Researchers find 1.77B children worldwide lack basic safety net

Around 80% of the world's 2.2 billion children lack even the most basic social safeguards to protect them from disease, exploitation and abject poverty and to ensure they have access to basic health care and education, the U.N. reports.

In a new report made public Wednesday by UNICEF and the International Labor Organization, researchers say that 1.77 billion children up to the age of 18 lack access to a child or family cash benefit, a fundamental pillar of a social protection system. Among those, about 1.46 billion children are younger than 15.