Inclusion and equity

Across the world, inequity and discrimination keep children from participating fully in their families, communities and nations. Discrimination and inequity keep children from attending school, from seeking and receiving health care, and from dreaming big and reaching their goals.

When discrimination and inequity is based on gender, the result can be a life of unequal or limited opportunities. For girls this can mean being denied an education or the chance to learn a particular skill. It can mean child marriage or female genital mutilation. Boys too suffer from harmful gender practices. They may be subjected to child labour, recruited in armed groups or discouraged from finishing school.

For children with disabilities, discrimination and inequity is also a means of exclusion – exclusion from school, from health care, from social activities and from full participation in their worlds.

UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight examines how discrimination, inequity and exclusion rob children of their basic rights. Much of our work focusses on bolstering the evidence base about children living with disabilities. We look at how stigma can be removed and how accessibility can allow children with disabilities to enjoy full inclusion.

Our work on gender explores interventions that work to promote equality and end discrimination. We look at how interventions in education, child protection and social protection address the harmful gender norms that prevent girls and boys from reaching their potential.