19. DEFEATING THE TRENDS: IN SEARCH OF A BETTER FUTURE

At the turn of the century, the developing world is experiencing the largest-ever generation of children and youth. Around 1 billion people – one out of every six on the planet – are between 10 and 19 years of age, 85% of them in developing countries. Because of the considerable drop in fertility rates, in the next 15–20 years, the children of today will constitute the largest generation-ever of active population. This is perhaps the greatest opportunity the world cannot afford to miss. This paper claims that the trends keeping the majority of the children in poverty and limiting their development are not irreversible, that the world has enough information, technology and financial resources to defeat these trends.