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Yekaterina Chzhen

Social Policy Specialist (Former title)

Kat joined the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti in 2013 after two and a half years as a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Quantitative Methods in Social and Political Sciences at the University of Oxford (Nuffield College). She has completed her PhD in Social Policy & Economics at the University of York in 2010. She has 12 years of experience in applied quantitative social science research at universities and international organisations. Her main research interests are in the areas of comparative social policy, multidimensional poverty, and child well-being. Kat is currently working on: Innocenti Report Card series, Multiple Overlapping Deprivation Analysis (MODA), and issues in children's time allocation in development settings.

Publications

Des Mondes d'Influence: Comprendre ce qui détermine le bien-être des enfants dans les pays riches
Publication

Des Mondes d'Influence: Comprendre ce qui détermine le bien-être des enfants dans les pays riches

Analyser la situation des enfants dans les pays les plus riches du monde sous un nouvel angle offre une image mitigée de leur santé, de leurs compétences et de leur bonheur. Pour beaucoup trop d’entre eux, des problèmes tels que la pauvreté, l’exclusion et la pollution font peser une menace sur leur bien-être mental, leur santé physique et leurs chances d’acquérir des compétences. Même des pays qui offrent de bonnes conditions sociales, économiques et environnementales sont loin d’atteindre les objectifs fixés par le Programme de développement durable à l’horizon 2030. Pour réaliser ces objectifs, des mesures ciblées et accélérées sont nécessaires. Les données de 41 pays de l’Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques (OCDE) et de l’Union européenne (UE) parlent d’elles-mêmes, qu’il s’agisse des chances de survie, de croissance et de protection des enfants, de la question de savoir s’ils apprennent et se sentent écoutés, ou de celle de savoir si leurs parents disposent du soutien et des moyens nécessaires pour donner à leurs enfants toutes les chances de mener une enfance équilibrée et heureuse. Ce rapport révèle l’expérience des enfants face aux politiques publiques et à la conjoncture sociale, éducative, économique et environnementale de leurs pays respectifs.
Sfere di Influenza: Un'analisi dei fattori che condizionano il benessere dei bambini nei paesi ricchi
Publication

Sfere di Influenza: Un'analisi dei fattori che condizionano il benessere dei bambini nei paesi ricchi

Un nuovo sguardo alla situazione dei bambini nei paesi più ricchi del mondo rivela uno scenario misto in termini di salute, competenze e felicità. Troppi problemi, come la povertà, l'esclusione e l'inquinamento, minacciano il loro benessere psicofisico e la possibilità di sviluppare le proprie abilità. Anche i paesi con condizioni sociali, economiche e ambientali favorevoli sono ben lontani dal raggiungere gli obiettivi stabiliti nell'Agenda 2030 per lo sviluppo sostenibile. Per realizzare tali obiettivi, è necessaria un'azione rapida e mirata. I dati relativi a 41 Paesi dell'Organizzazione per la cooperazione e lo sviluppo economico (OCSE) e l'Unione europea tracciano un quadro chiaro della probabilità di bambini e adolescenti di sopravvivere e crescere, di ricevere tutela, istruzione e ascolto, e della misura in cui i genitori sono in grado di fornire sostegno e risorse per garantire loro le migliori possibilità di vivere un'infanzia sana e felice. Questo studio rivela le esperienze dei bambini alla luce delle politiche e del contesto sociale, educativo, economico e ambientale dei rispettivi paesi.
Worlds of Influence: Understanding What Shapes Child Well-being in Rich Countries
Publication

Worlds of Influence: Understanding What Shapes Child Well-being in Rich Countries

A new look at children from the world’s richest countries offers a mixed picture of their health, skills and happiness. For far too many, issues such as poverty, exclusion and pollution threaten their mental well-being, physical health and opportunities to develop skills. Even countries with good social, economic and environmental conditions are a long way from meeting the targets set in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Focused and accelerated action is needed if these goals are to be met. The evidence from 41 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and European Union (EU) countries tells its own story: from children’s chances of survival, growth and protection, to whether they are learning and feel listened to, to whether their parents have the support and resources to give their children the best chance for a healthy, happy childhood. This report reveals children’s experiences against the backdrop of their country’s policies and social, educational, economic and environmental contexts.
Mundos de Influencia:¿Cuáles son los determinantes del bienestar infantil en los países ricos?
Publication

Mundos de Influencia:¿Cuáles son los determinantes del bienestar infantil en los países ricos?

Una nueva mirada a los niños de los países más ricos del mundo presenta un panorama heterogéneo en cuando a su salud, aptitudes y felicidad. Demasiados ven amenazados su bienestar mental, salud física y oportunidades para el desarrollo de aptitudes por problemas como la pobreza, la exclusión y la contaminación. Incluso los países que disfrutan de una buena situación social, económica y ambiental están muy lejos de cumplir las metas establecidas en la Agenda 2030 para el Desarrollo Sostenible. Para cumplir tales objetivos se requieren medidas específicas y aceleradas. Las pruebas recabadas en 41 países de la Organización de Cooperación y Desarrollo Económicos (OCDE) y la Unión Europea relatan una historia propia: cuáles son las oportunidades de supervivencia, crecimiento y protección de los niños; si están aprendiendo y se los escucha; si sus progenitores cuentan con apoyo y recursos para ofrecer a sus hijos la posibilidad de vivir una infancia sana y feliz. En este informe se plasman experiencias infantiles con el trasfondo de las políticas nacionales y diversos contextos sociales, educativos, económicos y ambientales.

Blogs

How does UNICEF maternity leave compare with EU and OECD countries?
Blog

How does UNICEF maternity leave compare with EU and OECD countries?

If UNICEF were a rich country instead of my employer, it would rank 24th out of 41 EU and OECD countries in the league table of our new report “Are the world’s richest countries family friendly?” on the indicator of full-rate equivalent childcare leave available to female staff (see figure below, which shows where UNICEF would fall among 41 countries).This may not sound generous compared with countries like Estonia and Hungary, where mothers can stay at home until the child’s third birthday and earn the equivalent of more than 70 weeks at full pay for an average earner. But on a closer look, UNICEF’s policy is pretty good.Consider the concept of full-rate equivalent. It combines the duration and generosity of childcare leave so that we can compare policies across countries. It is the number of weeks of leave multiplied by the rate of pay (for an average earner). But in practice are 20 weeks on full pay really the same as 40 weeks on half pay?Only six countries out of 41 allow female employees on average earnings stay at home at full pay for the whole duration of their leave: Mexico (12 weeks), Israel (14 weeks), the Netherlands (16 weeks), Spain (16 weeks), Chile (30 weeks) and Lithuania (62 weeks). Compared to these countries, UNICEF’s provision of 24 weeks at full pay is only behind Chile and Lithuania.When I gave birth to my child in 2016, as a UNICEF staff member, I took advantage of 24 weeks at full pay. I would not have wanted to stay at home for nearly a year on half my pay instead. I was eager to resume my full responsibilities and was keeping up with office developments. I took part in key meetings, worked on research papers, increased my Twitter following and prepared for the launch of my edited book Children of Austerity. A study on maternity leave policies offered by universities across the United Kingdom shows that institutions with more generous maternity benefits (over and above national statutory provision) have a higher share of female academics who passed productivity-based promotion hurdles in their child-bearing years to become professors. Institutions that employ high-skilled staff do their best to give them incentives to stay.Yet well-paid leave is just one part of the story. I would not have managed to get any research done while on maternity leave or sweep into my old job as I returned from leave if I had been the sole carer of my child with no resources. Between the end of my maternity leave and the start of my child’s nursery entitlement at 12 months I’ve scrambled together a combination of: annual leave, having my partner stay home full-time with the child, unpaid help from extended family and paid babysitters.I was privileged to have had these options. What about those who do not?Note: entitlements in place as of April 2016.Source: OECD Family Database (Table PF2.1).Read more:Global indicators of family policies compiled by the WORLD Policy Analysis Center at the University of California, Los Angeles.An OECD brief ‘Parental leave: Where are all the fathers? Men’s uptake of parental leave is rising but still low’ (2016) Yekaterina Chzhen is the lead author of the newly released UNICEF report “Are the world’s richest countries family friendly?”. Follow her on Twitter @kat_chzhen. The Office of Research–Innocenti, is UNICEF’s dedicated research centre. It undertakes research on emerging or current issues to inform the strategic directions, policies and programmes of UNICEF and its partners, shape global debates on child rights and development, and inform the global research and policy agenda for all children, and particularly for the most vulnerable. Please follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
School bullying harms everyone, not just the victims
Blog

School bullying harms everyone, not just the victims

 It is no surprise that children who are bullied do worse in academic tests. However, after  re-analyzing children’s reading test data for 30 school systems in some of the world’s richest countries, we found that an environment of bullying drags everyone’s achievement down, not just that of the victims. We published our findings on bullying and more indicators contributing to educational inequalities in a recent UNICEF report “An Unfair Start: Inequality in Children’s Education in Rich Countries”.The share of fourth-grade students who reported they were bullied at least monthly ranged from 25% in Finland to 60% in New Zealand (see figure below).Nearly half of children in the US (45 %) reported they were bullied at least once a month.One in three (33%) of these children said they were bullied on a weekly basis, one of the highest levels in the comparison (ahead of only nine of 30 school systems in the study). Our research shows that  school-level prevalence of weekly bullying is associated with significantly lower individual reading test scores in 24 of the 30 school systems. In the United States, a one percentage point difference in school-level bullying is associated with 1.1 score points lower reading achievement, one of the strongest correlations in the study. The association is greater in only three other countries in the comparison- Chile, Ireland and Sweden, all of which had lower rates of bullying victimization than the US.Only 6% of children in the US sample were in schools where no one reported being bullied weekly and a quarter were in schools with a bullying prevalence of 20% or greater. This amounts to a difference in reading scores of 22 points. This is a large effect, especially as it remains after we have accounted for a host of other factors linked to children’s reading achievement: the child’s gender and age, the language of testing and the language the child speaks at home, the location of the school, whether the child comes to school hungry or tired, or has breakfast on school days, as well as the share of students from disadvantaged families in the school (reported by the principal).It is now understood that childhood bullying casts a “long shadow” on both the victims and perpetrators, but a more nuanced understanding of how it affects bystanders is over-due. Children who get victimized as well as those who bully others tend to suffer from ill health and poor employment outcomes as they grow into adulthood. Yet our findings suggest that even children who are not necessarily involved in bullying end up being dragged down in their academic achievement.Our research demonstrates that anti-bullying interventions need to consider the whole school context, while the evaluations of such interventions should measure the impacts on children not directly involved in peer violence.  Read more:UNICEF Innocenti’s working paper: Developing a Global Indicator on Bullying of School-Aged ChildrenFor global bullying statistics and examples of anti-bullying policies and interventions, see the 2016 United Nations report “Ending the Torment: Tackling Bullying from the Schoolyard to Cyberspace”.Yekaterina Chzhen is the lead author of the newly released UNICEF report An Unfair Start: Inequality in Children’s Education in Rich Countries. The Office of Research–Innocenti, is UNICEF’s dedicated research centre. It undertakes research on emerging or current issues to inform the strategic directions, policies and programmes of UNICEF and its partners, shape global debates on child rights and development, and inform the global research and policy agenda for all children, and particularly for the most vulnerable. Please visit us on Twitter and Facebook.  
How to halve poverty in all its dimensions by 2030
Blog

How to halve poverty in all its dimensions by 2030

The way countries define poverty is going to matter for their probability of achieving Sustainable Development Goal 1, Target 1.2. It calls for reducing at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions by 2030. This means that national governments can establish the standards against which they will be measuring progress in just over a decade. For example, if we measure multidimensional poverty in a way that the starting rate is too high, we will struggle to halve it. Define it at too low a level, and further progress may be harder to achieve. Try to game Target 1.2 by fudging your dimensions and you betray the spirit of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). So how can governments define multidimensional poverty in a way that halving the poverty rate will be realistic and amenable to policy intervention, while representing a true improvement in people’s well-being? In a recent paper we simulate different scenarios for lowering multidimensional child poverty in two small middle-income post-socialist European countries: Armenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Their UNICEF offices carried out child poverty studies using data from household budget surveys collected in 2011-2013. UNICEF chose the dimensions of child poverty in consultation with government and civil society counterparts to reflect national standards and priorities. Each study used seven dimensions of poverty from this list: clothing, education or educational resources, housing, information access, leisure, nutrition, social participation or social relations, and utilities. UNICEF had initiated these studies before the SDGs had been adopted, so no one worried about halving the resulting poverty rate by 2030 when they were coming up with a definition of poverty. The rate of multidimensional child poverty was twice as high in Armenia as in BiH: four in five (80%) versus two in five (40%) school-age children, respectively, were deprived in two or more out of seven dimensions. There were differences between the two countries in the intensity of multidimensional child poverty and way various dimensions interacted with each other. In BiH, one dimension influenced child poverty disproportionately (i.e. information access) and was not highly correlated with other dimensions. In contrast, no single dimension dominated in Armenia, and the majority of children deprived in two or more were deprived in four dimensions (i.e. leisure, housing, social relations, and utilities). ...if all school-age children in BiH had a networked computer at home (i.e. no deprivation in information access), the multidimensional poverty rate would go down by more than one-third (35%). This goes a long way towards halving poverty to reach the Target 1.2.To understand the mechanics of reducing multidimensional child poverty, we simulated several scenarios of lowering deprivation in different dimensions at a time. We played around with switching the deprivation status from 1 “deprived” to 0 “non-deprived” for a random selection of children in the dataset for different combinations of deprivations. For example, if all school-age children in BiH had a networked computer at home (i.e. no deprivation in information access), the multidimensional poverty rate would go down by more than one-third (35%). This goes a long way towards halving poverty to reach the Target 1.2. An alternative, but similarly effective strategy for BiH, would be to eliminate the correlation between the two dimensions that have the highest deprivation count (i.e. information access and leisure), while maintaining the proportion of children deprived in each of them. As long as it is no longer the same children who are deprived in both of these dimensions, but some deprived in one and others in the other, the overall multidimensional poverty headcount would also fall by over one-third (35%). However, these strategies would not work in Armenia, where the majority of school-age children are deprived in two out of four dimensions at once and no single dimension stands out. Of the four scenarios we considered, the best we could do would be to lower the poverty rate by just over one-quarter (28%) by halving the deprivation rates in three dimensions and reducing it by one-tenth in the other four. We also simulated the effects of giving different amounts cash to the households where multidimensionally poor children live. We did this by modelling the associations between household consumption and children’s deprivations in different dimensions. Cash transfers to the poor can be a powerful tool for improving children’s outcomes in nutrition, health and education, to name just a few (see https://transfer.cpc.unc.edu/). Some deprivations (e.g. nutrition and clothing) are more sensitive to household consumption, so cash transfers would be more effective in tackling them. Others (e.g. utilities) depend more on the local services infrastructure. Our simulations suggest that in a country like BiH, giving all consumption-poor households with children enough money to lift them out of monetary poverty would also eliminate multidimensional child poverty. In a country like Armenia, where children tend to be deprived in a greater number of dimensions simultaneously, even such an expensive strategy would not make a sizeable dent in multidimensional child poverty. We learned from our analysis that a country’s potential to halve multidimensional child poverty by 2030 hinges on the definition of the poverty measure they adopt in the first place. It influences both the “baseline” rate of poverty against which progress will be measured and the policy levers to achieve the goal. An effective strategy is likely to involve a multi-sectoral approach with cash transfers, information provision and investment in public services and infrastructure. Yekaterina Chzhen is a social and economic policy specialist at UNICEF Innocenti. Lucia Ferrone is a consultant with UNICEF Innocenti working on the Multiple Overlapping Deprivation Analysis (MODA) project, a tool which helps researchers and policy makers to better map and define the impact of poverty in children’s lives. Explore the UNICEF Innocenti research catalogue for new publications. Follow UNICEF Innocenti on Twitter and sign up for e-newsletters on any page of the UNICEF Innocenti website. This blog was first published on www.deliver2030.org 
Adolescent girls in Europe and Canada at a higher risk of multidimensional poverty than boys
Blog

Adolescent girls in Europe and Canada at a higher risk of multidimensional poverty than boys

A recent paper in Child Indicators Research (behind a paywall) shows that girls aged 11, 13 and 15 are more likely to suffer from multidimensional poverty than boys in 26 out of 38 high and middle income countries included. England shows the greatest difference in the prevalence of multidimensional poverty between girls and boys – 8 percentage points, followed by Canada, Italy, Latvia and Wales (7 points). Among the six countries with the lowest rates of multidimensional poverty, girls are more likely to be poor in Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, and Sweden, while there is no statistically significant gender gap in Norway or Iceland. girls are more likely to suffer from several deprivations at once, resulting in higher rates of multidimensional poverty among girls in 60% of the countries studied.Unlike the more standard material aspects of poverty, this study focuses on rights-based outcomes of nutrition, health, protection from violence, and access to information, as well as more relational dimensions of school environment and family environment. Adolescents who are deprived in three or more out of six dimensions are counted as multidimensionally poor. The poverty rate ranges from one in ten in Norway and Sweden to one in three in Bulgaria, Latvia, Russia and Wallonia (Belgium). The Health Behaviour in School-age Children (HBSC) survey was administered separately in the regions of Belgium and Great Britain, allowing for sub-national presentation of the results for these two countries. In only one country, Israel, the gender difference goes the other way: the poverty rate is 5 points higher for boys. Boys in Israel are more likely to suffer from the lack of classmate or teacher support (school environment), to be victims of school-based or cyber-bullying (protection from violence), to report a poor quality of family communication or family support (family environment) and not to use computers on week days (information access). *significant at p<0.05.Source: Chzhen et al 2017, Figure 7 (with added information on statistical significance of the gender gap).Out of the six dimensions, perceived health is the most skewed against girls, as they have higher rates of poor self-reported health and health complaints than boys in every single country. This is in line with other research that shows that girls tend to have poorer self-rated health than boys, with the gender gap largest at age 15. In contrast, information access is disadvantaging boys because they are less likely to use computers on weekdays. However, girls are more likely to suffer from several deprivations at once, resulting in higher rates of multidimensional poverty among girls in 60% of the countries studied. Other dimensions show a more mixed picture. While nutrition appears to be gender-balanced overall, girls are more likely to miss breakfast on weekdays, while boys are less likely to eat fruits and vegetables at least once a week. In protection from violence, girls are more likely to suffer from cyber-bullying, while boys are more subject to (otherwise more prevalent) school-based bullying. The gender gap in deprivation risks in the dimensions of school environment and family environment can also go either way, with boys or girls at a higher risk in different countries. However, there are no gender gaps in these dimensions in the majority of the countries. The study uses UNICEF’s Multiple Overlapping Deprivation Analysis (MODA) framework, drawing on data from the 2013/14 HBSC survey for 36 European countries, Canada, and Israel. It is children themselves who respond to questions about their lives, rather than parents, teachers or ‘household reference persons’. Adolescence is a critical period in children’s life course, with lasting consequences for adult outcomes. Gender differences among 11-15-year-olds are likely to persist into adulthood. This poses a serious challenge for higher income countries in achieving the universal Sustainable Development Goals. Goal 1 includes a target to reduce poverty in all its dimensions among men, women and children of all ages. Goal 5 calls for achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls, and many other Goals and Targets build on the principles of equality and non-discrimination. The article “Multidimensional Poverty Among Adolescents in 38 Countries”, co-authored by researchers at UNICEF Innocenti and four academic institutions, will be included in a guest-edited special issue of Child Indicators Research on multidimensional child poverty. Read the introduction to the special issue here. Yekaterina Chzhen is a social and economic policy specialist at the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti. She works on multidimensional child poverty, comparative social policy and child well-being. She recently co-edited a book about the impact of the Great Recession on child poverty in rich countries “Children of Austerity” (a free pdf copy is available here). Follow Yekaterina on Twitter at @kat_chzhen. Follow the UNICEF Office of Research at @UNICEFInnocenti.  

Journal articles

EU youth: not in employment, education or training
Journal Article

Comparing inequality in adolescents’ reading achievement across 37 countries and over time: outcomes versus opportunities

EU youth: not in employment, education or training
Journal Article

Household income and sticky floors in children’s cognitive development: Evidence from the United Kingdom Millennium Cohort Study

EU youth: not in employment, education or training
Journal Article

International trends in ‘bottom-end’inequality in adolescent physical activity and nutrition: HBSC study 2002–2014

EU youth: not in employment, education or training
Journal Article

Multidimensional Poverty Among Adolescents in 38 Countries: Evidence from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) 2013/14 Study

Podcasts

EU youth: not in employment, education or training
Podcast

The Research Behind Ranking Family-friendly Policies

EU youth: not in employment, education or training
Podcast

Uncovering An #UnfairStart: An Interview with UNICEF Report Card 15 authors on Education Inequality

EU youth: not in employment, education or training
Podcast

Uncovering An #UnfairStart: An Interview with UNICEF Report Card 15 authors on Education Inequality

EU youth: not in employment, education or training
Podcast

Uncovering An #UnfairStart: An Interview with UNICEF Report Card 15 authors on Education Inequality