Human capital is a productive asset which can generate income as well as other economic and political benefits for it's owners. We need to get our leaders focusing on child protection systems and policies aimed at family centered outcomes, e.g. aiming to secure that children grow up in birth families or family-type environments. We need to significantly increase government investment in traditional social policies such as education and health care, and make this focused on children at high social risk. Street children are a good example of what happens when we do not invest early in our children. Lending agencies need to start investing much more in human capital.
Little funding is placed at the disposition of the millions of street children in Latin America.
Because these throw away children are not a priority for politicians, rarely is funding requested to help them. And if a project is considered, there is always an argument about the relatively high cost per beneficiary. Providing rehabilitation programs for street children is expensive, but society should look at the cost of NOT rehabilitating them, both in human and economic terms. There is enough to go around on this planet if we just could share. The fact that there are street children in our countries is a purely political decision.