said Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand and co-chair of the commission of experts convened by WHO and UNICEF.
Among the threats to the health of future generations, the report first refers to air pollution and the "intensification of climate threats". "If global warming exceeds 4 ° C by 2100 as projected today, it will have dire health consequences for children due to rising ocean levels, heat waves, and the spread of disease such as malaria and dengue fever, as well as malnutrition. "
"Harmful business practices"
Experts also denounce "harmful commercial practices" for the health of children exposed to the marketing of brands of ultra-processed foods, sugary drinks, alcohol, electronic cigarettes or tobacco.
Numerous studies show that “self-regulation by manufacturers does not work”, underlines Anthony Costello, pediatrician and former director of the Institute for Global Health (United Kingdom), referring to exposure to alcohol advertising during sports meetings and the explosion of childhood and adolescent obesity, multiplied by 11 between 1975 and 2016. Also, they call on national governments to tighten their regulations in this area.
They also recommend that they tackle CO2 emissions "with the utmost urgency" to "ensure that children have a future on this planet", to take into account the voice of the youngest in political decisions and to '' systematically assess the effects of these decisions on child health.
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