Inequalities include food insecurity, access to education, labor market recession, and poverty.
These are the revelations by Dr Will Parks, the chief of Policy, Advocacy, Planning and Evaluation, UNICEF, at the Social policies in Pacific Island Countries: Recommendations and impact of Current economic crisis held at the USP Marine Campus yesterday.
“Child mortality is a critical indicator of a country social and economic development. One in four households across the Pacific is below their respective poverty line, one in 10 Pacific Island children are underweight.
“Almost one in five children do not enroll in primary school, and of those who do enroll, one in 10 do not complete their primary level schooling,” said Dr Parks.
Some of the Pacific Island countries could also experience decline in quality of education, he said.
Quality could be compromised whereby teacher salaries, public money for new school buildings, school repairs and school supplies could be affected.
“As a consequence, various forms of child abuse, violence and exploitation existed along with sexual violence.”
