All reports

2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the World Programme of Action for Youth (WPAY). WPAY provided a policy framework and guidelines for national action and international support to improve young people’s lives around the world. Leveraging this moment to critically reflect on the journey so far, the United Nations Youth Office (UNYO) launched the #YouthLead Dialogues, a global youth-led initiative to gather perspectives directly from young people as well as key stakeholders, including UN entities, country teams, youth-led organisations, and civil society partners. UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight and the United Nations Futures Lab/Global Hub partnered with UNYO to integrate strategic foresight into the design and implementation of the initiative.Over 75,000 children and young people from more than 180 countries answered the call by leading their own dialogues, sharing their lived experiences, aspirations, and recommendations on how we can create a better future for young people. Decentralised youth foresight processes such as these can model meaningful youth participation in decision making, placing young people’s visions at the center of global action. The key findings are captured in the #YouthLead Dialogues Summary, which served as one of the key inputs to inform the High-Level Meeting celebrating WPAY30 and other key moments during the United Nations General Assembly high-level week. Dive into the #YouthLead Dialogues Summary to explore:Key priorities for youth affairs identified by children and young peopleCore elements of the futures children and young people want to live inSeeds of change they see in the present that have transformative potential and deserve more attentionActionable recommendations for policy and action This summary report captures the voices, visions, and commitments of over 75,000 children and young people from around the world. Whether you are a policymaker, educator, activist, or a citizen interested in the youth agenda, this is an opportunity to see the future through the eyes of an emerging generation of changemakers—and to discover how you can play a part in bringing their vision to life. Visit United Nations Futures Lab to learn more about the #YouthLead Dialogues initiative.

In Djibouti, children with disabilities continue to face significant barriers to accessing quality education. Although their right to education is recognized in national policies and laws, implementation gaps remain. The education system is currently undergoing a transition toward full inclusion. During this period, the Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training (MENFOP) has opted to maintain special schools to meet existing demand. Key challenges include limited teacher training in inclusive pedagogy, inadequate infrastructure, lack of adapted learning materials, and varying perceptions of inclusive education across the education system. This report, developed under the Learning is For Everyone (LiFE) research, outlines four strategic recommendations to support a progressive, system-wide shift toward inclusive education. These include improving awareness on inclusive education, teacher capacity, data systems, and mobilizing staff in special schools to support mainstream schools. The LiFE research was implemented in Djibouti through a partnership between UNICEF, MENFOP, and the National Agency for Persons with Disabilities (ANPH).

How can governments train thousands of teachers effectively and at scale? This implementation research shares evidence from Sierra Leone’s nationwide initiative to train 12,500 Grade 1 teachers and headteachers in structured pedagogy.Drawing on test data from over 7,500 teachers, classroom observations, and feedback from more than 5,600 participants, the report explores what worked, what didn’t, and why. It highlights the strengths and limitations of the cascade training model, explains variations across districts and topics, and identifies ways to sustain teacher professional development beyond one-off workshops.

Forcibly displaced children and child migrants face heightened protection risks, including violence, family separation, trafficking, child marriage, gender-based violence (GBV), forced labour, and psychosocial distress. In Pakistan, nearly half of UNHCR’s population of concern are children. Internally displaced Pakistani children, Afghan child migrants, and other forcibly displaced children face significant risks, especially in urban and peri-urban areas, where access to protection services is limited.Despite the scale of displacement—an estimated 3.6 million Afghans in Pakistan—there is limited research on the specific risks these children face, barriers to their protection, and the mechanisms available to support them.To address this gap, the study Generating Evidence on Internally Displaced Children, Afghan Child Migrants and Forcibly Displaced Children in Pakistan provides new insights into their lived experiences and access to child protection services. Produced by UNICEF Innocenti in collaboration with UNICEF Pakistan and the Pakistan National Commission on the Rights of the Child (NCRC), and funded by the Netherlands, the research was conducted by Samuel Hall Ltd.The report aims to:Assess urban and peri-urban contexts where Afghan children with Proof of Residence (PoR) cards and internally displaced children live.Explore their daily lives, perceived barriers to services, and future aspirations.Understand current child protection service provision in these settings.Offer evidence-based recommendations to UNICEF, the Government of Pakistan, and other stakeholders.An accompanying policy brief, Increasing Access to and Quality of Child Protection Services for Children on the Move in Pakistan, highlights the need for inclusive, rights-based responses for migrant and displaced children, and promotes social cohesion between host and migrant communities through equitable access to protection and social services.

This work is part of UNICEF's Good Governance of Children's Data projectEducation technology (EdTech) offers powerful opportunities to improve learning outcomes, personalize instruction, and expand access to quality education, particularly in low-resource settings and for children with disabilities. At the same time, the collection and use of student data present significant risks, including privacy violations, biased profiling, and the commercial exploitation of children’s information.To help address these challenges, UNICEF partnered with UNESCO and the Global Privacy Assembly to produce a global landscape review on data governance in EdTech. The paper identifies the key stakeholders in EdTech data governance and the obstacles they face in protecting children’s rights. It also examines existing multi-stakeholder governance mechanisms across countries, highlighting the respective roles of governments, data protection authorities, and EdTech companies.The landscape review is accompanied by policy recommendations that demonstrate how sound data governance principles can be applied within the EdTech sector. Developed through a global consultation process with data protection authorities, civil society organizations, academics, and EdTech companies across five regions, the recommendations include strengthening legal and regulatory frameworks, embracing anticipatory governance, promoting rights-based business models, and fostering both multi-stakeholder and multilateral collaboration.By adopting these recommendations, stakeholders can help ensure that EdTech not only drives innovation in education but also safeguards the rights and well-being of every child.

Programming to prevent and respond to child marriage in humanitarian settings is vital to the health, safety and wellbeing of women and girls, but little documentation or evaluation of programmes and best practices exists to guide implementation.UNICEF Innocenti undertook a study in five countries in the Middle East, speaking with more than 60 practitioners and policymakers to understand the challenges faced in designing and implementing child-marriage focused programming in complex and diverse humanitarian settings as well as the facilitators that enable effective programming.Putting girls at the heart of programming and designing programmes to address the immediate and long-term needs of girls in a humanitarian crisis or protracted refugee setting requires targeted efforts to improve monitoring, evaluation, and accountability while acknowledging the complexity of these situations and the varying cultural, normative and logistical factors that deter and facilitate implementation.  

Foundational literacy is a pivotal step in every child’s development, marking the transition from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.” In Egypt, nearly six in 10 children are unable to read or write a simple story by age 10, limiting their ability to progress in education and fully participate in society and the economy. To address this, the Ministry of Education and Technical Education (MoETE), in partnership with the National Center for Examinations and Educational Evaluation (NCEEE) and UNICEF, launched the National Programme for Developing Arabic Language Skills (NPDA) in February 2025. Over 12 weeks, the programme reached more than 180,000 students in grades three to six across 980 schools in 10 governorates, with eligibility based on a baseline reading assessment. NPDA combined structured literacy instruction, teacher training, and dedicated teaching and learning materials. Research embedded in the programme showed significant improvements in children’s literacy outcomes, with the largest gains among the lowest-performing students and girls. Strong fidelity in classroom implementation and growing teacher confidence highlight the programme’s success and potential for scale. Findings and recommendations from this research will inform the next phase of NPDA, set to launch in October 2025.

While there is evidence that digital learning can improve learning outcomes, less is known about how to integrate it in the daily routines of schools, especially in low-resource contexts.Digital Learning, Real Classrooms examines how digital learning was used to build foundational literacy and numeracy in Ghanaian primary schools. Using an implementation research lens, the study looks at four dimensions that matter for digital learning in low-resource contexts: appropriateness (how stakeholders view the platform), adoption (how schools and learners use it), fidelity (how closely practice follows intended pedagogy), and feasibility (the infrastructure and capacity to sustain it).The paper shares lessons from real classrooms and offers practical steps and recommendations for policymakers and practitioners planning digital learning initiatives in low- and middle-income countries.

Climate change is not just an environmental crisis—it is a security crisis. Rising temperatures, extreme weather events, and resource scarcity are driving instability, conflict, and displacement around the world. For children, who make up nearly one-third of the global population, the stakes could not be higher.This discussion paper, Why is Climate Security Important for Children?, explores how climate change fuels insecurity and how these compounded risks uniquely and severely impact children. From malnutrition and disrupted education to displacement and increased exposure to violence, children are among the most vulnerable to the cascading impacts of climate insecurity. Alarmingly, two-thirds of the countries most affected by climate change also face fragility and conflict, leaving millions of children without the protection and essential services they need to survive and thrive.Yet, children are not only victims – they are agents of change. By investing in foresight, preparedness, and child-centred solutions, the global community can help safeguard children from climate-related threats while empowering them to participate in shaping a more resilient, peaceful future.The paper identifies four priority actions:Integrate responses across climate, humanitarian, and peacebuilding sectors to address compound risks.Ensure climate finance reaches fragile and conflict-affected settings, where children are most exposed.Strengthen data and evidence on children’s climate and security risks to guide better policies.Amplify children’s voices in climate and security decision-making processes.Addressing climate security through a child lens is essential to safeguarding children’s rights and building more stable, resilient societies. By investing in preparedness and child-focused solutions, the global community can help protect today’s children while supporting their role as changemakers for a more secure future.

What barriers prevent children and youth from meaningfully participating in civil and political processes, and how are young people creating innovative solutions to overcome them? What advice can experts give to children and young people struggling to influence political decisions in a changing world?  This discussion paper emerges from groundbreaking intergenerational consultations conducted by UNICEF Innocenti across four regions in 2024, bringing together 120 children and young people aged 12-23, UNICEF staff and civil society experts from 18 countries. Through these regional dialogues, young participants not only shared their experiences but actively shaped the agenda, moving beyond traditional consultation approaches to become co-leads in the analysis. The paper reveals a striking contradiction: while today’s youth represent the largest cohort in human history, their political power remains severely constrained by age discrimination, safety risks, and limited access to resources. Yet from Bangladesh’s student-led protests to Kenya’s strategic youth-women alliances, children and young people are forging innovative pathways to civic engagement that combine formal institutional channels with creative grassroots activism. Building on the engaging intergenerational dialogues of 2024, this paper examines both the systemic barriers young people face and the creative solutions they’re developing – from arts-based advocacy in West Africa to digital organizing in Latin America. The findings provide concrete recommendations for children, educators, policymakers, and organizations on how to move beyond tokenistic inclusion toward genuine partnership, recognizing children and young people as political actors in their own right. 

As neurotechnology becomes increasingly prevalent in everyday life, it raises urgent questions about the implications for children’s rights. From brain-computer interfaces to cognitive enhancement tools, neurotechnology is poised to impact how children learn, interact, and develop – yet these innovations also introduce serious ethical, legal, and safety concerns.This report by UNICEF Innocenti explores the emerging intersection of neurotechnology and children’s rights, offering a foresight-driven examination of both the risks and opportunities ahead. It identifies critical challenges, including threats to privacy and autonomy, potential bias and discrimination, and the widening of digital and neurological divides. At the same time, it highlights how well-governed neurotechnologies could support children, especially ones with disabilities, enhance learning, and promote mental well-being.The report calls for a proactive and rights-based approach to neurotechnology development. Key recommendations include embedding children’s rights into regulatory frameworks, supporting child-centered research and innovation, and ensuring inclusive global dialogue that involves children themselves.With technology evolving faster than regulation, this report is a timely resource for policymakers, researchers, and innovators. It urges action now – before neurotechnology becomes deeply integrated into children’s lives – to ensure a future where children’s rights are not only protected but advanced.For more, visit UNICEF Innocenti's page on neurotechnology and children.

This working paper presents an in-depth exploration of the lived experiences of children and adolescents navigating migration and displacement across Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Somalia, and Sudan. Based on comparative qualitative research conducted between 2018 and 2023, it highlights the perspectives of children aged 10–19 who are engaged in diverse migration journeys—both voluntary and forced, regular and irregular, across internal and cross-border settings.Today, over 47 million children are displaced globally due to conflict and violence—the highest number on record. These trends are exacerbated by a combination of factors including climate shocks, political instability, and protracted crises. While these conditions often expose children to acute risks, this research also reveals the depth of their resilience, agency, and aspirations. Children are not merely passive victims of displacement—they actively navigate complex environments, make difficult choices, and carry hope for brighter futures.Yet, despite their central role in these journeys, children's own voices remain strikingly absent from global migration policy and discourse. This working paper aims to help close that gap by foregrounding children’s narratives in their own words. Their testimonies offer urgent, grounded insights into how they experience protection systems, family separation, education disruption, and environmental precarity.Organised around four thematic domains emerging from interviews, the report challenges reductive assumptions and underscores the need for child-informed approaches to migration governance. By placing children’s perspectives at the centre, the paper contributes to evidence that can inform more responsive policies, strengthen child protection systems, and advance the rights of children on the move.