Forum on Minority Issues Geneva, 14-15 December 2010 UNICEF presentation "The Potential Role of Social protection in Enhancing the Economic Rights of Minority Children" Ms. Kirsi Madi, UNICEF Deputy Regional Director Central and Eastern Europe and the CIS region Mr. President, Mme Chair, Ms McDougall, Distinguished Delegates, Colleagues, It is a great pleasure for me to be with you today representing UNICEF in the Third Session of the Forum on Minority Issues. My presentation reflects UNICEF's equity focus. We believe that to achieve the MDGs and other internationally agreed development goals, we need to invest in inclusive development reaching the bottom quintile; those who are most marginalized and,socially excluded in the societies. Social protection is an important strategy for achieving this. Children face multiple sources of vulnerability, some of which are child specific or intensified by childhood: Worldwide children are more likely to be poor than any other age g,roup. In the "developing" world 40% of children - 600 million children — live with less than one dollar per day. In OECD countries poverty rates range from 2.6% in Sweden to 26.2% in Mexico of children living below the national relative poverty line. For comparison, in the USA the figure is 22.4 Children are unable to claim their rights. Due to their dependence on adults for mobility, legal, economic and other matters, children cannot directly claim entitlements or rights and access services. For example in countries with HIV prevalence children can have difficulties in accessing benefits when their caretaker is sick, or when there are legal barriers to claiming benefits by someone other than parent. Children of ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities can also face intersecting and complex forms of discrimination for example on the basis of gender or disability. When these factors intersect, they tend to have multiplying effects limiting access to services. Discrimination and exclusion based on ethnicity can be a significant source of vulnerability for children. Social protection measures can help reduce