West and Central Africa Region

The West and Central Africa Region (WCAR) has also encountered numerous challenges. The region is currently grappling with significant challenges due to public health crises, inflation, and the ongoing impacts of climate change. These factors have posed formidable obstacles to maintaining previous achievements and advancing progress. Children in this region bear a disproportionately heavy burden of child rights violations globally. Despite accounting for only 12% of the world's children, WCAR is plagued by a high prevalence of child rights abuses, including over one-third of deaths among children under five, nearly one-third of children and adolescents out of school, and one-fifth of children suffering from stunted growth.

WCAR is also home to seven out of the ten countries with the highest rates of child marriage, with close to 60 million child brides in the region. Shockingly, 12% of women aged 20-24 were married before the age of 15, totaling over 20 million individuals. Moreover, the Children's Climate Risk Index (CCRI) highlights that children in 17 out of the 24 countries in the region face the highest levels of vulnerability and risk from climate change globally.

In an attempt to mitigate on the challenges faced in both ESAR and…