Nearly 30% of children live under poverty in Spain, a country affected by the economic crisis, which is far from the EU average in terms of investment for the protection of children, according to a report by UNICEF published on Tuesday.
“If we don’t invest in childhood, we will be in danger of becoming a country with fewer children and more and more inequality,” warned Ms Marta Arias, responsible of Unicef ‘s Spanish Committee for childhood, during the presentation of the report to the press.

2,306,000 children overall in the country (27.5%) aged below18 living under poverty.

Since the crisis, the total number of families with children in which no adult is working have increased by 290% between 2007 and 2013, highlighted by the study.

At the same time Spain is delaying to mitigate inequalities that mainly affecting children. The government has begun to integrate into a national action plan for 2013-2016 of the European recommendation to “invest in childhood”. The plan was adopted in February 2013 and aims to reduce social inequalities, highlights the organization.

UNICEF on the other hand adds that the project “suffers from a lack of adequate financial resources and the implementation of measures designed especially for children.”

According to a research the budget for childhood has been reduced by 14.6% between 2010-2013.

Spain, with a 1.4% of GDP invested in child protection policies is “far behind” of the European average of 2.2%, says UNICEF.