In 1989 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which spelled out a number of rights that are due every child. These include civil and human rights and economic, social, and cultural rights. It is not difficult to see why such a document was necessary. Globally, a billion children live in poverty — one in every two children in the world. The convention also addresses other concerns, including the fact that children make up half the world’s refugees, and the problems of child labor and exploitation, sexual violence and sex trafficking, police abuse of street children, HIV/AIDS orphans, lack of access to education, and lack of access to adequate health care. The United States and Somalia remain the only two United Nations member nations that have not ratified the treaty.

As the twenty-first century began, nearly a billion people — mostly women denied equitable access to education — were illiterate. Increasing economic globalization has put pressure on all governments to improve literacy rates and educational opportunities; the result has been reduced gender inequalities in education. The greatest gains in literacy have occurred in South Asia and the Middle East.

Mexico pioneered a new approach to combating poverty that has been implemented in a growing number of countries. Conditional cash transfer, or CCT, provides a stipend to families who meet certain goals, such as keeping their children in school. This approach addresses poverty directly, while enlisting families to work toward its long-term solution by increasing education levels, which will broaden opportunities for new generations. Versions of the program have been introduced across Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East.