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 athletes and spectators from across the Commonwealth back 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 opportunities it can create.
There is a credible case that major sporting events can generate prosperity. Organisers project that Glasgow 2026 will bring more than £100 million of inward investment into the city and support more than £150 million in economic value across the region, alongside investment in public sporting facilities and city programmes. For a city that has experienced deindustrialisation, weak economic growth and sustained pressure on public services, investment of this scale should be welcomed and used strategically.
The 2014 Games also created a legacy that reached beyond sporting infrastructure and tourism. UNICEF UK became the official charity partner, raising millions of pounds and developing programmes intended to reach children in every part of Scotland and every Commonwealth country. The partnership later contributed to the establishment of UNICEF’s Scotland office in 2015, with a remit that included fundraising for international programmes and advocating for the rights of children living in Scotland.
The Child Rights Launchpad gave children across Scotland an opportunity to understand the rights contained within the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Other initiatives supported early childhood development, access to education and the use of sport to improve children’s health, participation and social development. UNICEF reported that more than 540,000 children benefited across Scotland, while sport development programmes reached more than 10 million children across the Commonwealth.
The need for this work exposed an uncomfortable reality. Scotland is treated internationally as part of a high income economy, yet national economic output bears little relationship to the financial security experienced by many families. A country can generate substantial wealth while children continue to grow up without secure housing, adequate food, warm homes, access to 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, rather than an individual escape from circumstances that others had failed to overcome.
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%, while 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 statistics estimate that 21% of children live in relative poverty after housing costs. Around 16% live in absolute poverty and 17% experience persistent poverty, while 75% of children in relative poverty live in a household where at least one person works. These figures describe a structural economic failure, not a small group of families detached from employment or wider society.
Scotland has introduced policies that have improved the material circumstances of children and families. Free period products have been available in schools, colleges and universities since 2018, and the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act 2021 came into force in August 2022. The Scottish Child Payment, free school meals for younger primary pupils and the incorporation of the UNCRC into devolved Scottish law have strengthened the legal and social infrastructure surrounding children.
Those achievements deserve recognition, particularly within the constraints of devolution and after years of UK austerity, welfare restrictions and rising household costs. Scottish Government analysis also indicates that devolved policies have kept tens of thousands of children out of poverty and that Scotland’s child poverty rate remains below the wider UK rate. Yet the Scottish Government’s own assessment states that child poverty has remained broadly stable over the past decade, despite the SNP having led the government since 2007.
Preventing further deterioration is an achievement, but it cannot become the limit of political ambition. Scotland has established a statutory target of reducing relative child poverty to below 10% by 2030, while the current rate remains 21%. Maintenance is not acceptable when the condition being maintained leaves more than 200,000 children living in relative poverty.
Glasgow City Council must also confront its own record. The city has experienced decades of poor financial and town planning decisions, delayed redevelopment, neglected public spaces and the deterioration of important parts of its built environment. Glasgow has also endured a succession of devastating fires in historic buildings, exposing the consequences of prolonged vacancy, weak enforcement and inadequate maintenance, while many significant properties remain on the buildings at risk register.
The council operates under intense financial pressure and faces demands arising from homelessness, education, social care and entrenched deprivation. Those pressures do not erase failures of financial planning and civic management. The latest Audit Scotland report recorded a £45.7 million service overspend in 2024/25, the largest in six years, alongside weaknesses in long term financial planning and concerns about the council’s financial sustainability.
The Games can bring money, confidence and international attention to Glasgow, and the city should pursue those benefits. The harder task is converting temporary investment into lasting economic security, maintained neighbourhoods, productive employment and stronger public services. Glasgow has repeatedly demonstrated that it can organise major events and welcome the world, while struggling to preserve their benefits once the athletes, visitors and television cameras leave.
The men’s World Cup we have just watched demonstrated again that sport can act as a conduit for humanity, identity and unity. Glasgow understands that power and has used it effectively before, including through the UNICEF partnership created around the 2014 Games. The legacy of Glasgow 2026 should therefore be measured through the opportunities created for children long after the closing ceremony, rather than through visitor numbers, broadcast images or another report celebrating the city’s resilience.
Scotland cannot describe itself as a high income country while treating 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 prosperity reaches the families who live there and whether, twelve years from now, fewer children are growing up in poverty than they are today.