Although South Africa does not feature prominently in UNICEF's State of the World's Children report, statistics reveal how the country is performing.

Since 1959, Cuba has incrementally built a national system of day-care centres and early childhood and pre-school education programmes that today reaches 98,3% of the children in the 0-6 age group. This policy is now being hailed as a true investment in the future of the country's children. Anso Thom reports

"It is deeply ironic that despite widespread concern about the lack of sustainable development in numerous countries around the world, government leaders, policy makers and development agents seem blinded to the one investment opportunity with almost guaranteed returns '€“ ensuring children start a good life." This is how the United Nation Children'€™s Fund (UNICEF) summarises "The State of the World'€™s Children" in its 2001 report. By Anso Thom