Ensuring that every child can survive, thrive, and reach his or her full potential with dignity is central to long-term national development. Strengthening the capacities of children, adolescents, and the families who love and care for them is one of the best investments a country can make to eliminate extreme pover ty, boost economic growth, and promote a peaceful society.
The challenge of protecting children in adversity is enormous. Millions of children and adolescents around the world live without protective, nurturing, and loving family care as the result of poverty and other factors, including disability, disease, humanitarian crisis, exploitative labor, or human trafficking. Evidence shows that when children face chronic, unaddressed adversities, the resulting toxic stress can have life-long, debilitating mental, emotional, and physical effects. This constellation of adversities has deleterious impacts, not only on the individuals and families concerned, but also on the societies and countries where they live, across generations.