According to the report released by the United Nations Children's Fund and the International Labour Organization on March 1, from 2016 to 2020, the number of children under 15 years of age who failed to enjoy key social protection increased by 50 million, raising the total number of this group to 1.46 billion. Among them, the main missing social protection is child welfare paid in cash or tax credit. The report entitled "The urgent needs of one billion children: establishing universal social protection for children" shows that the coverage of children and family welfare in every region of the world has declined or stagnated between 2016 and 2020. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the coverage rate has dropped significantly from about 51% to 42%. In many other regions, coverage has stagnated at low points. Since 2016, its coverage rates have been around 21%, 14%, 11% and 28% respectively in Central and South Asia, East and Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and West and North Africa. The report emphasizes that if adequate social protection is not provided, children are vulnerable to poverty, disease, out-of-school and malnutrition, and increase the risk of child marriage and child labour. The report also points out that globally, children are twice as likely to live in extreme poverty as adults, with a population of about 356 million. In addition, there are 1 billion children living in multi-dimensional poverty, who have no access to education, medical care, housing, nutrition, sanitation or water. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of children living in multidimensional poverty increased by 15%, reversing previous progress in reducing child poverty, and highlighting the urgent need for social protection. UNICEF and the International Labour Organization urge policy makers to take decisive measures to achieve universal social protection for all children. (Xinhua News Agency)