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Related Innocenti Project(s):

Alessandro Carraro

Social Policy Specialist

Alessandro Carraro is conducting quantitative and qualitative research on child poverty. In his role at UNICEF Office of Research, he is managing the MAPS (Monitoring and Analyzing child Poverty across Space) project. His work involves developing new methodologies for child poverty research, developing tools for qualitative and quantitative data collection, leading trainings and the data collection, government engagement and research uptake as well as data analysis and dissemination of results. Alessandro supports worldwide UNICEF offices with research expertise, training and capacity building initiatives. Prior to joining UNICEF, he has worked for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and the Universities of Florence and Tor Vergata where he focused on rural poverty and agricultural development. Alessandro holds a PhD in Development Economics from the University of Florence, a MSc in Agricultural Sciences from the same University and a MSc in Agricultural Economics from the University of Reading in UK.

Publications

Growing up in an ‘inner area’: The views of children and young people living in inner Cilento
Publication

Growing up in an ‘inner area’: The views of children and young people living in inner Cilento

The characteristics of the local area in which children live have a fundamental influence on their daily lives. Growing up in an area that is ‘on the margins’ threatens children’s rights, well-being and development. A lack of local services and resources is a form of poverty that all children and young people in the area experience, irrespective of their family circumstances, and this poverty shapes their lives in the present and in the future. For this reason, UNICEF Innocenti has initiated a new programme of research – MAPS (Monitoring and Analysing child Poverty across Space). As a pilot for this programme, it selected one of the internal areas of Italy – that is isolated areas characterized by low population density, depopulation and an ageing demographic. The report “Growing up in an inner area: The lives of children and adolescents living in inner Cilento” presents the results of this study. The research involved children and adolescents from 6 to 21 years old through a range of qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as parents of children aged 0-5, adults in the community and key informants. The results of the research reveal a complex picture. While some characteristics of the area positively influence children’s lives, others risk depriving them of the opportunities that they need when growing up. The recommendations emphasize the need for a collective awareness of the urgent need to promote the development of the area starting with the revival of communities. It is essential that there is greater investment in services for children and young people in order to guarantee community well-being and build a more promising future.
Crescere nelle aree interne: Le esperienze di vita di bambini, bambine e adolescenti nel contesto del Cilento Interno
Publication

Crescere nelle aree interne: Le esperienze di vita di bambini, bambine e adolescenti nel contesto del Cilento Interno

Il contesto territoriale influisce sugli aspetti fondamentali della vita quotidiana di ogni bambino, bambina e adolescente. Vivere in un territorio ai margini compromette mette a rischio la possibilità di vedere soddisfatti i propri diritti di cittadinanza e rappresenta può rappresentare una seria minaccia per il benessere e lo sviluppo di chi in queste aree nasce e cresce. La mancanza di servizi e risorse locali è una forma di povertà che tocca tutti i bambini dell’area, indipendentemente della loro situazione familiare, e che condiziona la loro vita presente e futura. Per questa ragione, UNICEF Innocenti ha avviato un nuovo programma di ricerca intitolato MAPS (Monitoring and Analysing child Poverty across Space). Come studio pilota per questo programma, è stata scelta una delle “aree interne” in Italia, ossia aree isolate caratterizzate da bassa densità di popolazione, spopolamento e indicatori di anzianità elevati. Il rapporto “Crescere nelle aree interne: Le esperienze di vita di bambini, bambine e adolescenti nel contesto del Cilento Interno” presenta i risultati di questo studio. La ricerca ha coinvolto bambini e adolescenti dai 6 ai 21 anni attraverso una serie di metodi qualitativi e quantitativi, insieme a genitori di bambini dagli 0 ai 5 anni, adulti nella comunità e informatori chiave. I risultati dell'indagine hanno rivelato un quadro complesso. Mentre alcune caratteristiche del territorio influiscono positivamente sulla crescita dei bambini, altre rischiano di privare i ragazzi e le ragazze di alcune opportunità che sono fondamentali nel periodo della crescita. Le raccomandazioni sottolineano la necessità di una presa di coscienza collettiva sull'urgenza di promuovere lo sviluppo dei territori a partire dalla rinascita delle comunità. È essenziale che gli investimenti siano diretti verso servizi per bambini ed adolescenti al fine di garantire il benessere della comunità e costruire un futuro più promettente.   The characteristics of the local area in which children live have a fundamental influence on their daily lives. Growing up in an area that is ‘on the margins’ threatens children’s rights, well-being and development. A lack of local services and resources is a form of poverty that all children and young people in the area experience, irrespective of their family circumstances, and this poverty shapes their lives in the present and in the future. For this reason, UNICEF Innocenti has initiated a new programme of research – MAPS (Monitoring and Analysing child Poverty across Space). As a pilot for this programme, it selected one of the internal areas of Italy – that is isolated areas characterized by low population density, depopulation and an ageing demographic. The report “Growing up in an inner area: The lives of children and adolescents living in inner Cilento” presents the results of this study. The research involved children and adolescents from 6 to 21 years old through a range of qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as parents of children aged 0-5, adults in the community and key informants. The results of the research reveal a complex picture. While some characteristics of the area positively influence children’s lives, others risk depriving them of the opportunities that they need when growing up. The recommendations emphasize the need for a collective awareness of the urgent need to promote the development of the area starting with the revival of communities. It is essential that there is greater investment in services for children and young people in order to guarantee community well-being and build a more promising future.
War and Economic Downturn: The impact of the war in Ukraine and the subsequent economic downturn on children and families in Europe and Central Asia
Publication

War and Economic Downturn: The impact of the war in Ukraine and the subsequent economic downturn on children and families in Europe and Central Asia

The war in Ukraine triggered an economic shock in countries in Eastern and Central Asia, a region that has been visited by multiple economic shocks in the past decades. For the children and families The shock featured a spike in the prices of commodities including food and fuel. As a result, poor families who spend a greater proportion of their incomes on necessities – such as food and fuel – were the hardest hit. The result was greater risk of poverty, weakened school attachment and increased infant mortality, among others. This UNICEF Innocenti Research Brief shares projections about the fallout of this crisis on poverty, schooling, infant mortality and the purchasing power of families. It also reviews the social protections put in place in response to the crisis and makes recommendation for future social protection responses.
Children and the Cost-of-living Crisis: How food and energy inflation has increased poverty in households with children in the European Union
Publication

Children and the Cost-of-living Crisis: How food and energy inflation has increased poverty in households with children in the European Union

Children and families throughout the European Union are facing a cost-of-living crisis that has eroded living standards to such an extent that up to an additional 3 million children in 26 EU countries are now living in conditions equivalent to relative income poverty. For families and children in the EU, the cost-of-living crisis is being experienced primarily through higher prices for food and energy. In addition, increasing interest rates make borrowing less affordable, placing a growing strain on the sustainability of businesses, mortgages, loans and government debt. This research brief presents the first results of an analysis of how the cost-of-living crisis has affected the poverty experienced by households with children in the European Union (EU). It takes account of sharply increasing food and energy prices to calculate the additional number of children living in poverty, in real terms, due to the crisis. The brief also recommends that policymakers and governments protect children and families with steps that include expanding and index-linking child cash benefits to cover the needs of families, implementing guarantees to provide free meals for children in schools and providing services that prevent ‘holiday hunger’ when schools are closed in the summer months.

Blogs

Using an auto-disable syringe, a woman health worker vaccinates Shahriyor
Blog

How will COVID-19 disrupt child well-being in Southern and Eastern Europe and Central Asia?

  The story of the COVID-19 pandemic is one of vulnerability, in which those with pre-existing deprivations are likely to suffer most. While the full range of economic and social consequences of the crisis are yet to emerge, it will undoubtedly affect many children, by exacerbating existing vulnerabilities and their underling conditions. Table 3 from the report below shows the country performance with regard to child well-being outcomes and the vulnerability they pose during the current COVID-19 pandemic.   UNICEF Innocenti is engaged in an intensive rapid research effort to generate evidence to increase understanding of what the COVID-19 health crisis means for children and their families. We have recently published a research report highlighting some of these findings for countries in Southern and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECA). An analytical exercise on Supporting Families and Children beyond COVID-19 offers a look on the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on early responses, by exploring the economic, social, and demographic preconditions and how they interlink with child well-being outcomes.   How is child well-being likely to be affected by a sudden change in the country’s GDP? Looking at the association between COVID-19 and GDP, the study undertakes an empirical analysis on a set of macroeconomic dimensions mirroring child-relevant targets across SDG areas of poverty, nutrition, infant mortality, education, youth employment and training, and youth violence. Drawing from previous economic crises, it is expected that GDP will likely fall in the region, and be protracted in some contexts. According to World Bank predictions, it is expected that worst-hit countries in the region with respect to GDP fall will be Croatia (-9.3), Bulgaria (-6.2), Russia (-6.0), Romania (-5.7), Albania (-5.0), and Hungary (-5.0). Smaller economies, such as Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and North Macedonia should be affected less. Taking the last world-wide economic crisis as the baseline, the current downturn is expected to last for at least two years and the recovery may take as long as 10 years for many countries. These trends project medium- to long-term risks to children and their families, which may impede the SDG progress towards the 2030 deadline. Our research found that GDP effects many child outcomes in the region. For ECA countries, a higher GDP is actually linked to higher levels of child poverty, in that higher economic wealth comes along with relatively higher levels of income poverty among children. This is a common trend across the region, but there are exceptions, as in the case of Belarus, Serbia, Ukraine, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the relative economic wealth is matched by comparatively lower levels of child poverty. Faring better in child poverty reduction in relation to economic wealth is largely due to social protection investments of these countries, as shown in Figure 7.     Rapid economic growth frequently leads to the unequal distribution of wealth, and where there is inequality, poverty follows. Indeed, findings show that higher levels of child poverty are always seen when there are higher levels of income inequality (measured by Gini) in ECA countries. The notable exception to this trend is Belarus, where despite a lower income inequality rate, there is a fairly large proportion of children living in poverty. Lower GDP is linked to higher levels of youth not in education, employment or training (NEET), and high neo-natal, and under-five mortality in ECA countries. The COVID-19 health crisis is exacerbating child vulnerabilities by reducing economic growth. The economic shocks will be felt by families and children unequally, with those at risk of infant mortality, extreme poverty, and young people in the labour market most likely to be affected than the average population. How is child well-being affected by other preconditions? Several economic and social preconditions are likely to moderate the effects of the crisis on child poverty and well-being in the region. Lower income inequality, higher employment rates, and a sizeable service sector will likely fare better during the pandemic. Younger children are at a higher risk of poverty, as this age group often receives less social protection support both in normal times and during the pandemic. Furthermore, poorer children’s health outcomes are associated with higher rates of out-of -pocket costs, and lower healthcare service capacity. However, these preconditions are also affected by the crisis and would need monitoring and stabilising mechanisms. What will ECA children miss as a result of COVID-19? Children will struggle to improve their living standards. Considering the contractions in economic growth following the COVID-19 crisis, it is expected that the poorer children in ECA countries would have a higher sensitivity to reduced economic growth than the average population. This means that a contraction in the GDP is likely to exacerbate the incidence of poverty and income inequality across the region. Youth will have difficulties finding a job. Since 2006 the average NEET rate has stood at 21.5 per cent, or put differently: around one in five youth have not been in education, employment, or training in the region. A contraction in the country’s overall GDP can pose a serious challenge for the future ability of youth to access the labour market in ECA countries. An unexpected contraction in GDP can have detrimental effects on child health outcomes. Across the ECA region since 2006, an increase of 1 per cent of GDP per capita is associated with a fall in under-five child mortality rates and homicide rates.  The COVID-19 crisis continues to put pressure on national health systems of ECA countries, which disrupts the coverage of medical interventions and the delivery of routine health care during the early stages of children’s lives. Unless mitigating policies are put in place, the pressure on health systems will have serious repercussions for child and infant mortality. What needs monitoring and improvement? Lessons from previous crises show that expansionary and universalistic social protection responses have contributed to protecting children from the worst effects. To respond to challenges that children and families face within the COVID-19 context, policy responses need to focus on expansionary social and fiscal measures to increase consumption and investments in children and families. The universal coverage of social protection benefits for children in times of COVID-19 is not currently being achieved in any of the ECA countries. Austerity measures should be entirely avoided when it comes to children and their families.     Issues of quality of services and staffing in the health sector matter and should be scrutinized and accounted for at a country level. The evidence and reflections are based on existing data. Additional empirical evidence in the region is required to account for a diverse range of child outcomes in the context of COVID-19 pandemic.   Alessandro Carraro is a Social and Economic Policy consultant at the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti currently conducting research on child poverty with a particular focus on Multiple Overlapping Deprivation Analysis (MODA). Victor Cebotari is a Strategic Advisor for Academic Affairs at University of Luxembourg and a former consultant at the UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti whose research interests include social policy, education, migration, gender, child wellbeing, and multidimensional deprivation.

Journal articles

Using an auto-disable syringe, a woman health worker vaccinates Shahriyor
Journal Article

How effective are cash transfers in mitigating shocks for vulnerable children? Evidence on the impact of the Lesotho CGP on multiple deprivation

Using an auto-disable syringe, a woman health worker vaccinates Shahriyor
Journal Article

Measurement of Multidimensional Child Poverty