Belgium in world's top 10 in childhood survey

Belgium is one of the world’s top 10 countries to be a child, according to the End of Childhood Index published by Save the Children International.

Save the Children collected data from 172 countries and presented the results in a report called Stolen Childhoods.

“Childhood should be a time to learn, play, grow, develop and feel safe and protected,” the organisation says. “However, nearly one in four children around the world are being robbed of their childhoods, simply because of who they are or where they live.”

Around the world, 700 million children see their childhood end prematurely for a variety of reasons. The End of Childhood Index focuses on eight reasons: child marriage, teenage pregnancy, child labour, malnourishment, access to education, child mortality, violence and displacement because of conflict.

Belgium is ranked joint 10th. Norway is ranked first, and the list also contains the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Cyprus, Sweden, Slovenia, Finland, Portugal, Ireland, South Korea and Iceland, with some countries sharing a position in the ranking.

“Belgium scores especially well in the domain of access to education; only a few countries do better in this field,” Karen Mets, senior advocacy advisor of Save the Children International, said.

Child marriages are rare here and teenage pregnancies occur relatively rarely. “Even so, one-quarter of the children in Belgium are at risk of poverty and social exclusion,” Mets said. “So there is still room for improvement.”

There is a marked contrast with African countries. The 10 places in which childhood is threatened the most are all in Africa. Niger scores the worst, followed by Angola and Mali. Of the 700 million children whose childhoods end early, 28 million are displaced.

“Although the problems have a global dimension and in the long term they also affect us, we aren’t looking for a global solution,” said Mets. “Our report shows that prosperous countries have the financial resources, but we still say too often that we cannot do anything.”

Photo: Ingimage