Dr Jennifer S. Martin, CEO, Menstrual Rights Global, Scotland
Over the next couple of weeks, Glasgow is once again hosting the Commonwealth Games, twelve years after the city last welcomed the Games in 2014. The competition began on 23 July and runs until 2 August, bringing more than 3,000 athletes from 74 nations and territories to one of the world’s great sporting cities. Glasgow should take pride in its ability to host an event of this scale and in the economic and cultural opportunities it creates.
There is a credible economic case for hosting major sporting events. Organisers project that Glasgow 2026 will deliver more than £100 million of inward investment and over £150 million in economic value across the region, alongside investment in sporting facilities and community programmes. For a city that has experienced deindustrialisation, weak economic growth and sustained pressure on public services, this investment should be welcomed and used strategically. The central test is whether Glasgow can convert a concentrated period of global attention and economic activity into prosperity that reaches families and endures after the closing ceremony.
The 2014 Games showed that a sporting event can produce a social legacy as well as an economic one. UNICEF UK became the official charity partner of Glasgow 2014, creating programmes intended to reach children in every part of Scotland and throughout the Commonwealth. The partnership also led to the establishment of UNICEF’s first office in Scotland later in 2014, with a remit covering fundraising for international work and advocacy for children living in Scotland.
The Child Rights Launchpad enabled children aged three to eighteen to learn about 42 rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, reaching approximately 380,000 children. The wider partnership benefited more than 540,000 children across Scotland, raised £6.5 million and reached more than 11.7 million children through programmes across the Commonwealth. These initiatives demonstrated how the resources, profile and urgency surrounding a major event could be directed towards children’s rights, education, health and participation.
The need for that work exposed an uncomfortable reality that remains unresolved. Scotland sits within the United Kingdom, which the World Bank classifies as a high income economy, yet national economic output bears little relationship to the financial security experienced by many families. Wealth can be generated within a country while children continue to grow up without secure housing, adequate food, warm homes, reliable transport or the resources required to participate fully in school and community life.
I grew up in Glasgow. I am two generations removed from a grandmother who was found on the streets as a child, and one generation removed from poverty. Social mobility and free education allowed my parents to climb because public institutions gave working class families a credible route from insecurity into stability. Their progress reflected political decisions about education, housing and public provision, and those decisions changed the trajectory of our family.
That route has narrowed. In 2023/24, an estimated 36.1% of children in Glasgow were living in relative poverty after housing costs, representing around 39,000 children and the highest rate of any Scottish local authority. The equivalent figure in Edinburgh was 22.8%. Glasgow’s rate had risen from 27.1% in 2014/15, an increase of nine percentage points during the decade between the two Games.
Across Scotland, the latest official figures estimate that 21% of children live in relative poverty after housing costs, 16% live in absolute poverty and 17% experience persistent poverty. Around 75% of children in relative poverty live in a household where at least one person works. This is a structural economic problem affecting working families, rather than a marginal issue confined to households outside employment.
Scotland has introduced significant measures to improve the material circumstances and legal rights of children. Free period products have been available in schools, colleges and universities since 2018, and the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act 2021 created a statutory right to reasonably convenient access. The Scottish Child Payment and universal free school meals for younger primary pupils have provided additional support, while the UNCRC Incorporation Act brought children’s rights into devolved Scottish law in July 2024.
These measures have helped to prevent poverty from rising further, particularly within the constraints of devolution and after years of UK austerity, welfare restrictions and escalating household costs. They have not produced the scale of reduction required. The Scottish Government has led the country since 2007, while its own assessment records that child poverty has remained broadly stable over the past decade. Scotland has a statutory target to reduce relative child poverty below 10% by 2030, yet the current rate remains more than twice that level.
Responsibility also rests with Glasgow City Council. The council operates under intense financial pressure arising from homelessness, education, social care, inflation and entrenched deprivation, but those conditions do not erase failures of financial planning, civic management and long term decision making. The latest Audit Scotland report recorded a £45.7 million service overspend in 2024/25, the highest in six years, and assessed the council’s financial sustainability as red. Auditors found no established longer term financial planning arrangements and identified a combined budget gap of £109.7 million across 2026/27 and 2027/28.
Glasgow households are also being asked to absorb rising council tax bills while services and the public realm remain under pressure. Council tax increased by 7.5% in 2025/26 and by a further 5.9% in 2026/27. Residents can reasonably expect those increases to be accompanied by stronger financial stewardship, maintained neighbourhoods and a clear account of how additional revenue will improve the city.
The consequences of weak civic management are also visible in Glasgow’s built environment. The city has endured decades of poor town planning, delayed redevelopment, neglected public spaces and the deterioration of significant historic buildings. Glasgow has also experienced a succession of devastating fires in historic buildings, while prolonged vacancy, damaged assets and inadequate maintenance continue to place its architectural heritage at risk. The council’s own Built Heritage Commission acknowledges the scale of these challenges and the need for stronger action on vacant and neglected properties.
The Games can bring money, confidence and international attention to Glasgow, and the city should pursue every credible benefit. The failure comes when temporary investment is not translated into secure employment, functioning neighbourhoods, stronger public services and improved opportunities for children. Glasgow has repeatedly demonstrated that it can organise major events and welcome the world. Its institutions must show the same competence and urgency in managing the city between those events.
The men’s World Cup demonstrated again that sport can act as a conduit for humanity, identity and unity across borders. Glasgow understands that power and used it effectively through the UNICEF partnership surrounding the 2014 Games. The legacy of Glasgow 2026 should be measured through the opportunities created for children long after the crowds leave, rather than through visitor numbers, broadcast images or another report celebrating resilience.
Scotland cannot present itself as a high income country while accepting mass child poverty as an enduring feature of national life. Glasgow’s children deserve the same seriousness, investment and institutional focus that the city brings to hosting the Commonwealth. The lasting value of the Games will depend on whether their prosperity reaches the families who live there and whether, twelve years from now, fewer children are growing up in poverty than they are today.
