Children growing up live in conditions of poverty and experience hunger and malnutrition; they lack access to safe drinking water, sanitation, adequate nutrition, and adequate shelter or housing. Hunger and malnutrition are major causes of underweight children, stunted growth, ill health and death among children in Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most food-deficient of all regions of the world, with 25 per cent of its population having faced hunger and malnutrition during the period 2011-2013, a modest 8 per cent improvement from the level experienced during the period 1990-1992.A lack of safe drinking water leads to diarrhea-related deaths.A lack of sanitation creates an enabling environment for disease. To survive and grow up to become adults, children need uninterrupted access to nutritious food; access to sources of safe drinking water; sanitation and hygiene; and access to shelter or housing. In all African countries, some children – such as children with disabilities; orphans, abandoned children and other children without parental care; children heading households; homeless children surviving on the streets; children of marginalised or stigmatised ethnic and other minority communities; refugee and internally displaced children; and children of indigenous communities; girls -- live at the margins of society.They are vulnerable to human rights abuses, and are at greater risk of neglect than other children. Poverty and violence often affect them more acutely than other children. Children with disabilities have largely been neglected, mistreated, socially excluded and made invisible in African societies. Very low rates of education are registered among children with disabilities and indigenous peoples’ children, especially those living a nomadic life style. Orphans and other children without parental care, particular those in child-headed households, bear a heavy burden of chronic poverty.

By 2040:

• Children who are most at risk are identified in their respective communities and their rights are prioritised and improved.
• Extreme poverty, measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day, is eradicated among all children.
• Poverty, according to national definitions, is reduced by at least half the proportion of children living in poverty in all its dimensions.
• Every child has access to sources of clean and safe drinking water, hygienic sanitation and hygiene facilities, adequate nutrition, and shelter or basic housing.
• No child experiences  hunger  or  is  exposed  to food insecurity; no child is underweight or stunted.
• Social security schemes aimed at the most vulnerable children in society, such as children who head households and children with disabilities, are in place and are effectively implemented in practice.
• National health insurance extends to all children, including the most vulnerable children, such as the children of unemployed parents, children without parental care and orphans.
• Child-sensitive social protection  is  provided  to children and families most in need of care.
• Children with disabilities realise their full potential.
• There are no street children in African cities or towns; no child is forced to beg for a living