Children's Chances

With its amazing synthesis of evidence, Children's Chances maps out what countries are now doing-and what more they can do-to address problems in the lives of children around the world. This book is a valuable resource, not just for agencies like Save the Children, but for individual citizens who champion all children's opportunities to develop to their fullest potential. -- Jasmine Whitbread, CEO, Save the Children Jody Heymann continues to be a leading voice for working families worldwide. With Children's Chances, she provides key insights into how to promote healthy child development and reduce inequalities in child health. This book is essential for anyone who cares about improving the lives of children around the world. -- Mark Schuster, Harvard Medical School This remarkable book brings together years of work that is both painstaking and inspired. Jody Heymann, with Kristen McNeill, proves with exhaustive country-by-country evidence the phenomenal difference that public policy makes in defeating child poverty and creating better lives. It is an enormously important achievement. -- Peter Edelman, Georgetown University With sterling scholarship and masterful research, Heymann and McNeill's book offers a blueprint to advance the well-being of the world's children that is both much needed and optimistic. -- Felton Earls, Harvard Medical School

Children’s Chances urges a shift from focusing on survival to targeting children’s full and healthy development. Drawing on comparative data on policies in 190 countries designed to combat poverty, discrimination, child labor, illiteracy, and child marriage, Heymann and McNeill tell what works to ensure equal opportunities for all children.

Most parents care deeply about their children. If that were enough, we would not see the inequalities we currently do in children’s opportunities and healthy development—children out of school, children laboring, children living in poverty. While the scale of the problems can seem overwhelming, history has shown that massive progress is possible on problems that once seemed unsolvable. Within the span of less than twenty-five years, the proportion of people living in extreme poverty has been cut in half, the number of children under age five that die each day has dropped by over 12,000, and the percentage of girls attending school has climbed from just three in four to over 90 percent.

National action, laws, and public policies fundamentally shape children’s opportunities. Children’s Chances urges a transformational shift from focusing solely on survival to targeting children’s full and healthy development. Drawing on never-before-available comparative data on laws and public policies in 190 countries, Jody Heymann and Kristen McNeill tell the story of what works and what countries around the world are doing to ensure equal opportunities for all children. Covering poverty, discrimination, education, health, child labor, child marriage, and parental care, Children’s Chances identifies the leaders and the laggards, highlights successes and setbacks, and provides a guide for what needs to be done to make equal chances for all children a reality.