1. UNICEF KEY ASKS ON THE POST-2015
DEVELOPMENT AGENDA
UNICEF, September 2013
Summary of UNICEF Key Asks
Targets should be included in the new Agenda for the following:
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By 2035, reduce the national under-five mortality rate to 20 or fewer deaths per
1,000 live births;
Eliminate all preventable maternal deaths;
By 2025, reduce stunting among children under five by 40% worldwide;
Universal coverage of basic health services, safe drinking water and sanitation;
Successful completion by all children of quality education that fosters learning;
Protection of all girls and boys from all forms of violence, abuse and exploitation;
Strengthened resilience of children, families and communities to shocks and
stresses relating to disasters, violence, conflicts, climate change and epidemics.
Strategies to pursue these targets should focus on the worst-off as the first priority.
All targets in the Post-2015 Agenda should be disaggregated by gender, location, age,
ethnicity, disability and wealth, as relevant, and investments made in data collection and
disaggregation, in order to track inequalities and ensure no one is left behind.

2. UNICEF Key Asks on the Post-2015 Development Agenda
The following are UNICEF’s Key Asks1 for the Post-2015 Development Agenda that
would help ensure a post-2015 world fit for all children:
1. With the support of the Committing to Child Survival: A Promise Renewed initiative, and in order to
build on and extend the partial target of MDG 4, each country should commit to scale up high impact
strategies and set targets to reduce the national rate of child mortality to 20 deaths per one
thousand live births or less by 2035. The new Global Agenda should set an equivalent target at the
international level: “all countries will reduce the national under-five mortality rate to 20 or fewer
deaths per 1000 live births by 2035”. This will be a stepping stone towards the virtual elimination of
all preventable child deaths.
2. In synergy with the focus on child survival, and in order to build on and extend the partial target of
MDG 5, the Post-2015 Agenda should also include a target for the virtual elimination of all
preventable maternal deaths. A recent proposal is for a global target of reducing maternal mortality
ratios to less than 50 per 100,000 live births by 20352.
3. Like child and maternal mortality, the state of child stunting is a major outcome and direct marker of
human progress, and is determined by many factors across sectors in development. Consistent with
the target endorsed by the 2012 World Health Assembly, the Post-2015 Agenda should include a
target to reduce child stunting globally by 40% by 2025, and should use the stunting rate among
children under 5 as a key indicator of poverty reduction and human progress. Individual countries
are encouraged to adopt national plans under the Scaling Up Nutrition initiative.
4. Globally, and in all countries for all main social and income groups, the Post-2015 Agenda should
adopt “universal” targets for inclusive, 100% effective coverage of basic health services, clean water
and safe sanitation. Universal household access to clean energy is a further target that could be
included. Also, UNICEF encourages the national plans and programmes that pursue these universal
aims to focus on the worst-off and most deprived families and communities as their first and highest
priority.
5. The MDG targets on basic education focused on primary school enrolment. The Post-2015 Agenda
should build on the progress made on access and adopt a much more comprehensive focus on
access, equity and learning. It should aim for the successful completion by all children, from all socioeconomic groups, of equitable, quality education that fosters learning, including junior secondary
and at least one year of pre-primary. The related indicators will need to measure both school access
and learning3.
6. Targets and indicators should be included that recognize how protecting children from violence,
exploitation and abuse saves lives and is essential to sustainable development. Specifically, a target
1
UNICEF’s Key Asks are a complimentary piece to the following additional key resource papers: UNICEF Key Messages
on the Post-2015 Development Agenda and Sustainable Development Starts with Safe, Healthy and Well-Educated
Children.
2
th
See Bustero, F. et al; Ending preventable maternal deaths: the time is now; The Lancet, August 19 , 2013.
3
An indicator is currently under discussion that would measure the proportion of children who complete primary
school in each country, knowing how to read.
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3. UNICEF Key Asks on the Post-2015 Development Agenda
should be included for the protection of children from all forms of violence - girls and boys alike.
Indicators for this target should include already-measured metrics covering birth registration, violent
deaths and injuries, corporal punishment, early marriage, FGM and child labour. Universal birth
registration and the reduction of violent deaths among children could also be targets in their own
right.
7. The new Agenda should include measures to strengthen the resilience of children, families,
communities and the systems that support them to shocks and stresses, such as disasters, violence,
conflicts, climate change, and epidemics. Specific targets should be included to “reduce the impacts of
disasters and conflict on human development outcomes”, “eliminate all forms of violence against
children and women’, and “eliminate the recruitment and use of children by armed forces and nonstate armed groups”. These targets would be supported by indicators that measure reduced impacts
(e.g. the percentage of school days lost as a result of disasters and conflict; violent deaths per
100,000 people; incidence of the six grave violations against children4) or that measure increased
capacities (e.g. the percentage of development and sector plans informed by disaster and/or conflict
risk assessments).
8. All targets in these and other relevant areas in the new Agenda should be disaggregated by the most
appropriate characteristics for that target, in order to reveal and track inequalities. Among these
characteristics are: gender; location (urban/rural; province-district-sub-district); age; household
wealth quintile (with possible focus specifically on the most disadvantaged one or two quintiles);
ethnicity; and disability. Data collection and disaggregation for these targets should be
complemented by extensive qualitative inputs and feedback on progress and performance from
deprived groups and communities themselves. This will help ensure – in the words of the SG’s High
Level Panel – that we “leave no one [and no child] behind”.
The above are UNICEF’s Key Asks for the content of the Post-2015 Development
Agenda. In addition, UNICEF would encourage and advocate for the inclusion of the
following:
i)
Recognition, throughout the new Agenda, of the centrality of children and their rights to the
success of a future sustainable development agenda – including as key drivers, major
stakeholders and valuable contributors to all dimensions of sustainable development5;
ii)
A Goal on Gender Equality and Women’s Rights, that will specifically include targets and
indicators concerning the rights of girls, and boys where relevant;
iii)
Strong attention throughout the new Agenda to the rights of all people living with disabilities,
including through disability-specific targets and/or indicators;
4
The six grave violations are: Killing or maiming of children; recruitment or use of children by armed forces and armed
groups; sexual violence against children; attacks against schools or hospitals; denial of humanitarian access for children;
abduction of children (reference, UN Security Council Resolutions SCRs 1612, 1998, and 1882).
5
See detailed discussion of this point in “Sustainable Development Starts with Safe, Healthy and Well-Educated
Children, UNICEF HQ, May 2013; http://www.unicef.org/post2015/files/SD_children_FINAL.pdf
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4. UNICEF Key Asks on the Post-2015 Development Agenda
iv)
Strong attention in the new Agenda to the vulnerabilities and rights of adolescents and young
people, such as access to information and health services, including reproductive health, HIV
prevention, care and treatment; and well as protection from violence, abuse and exploitation;
enabling of participation and self-expression; skills development and access to decent work;
v)
Related to this, inclusion in the new Agenda of provisions for expanded education and training
opportunities for older children and youth beyond junior secondary, including for those who
dropped out of school before securing the basic skills necessary to fulfil their potentials.
vi)
Recognition in the new Agenda of the need for protection and fulfilment of the rights and
wellbeing of migrants and their families, including children who themselves migrate or are
members of families affected by migration in countries of origin, transit and destination. The
new Agenda should recognize, also, the contributions of migrants and migration to human
progress and development;
vii)
Recognition in the new Agenda of the key role of social protection (SP) measures, such as SP
floors, in ensuring the human right to dignity and a basic livelihood for all people, particularly
children (who often suffer the highest rates of poverty and deprivation); and of context-relevant,
child-sensitive SP interventions as complements and catalysts to Early Childhood Development,
improved access to basic services and better outcomes in health, nutrition and learning.
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5. UNICEF Key Asks on the Post-2015 Development Agenda
FRONT COVER PHOTO CREDITS:
UNICEF/NYHQ 2004-1408/Giacomo Pirozzi, UNICEF/NYHQ 2008-0568/Adam Dean, UNICEF/NYHQ 20102928/Christine Nesbitt, UNICEF/NYHQ 2009-2170/Tom Pietrasik
OTHER RESOURCES:
UNICEF has developed three key resource papers regarding the positioning of children and young people in
the Post-2015 Development Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) negotiations. Please also
see:
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UNICEF Key Messages on the Post-2015 Development Agenda
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Sustainable Development Starts with Safe, Healthy and Well-Educated Children
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Please contact Richard Morgan, Senior Advisor, Office of the Executive Director: rmorgan@unicef.org or
visit: http://www.unicef.org/post2015/index.html
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