It has been a brutal year for organisations working with and for children. Funding has collapsed, programmes have been cut back, and children are paying the price. But this is not a world short of money. There are choices being made.
Global military spending reached a record $2.7 trillion in 2024, and NATO allies are now working towards spending 5 per cent of GDP on defence and security-related investment by 2035. The financing crisis facing children is not separate from these choices. It is one of the clearest expressions of them.
We already see this showing up in public budgets. In the UK, Save the Children’s analysis is that UK aid cuts could mean 60 million fewer people reached through development and humanitarian assistance. In Europe too, we have warned that as defence and competitiveness rise up the agenda, lifesaving development and humanitarian spending risk being pushed further to the margins. This is about a deeper shift in what governments are choosing to protect, and what they are willing to let shrink.
For many lower-income countries, debt is where the consequences of these choices become impossible to ignore. More public money is going out in external interest payments, leaving less for the basics that shape a child’s life. In 2025, 40 countries were either in or at high risk of debt distress, home to 470 million children. Sit with that for a moment. Debt is not an abstract economic problem. It means less room for schools, clinics, nutrition, healthcare and protecting children from harm. It means harder choices for governments, and harsher lives for children. This is how unsustainable debt becomes a development crisis, by quietly eroding the systems children need today and the societies they will inherit tomorrow.
That is why the rules and processes that govern sovereign debt matter so much. This is not just a technical issue but a question of justice and political will. Save the Children has called for a debt restructuring system that is fit for purpose, faster, fairer, more predictable and more transparent. That means the reform of the G20 Common Framework and a stronger role for the United Nations in shaping fairer rules on sovereign debt.
Of course, action on debt on its own is not enough. To fight inequality and poverty, countries need a broader range of reforms. The 4th Financing for Development (FfD) conference in Sevilla last year created some momentum on debt, tax and the wider reform of the international financial system. But it also fell short of the scale of change children need, and in 2026, a year of wider UN reform and geopolitical pressure, maintaining ambition on finance will require deliberate effort.
That is why the Financing for Development Forum in New York this April matters. Debt is not one of the four areas under in-depth review this year, but it cannot be ignored. It shapes whether countries can invest in children, how they weather shocks, and how much room they have to build fairer and more resilient economies.
Governments need to use this Forum not only to review progress on paper, but to show that the commitments made in Sevilla will lead to real action. They need to protect fiscal space for children, advance debt system reform, and back a model of international cooperation that matches the scale of the crisis children are facing. Save the Children will be there with peers and partners, pressing for that change and making the case that public resources must translate into real investment in children’s lives.
