Astonishing Findings in 2020s UNICEF reports
If everybody in the world consumed resources at the rate at which people in OECD and EU countries consumed — “the equivalent of 3.3 earths would be needed to keep up with consumption levels.”
If everyone in the world “consumed resources at the rate at which people the three countries (“Canada, Luxembourg and the United States of America”) consumed — “…at least five earths would be needed.”
The OECD
The history of the OECD extends to 1948 when its name was “Organization for European Economic Cooperation” or OEEC. The name was changed in 1961 to “Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development” or OECD.
Strikingly, after almost 80 years of existence, the OECD (or principal states thereof), while including some Member States of the Global South (Chile and Colombia)—has excluded the entire Continent of Africa and major Persian and Arab countries, the Subcontinent, and major Eastern European, Eurasian, and Far Eastern Asian countries.
World's Key Populations
ASIA East Asia 1.62 billion West Asia: 296.39 million
| AFRICA: 1.48 billion
|
INDIA 1.42 billion
| CHINA 1.41 billion
|
EURASIA: 1.12 billion / Eastern Europe 281.00 million (Russia 143.56 million)
| EUROPE (Western Europe): 201.08 million Northern Europe: 107.71 million
|
AMERICAS North America: 613.15 million (USA 333.29 million; Central America: 52.7 million ) South America: 442,860,822 million
|
|
Current OECD Member States (alphabetically)
|
Commonwealth of
Australia |
Czech Republic (aka
Czechia) |
Dominion of Canada |
Dominion of New
Zealand |
Federal Republic of
Germany |
|
French Republic |
Grand Duchy of
Luxembourg |
Hellenic Republic
(Greece) |
Italian Republic |
Kingdom of Belgium |
|
Kingdom of Denmark |
Kingdom of Norway |
Kingdom of Spain |
Kingdom of Sweden |
Magyar Koztarsasag
(Republic of Hungary) |
|
Portuguese Republic |
Republic of Austria |
Republic of Chile |
Republic of
Colombia |
Republic of Costa
Rica |
|
Republic of Estonia |
Republic of Finland |
Republic of Iceland |
Republic of Ireland |
Republic of Korea |
|
Republic of Latvia |
Republic of
Lithuania |
Republic of Poland |
Republic of
Slovenia |
Republic of Türkiye |
|
Slovak Republic |
State of Japan |
Swiss Confederation
|
The Netherlands
(Holland) |
United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland |
|
United Mexican
States |
United States of
America |
|
|
|
https://www.oecd.org/en/about/members-partners.html)
The OECD-ers' Gifts to the world
- The greatest “exposure to harmful pollutants (toxic air, pesticides, damp and lead)”
- The biggest “contributions to the climate crisis, consumption of resources, and e-waste dumping
People in contemporary USA—at least judging by the raging content and characters pervading traditional and modern media —are obsessed with wedge and other distractions including what they term “pre-born(s)” and “may-be-about-to-be born(s)” Yet they are unconcerned about relentless super-powered violence, human trafficking, child labor, and human slavery, and all manner of assault on clearly-living, viable women and children.
The Children are Caught in the crossfire of Man’s Impunity, a Criminal and Morally Reprehensible Onslaught.
In addition to being made to suffer the terror of super-powered weaponry, unmanned drones, brutes and assassins—young people caught in conflict are also suffering “deadly diseases.” They are suffering diseases, says UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell, “that should no longer exist.”Many countries are experiencing “the collapse of healthcare systems, destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure, and the displacement of families, triggering a resurgence of diseases like polio.”
Twenty-one countries are currently battling polio; fifteen of these countries are fragile or caught in conflict. Among the affected countries are “Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen.” And for the first time in twenty-five years, polio has returned to the Gaza Strip.
UNICEF's View from the Ground and Sage Advice
In this moment of “global crisis and rising uncertainty”—poor conditions in nature and populations, unwinding democratic expansion, and an unsteady multilateralism— children of the world are experiencing neglect and great suffering, portending an even direr future.
The current state of affairs “threatens to overshadow two decades of historic progress that had shaped the lives of children for the better. The advancement of poorer countries is being reversed. Living standards raised are now lowered or stilled.
We can continue on a backward path of plunder, division, denial and desert, leaving individual countries to grapple with inadequacies in essential infrastructures and resources, vast environmental changes, and a variety of sectarian, regional, international and domestic conflicts.
Or “we can choose a path marked by increased global collaboration—a path that embraces innovation, knowledge sharing, policy transfer, and equitable growth.”
“We owe it to ourselves and to future generations to create better places and spaces for children to thrive.” Therefore, “we must pursue policies and practices that safeguard the natural environment upon which children and young people (most of all) depend.” (Research Director Gunilla Olsson)
Peoples of the world “… must recognize our shared destiny.”
Rekindle the cooperative spirit that once was, in an earlier era when leading figures seemed to place the “interests” and the “voices” of children and developing youth “at the centre of decisions” about the world’s “common future.” UNICEF Report “Prospects for Children in 2024: Cooperation in a Fragmented World: A Global Outlook” https://www.unicef.org/innocenti/reports/prospects-children-2024-global-outlook
UNICEF Reports Referenced
- “Prospects for Children in 2021–2025: A Global Outlook: At a time of global crisis and rising uncertainty, does the vision of the SDGs remain a possibility?” https://www.unicef.org/innocenti/reports/prospects-children-2021-2025-global-outlook
- United Nations News May 24, 2022, “World’s richest countries damaging child health worldwide: UNICEF” “Over-consumption in the world’s richest countries is creating unhealthy, dangerous, and toxic conditions for children globally, according to a new report published on Tuesday by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).” (Gunilla Olsson, Director of UNICEF Office of Research) https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/05/1118902
- UNICEF Press release May 23, 2022 “Over-consumption in the world’s richest countries is destroying children’s environments globally, new report says”; “The world’s richest countries – including Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands and Norway – are providing healthier environments for children within their borders, yet are disproportionately contributing to the destruction of the global environment”
- “Prospects for Children in the Polycrisis: A 2023 Global Outlook: As the world is forced to confront the interconnectivity of risks, trends and events, will we finally prioritize holistic solutions to improve prospects for children?” https://www.unicef.org/innocenti/reports/prospects-children-polycrisis-2023-global-outlook
- “Prospects for Children in 2024: Cooperation in a Fragmented World: A Global Outlook” https://www.unicef.org/innocenti/reports/prospects-children-2024-global-outlook
- UN NEWS October 23, 2024, Health “UNICEF: 85 per cent of children affected by polio in 2023 lived in fragile, conflict-affected areas… Countries facing conflict, natural disasters and humanitarian crises are struggling to provide routine childhood immunizations leaving many children vulnerable to the resurgence of polio, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned in new report.” https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/10/1156041
