EXCERPTS from UNICEF website
"The state of the world's children 2002" is about the leadership that was needed to turn commitments made at the 1990 World Summit for Children into actions that improved the lives of children and families…It presents examples of leadership from individuals and agencies, organizations and alliances and spotlights the 'Say Yes for Children' campaign. Finally it also presents the worldwide preparations leading to the UN Special Session on Children. See Part III of the report for the section on early childhood services. Excerpt from the report: - "If States are to fulfill their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child they will have to stop seeing early childhood care as an issue of concern to families alone, as an optional extra, a soft alternative. Investing in ECD should now be second nature for the human family, as natural and inevitable to our lives as the sun and the rain on a field of rice." - "Investing in children is, quite simply, the best investment a government can make. No country has made the leap into meaningful and sustained development without investing significantly in its children..." - "All countries have every economic incentive to invest in children. Each State that has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child is bound by the stipulation that national governments must implement all of the children's rights recognized in the Convention "to the maximum extent of their available resources;" and has accepted the legal and moral obligation to use the best interests of children as the mediating principle when tough economic decisions have to be made."