G7 leaders urged to care more about world's forgotten children

As leaders of the seven major advanced economies gathered here Thursday for the G7 Ise-Shima Summit, World Vision delivered a message urging the G7 leaders to care more about the world's forgotten children.

"This is a particularly significant summit as it's the first meeting of the G7 leaders since we entered a new era of international cooperation, moving from the Millennium Development Goals to the Sustainable Development Goals," said World Vision's spokesperson at the G7, Chris Derksen-Hiebert.

Much of the progress achieved by the G7 have missed the children in the poorest parts of the world, and those affected by conflict and instability.

"They have particularly missed out on the progress we've seen in reducing rates of children dying before the age of five," said Derksen-Hiebert.

The third accountability assessment of the promises made by G7 leaders, the Ise-Shima Progress Report, shows that governments have given the money they promised at the summit in Canada in 2010, through bilateral aid for maternal, newborn and child death.

"But, as this report finds, we failed millions of women and children because we missed the target to reduce preventable deaths by two-thirds," said Derksen-Hiebert.

The G7 came just two days after the World Humanitarian Summit where despite a number of positive outcomes, there was a disappointing lack of attention to protecting children in places like Syria, South Sudan and the Central African Republic.

"The lack of political will to address the critical issues of bringing peace to children and families affected by war remains a terrible gap in the global conscience," said Derksen-Hiebert.

(APD)