Prospects for Children: The Global Outlook
Featured project | An annual analysis of trends shaping the world and their impact on children
What’s next for the world’s children in the year ahead? What are the prospects for the future of child rights and well-being?
In 2021, we produced an analysis of global trends impacting children over the following five years. Since then, we have published annual Global Outlook reports examining how events and emerging trends may unfold over the coming 12 months.
These reports look at the prospects for the world’s children based on a review of the evolving context, and do so at a time of global crisis and rising uncertainty. Repercussions of the pandemic, climate change, the unwinding of democratic expansion, a shaken spirit of multilateralism – all are having a profound and lasting impact on children.
Repercussions of the pandemic, climate change, the unwinding of democratic expansion, a shaken spirit of multilateralism – all are having a profound and lasting impact on children.
For the 2023 Global Outlook, we involved young people in the identification and evaluation of trends in order to provide space for stronger intergenerational dialogue around foresight. Our 2023 report highlights eight trends, including rising inflation and efforts to tame it, energy sustainability, food and nutrition insecurity, and fragmentation of the internet.
Many of the trends identified will be important not just in the coming 12 months, but well into the future. Whether these forces persist or whether they reverse in coming years will be critical when we look back and assess the progress made for children at this vexed and complex moment in our history.