Childhood at risk: 2.4 million children between poverty and social exclusion

The pandemic has accelerated this dynamic. It has made the vulnerable more vulnerable, widened already existing gaps and made it clear how much the context - familial, territorial, social - determines a child's chances from the earliest years of life.

Within this framework, the gender issue is not a separate chapter: it is the lens that sharpens the country's transformation. Girls grow up in an Italia that continues to ask them to be excellent, but at the same time restricts their space: they are better educated but believe less in themselves, they are better performers but are less supported by public policies.

Girls, while achieving better school results on average, express lower expectations: almost half fear they will not find a decent job and three out of four believe they will not be able to do what they want.

We are talking about inequalities that have very wide-ranging effects: not valuing the talent of all young people means giving up a decisive part of the country's ability to grow.

Inequality is no longer a side effect, but risks becoming a trend line in our country. We must reverse this trajectory, equity must become the starting line for everyone.

That is why we need to invest in equity. Not an abstract concept, but concrete actions.

To ensure that all boys and girls have the same opportunities for growth and the same starting conditions, it will be essential to promote quality education, which goes beyond school skills and also aims to provide the transversal skills that are indispensable for forming citizens who are aware, respectful of others, and capable of living in the community. It will be essential to create educational and socialisation spaces starting, with courage and determination, from the most complex contexts to combat educational poverty and foster informal education and peer relations. At the same time, it will be essential to offer tools and places for the participation of the youngest in the definition of educational and social policies, directly involving young people in the decisions that affect them and valuing their point of view, and to promote urban regeneration interventions, to teach children beauty, creating welcoming and child-friendly environments and promoting their well-being.

These are the main pillars of an infrastructure capable of supporting the possibility of each child, each boy or girl, to dream big, without the narrow limits determined by the place or economic condition in which they find themselves, growing up in a country that does not restrict horizons, but opens them up.

Because a fair Italia is not only a country that reduces distances: it is a country that chooses the future.

*Director General of Save the Children