About a year ago, 12-year-old Asaad was enjoying being able to go to school and play with friends again in Sudan, following months of uncertainty brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. But he did not have long before the next crisis hit. Heavy rains and extreme flooding washed away his home and inundated his neighbourhood, forcing his family and many others to flee. Asaad, now 13, is among at least 10 million children in the world who have been displaced as a result of climate change. His story shows firsthand how the climate crisis is a child rights crisis.

The year 2023 marks the halfway point of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agreed upon in New York seven years ago. This moment seems a good one to reflect on where we are. Children are still bearing the brunt of the world's ills, which they have done nothing to contribute to. The world took one step out of the COVID-19 pandemic and its fallout that saw an unprecedented economic downturn and reversal of historic gains in healthcare and education, only to hurtle into the worst global cost of living crisis in a generation. Children should have emerged from the stress of the pandemic to a safety net that would help them survive, learn and be protected. Instead, they tell us they are unable to go to school, play with their friends, or eat enough to keep them going. In a ground-breaking survey of more than 54,000 children we carried out earlier this year, 83 percent of children in 15 countries said they see the climate crisis or inequality, or both, affecting their surroundings, while 73 percent of children believe adults should be doing more to address these issues. Data collected for the same report shows that one-third of the world's children – an estimated 774 million – are living with the dual effects of poverty and high climate risk, meanwhile, the number of children living in countries with the deadliest conflicts increased by 10 percent this year, according to another Save the Children report. The UN's Global Humanitarian Overview for 2023 finds that one in every 23 people will need humanitarian assistance to survive next year. This is a staggering 24 percent increase from a year ago, and we know that it is children who are the most affected by humanitarian crises. .

Schools can be dangerous places. Corporal punishment is still legal in more than 60 countries, students worldwide report sexual harassment and abuse by teachers, and violent bullying is rife.

Shockingly, the United Nations estimates that 246 million girls and boys experience violence in and around schools every year.

Yet flick through major global education announcements, including the readout from the recent U.N. Transforming Education Summit, and violence in schools barely gets a mention. Instead, most of the focus is on boosting enrollment and basic numeracy and literacy skills. While that's laudable, it's redundant if children don't feel safe at school.

The consequences of ignoring school safety are dire. Research shows that experiencing physical and psychological violence as a child has fundamentally negative consequences for mental and physical health and for educational outcomes. World Bank estimates $11 trillion in future earnings are lost globally due to violence in and around schools.