The global economic crisis is exacerbatingan existing human crisis. Prior to 2008, there were widespread inequalities: lavish lifestyles for some, while half of theworld’s children were living on less than $2 per day, suffering frommalnutrition and limited access to health, education, drinking water, andadequate housing. As the crisis unfolded, millions confronted deterioratingliving conditions.

Today, while global attention focuses on Europe’swoes, the economic crisis continues to inflict devastating social consequences worldwide.In a new book from UNICEF’s Division of Policy and Practice, ARecovery for All: Rethinking Socioeconomic Policies for Children and PoorHouseholds, analysis of the latest international data shows that unaffordable food, pervasiveunemployment, and dwindling social supportthreaten much of the world’s population.

For starters, after two major international food-price spikes in 2007-2008 and 2010-2011, people innearly 60 developing countries are paying 80% more, on average, for localfoodstuffs in 2012 than they did before the crisis. As a result, poor families’food security is threatened, as they are forced to reduce the quality orquantity of their food.

Furthermore, labor markets around the world are providing fewer jobs andlower salaries, increasing the incidence of poverty among employed people,which has already trapped nearly one billion workers and their families.Moreover, two of every five workers worldwide are unable to find a job, while rampant youth unemployment, coupled with a quicklygrowing pool of young laborers – more than one billion are expected to enterthe world’s workforce between 2012 and 2020 – is further complicatinglabor-market recovery.

Finally, access to publicgoods and services is under growing pressure in the global shift towardausterity. In 2012, 133 countries are expected to reduce annual spending by anaverage of 1.6% of GDP, with 30% of governments undergoing excessivecontraction (defined as cutting expenditures to below their pre-crisis levels).

In fact, while the world remains fixatedon austerity in high-income economies, developing countries are implementingextensive austerity measures of their own. As a result, developing economiesare expected to reduce expenditures by an average of 1.8% of GDP in 2012 –nearly twice the pace of their developed-country counterparts, which areadjusting by 1% of GDP. And many cost-cutting measures worldwidedisproportionately affect the poor.

A review of the 158 most recent International Monetary Fund countryreports reveals that governments are considering four major types of fiscalreform:

In 73 countries, governments are consideringcutting or capping wage bills, thereby reducing the salaries ofpublic-sector workers, who provide essential services to the population.

Governments in 73 countries are seeking to reduce or cancel subsidies,including on food and fuel, despite record-high food prices in many regions.

Cuts in social-protection programs are under consideration in 55 countries, at a time whengovernments should be looking to scale up benefits.

Many governments are pursuing other budget-slashingstrategies, such as tax increases on basic goods and services that areconsumed by the poor (in 71 countries), which may further contract economicactivity.

These reforms could have serious and irreversibleconsequences, especially for infants and young children. Households worldwideare experiencing increased hunger and malnutrition, worsening health outcomes,lower school attendance, higher rates of child labor and domestic violence, andgreater vulnerability to future shocks. Meanwhile, social unrest is increasingas people lose faith in governments and public institutions. Indeed, citizensin high- and low-income countries alike are the victims of a crisis that theydid not create.

But the current crisis also presents an opportunity to rethinksocio-economic policies. This requires abandoning the myopicfocus of the past, which denied so many a decent living, and instead basingmacroeconomic and fiscal policy decisions on their potential to foster humandevelopment and employment-generating growth.

Contrary to claims that investments aimed at improving the lives ofchildren and poor households are not affordable, especially during this periodof global adjustment, policymakers do have options, even in the poorestcountries.

There are six broad methods – all supported by United Nations policystatements – by which governments could find additional fiscal space: re-allocating expenditures; increasing tax revenues;lobbying for increased aid and transfers; tapping into fiscal andforeign-exchange reserves; borrowing and restructuring existing debt; andadopting a more accommodativemacroeconomic framework.

Policymakers must consider the variety of financing options that areavailable to governments everywhere to bolstermuch-needed investments in labor-intensive growth, food security, socialprotection, health, and other necessary public services.

The simultaneous adoption of fiscal austerity in countries worldwide isdriving the global economy toward recession, imposing human costs that aredetrimental to high-income and developing countries alike.It is time for global leaders to turn the current blight of unemployment, foodinsecurity, and austerity shocks into a virtuouscycle that promotes development and prosperity for all people. An inclusive recovery is not only feasible; it is an imperative of social and economic justice.