UNICEF: two out of three newborns live in countries with no paid paternity leave.

NEW YORK/BISHKEK, 14 June 2018 – According to the new UNICEF research almost two thirds of all children under 12 months around the world, which is approximately 90 million people, live in countries with legislations that do not allow fathers to have a single paid day of a paternity leave.

In 92 countries, including India and Nigeria with high population of newborns, there are no national strategies, which guarantee that fathers can have a proper paid paternity leave. However, in other countries with high population of newborns, such as Brazil and Democratic Republic of Congo, there are national strategies of providing fathers with paid paternity leave, even for a relatively short period.

“Positive and meaningful interactions with fathers, mothers and other care givers from the very first days of child’s life help to create proper conditions for physical and cognitive development for the whole life of a child, which make them healthy and happy and enhance their learning capacity. Our responsibility is to provide parents or other care givers with an opportunity to fulfill their role”, said Munir Mammadzade UNICEF Deputy Representative in Kyrgyzstan.

In Kyrgyzstan a childcare leave can be used by father, grandmother, grandfather, other relatives or any custodian, who is taking care of a child up to three years, however this leave is without pay.  Men in Kyrgyzstan in many cases provide the main income for a family, which limits their ability to take a parental leave.

“In Kyrgyzstan over 90 per cent of men are ready to have a childcare leave. For example, men in public services often take paternity leave. However, what drives them is usually the opportunity to keep the job, but not the participation in child care and upbringing”, said Jipara Turmamatova UNICEF Kyrgyzstan Gender Specialist.

The available date indicates that when fathers form connections with their children from the first days of their lives, they play a more active role in children development. Based on the research we can assume that positive interactions with fathers improves psychological health of the children and increase their self-respect and satisfaction in future life.

UNICEF encourages governments to implement national strategies, which consider family interests and contribute to the early childhood development, including initiation of a paid childcare leave for mother and father, provision of free preschool education and paid breastfeeding breaks.

Earlier this year UNICEF has changed its approach towards a childcare leave by increasing a paid paternity leave up to 16 weeks in each of its offices worldwide. UNICEF became the first the UN agency that increased the childcare leave, which was usually four weeks.

“We cannot state that we work “for every child” if at the same time we not work “for every parent”. We have to demand more from the governments and employers, if we want to provide mothers and fathers with the necessary resources for them to take care of their children, especially in the first days of a child’s life”, explained Munir Mammadzade.

New data was prepared by UNICEF in terms of a Super Dad campaign, which is held second year in a raw to improve an active role of a father in a child’s upbringing. This campaign is launched to celebrate Father’s Day on 17 June and it emphasizes the importance of love, play, protection and nutrition for healthy development of a child’s brain.

Positive results in the field of neurobiological research confirm that first thousand days from the moment of conception and up to the age of two children are in favorable conditions. They provide incentives for children’s development and new neural connections are formed at an optimal rate. The development of these neuron connections appears to be one of the main factors that determine cognitive abilities of children, the way they think and learn, their ability to handle stress. However more than 250 million children up to the age of five are at risk of low level of development because of the growth retardation and extreme poverty.

Note for the editors: The list of countries, which implement strategies of providing paid paternity leave, and the list of countries, where they are not implemented, was provided by WORLD Policy Analysis Center at the University of California in Los Angeles. The population indicators are taken from United Nations Population Division for 2017. You can check the full list of countries with no strategies in providing paid paternity leave here.