Innocenti Social Monitor 2009. Child Well-being at a Crossroads: Evolving challenges in Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States

Innocenti Social Monitor 2009. Child Well-being at a Crossroads: Evolving challenges in Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States

Published: 2009 Innocenti Social Monitor
The evolving and diverging challenges for the well-being of children after two decades of transition are examined. Following a long period of sustained economic growth and gradual improvements in living standards, the global economic crisis is now threatening to reverse some of the recent positive achievements and plunge households and children into another phase of uncertainty.
The Innocenti Social Monitor 2009 uses information from administrative and survey sources, some of it not previously available, to identify critical economic and social trends and assess the impact of policies on children in the period immediately preceding the current crisis. It also looks at changes in the economic and demographic context in which children are growing up as well as at trends of public social expenditure, all influencing policy choices that affect children. While acknowledging the important improvements in living standards which growth brought to children in the region, the report highlights persistent disparities in the distribution of benefits and in particular the vulnerability of children to the process of change. This has been partly due to the difficulties of policy to reach population groups most at risk and to provide adequate support to reduce inequalities and exclusion.
Providing a comprehensive overview of the decade up to 2008 and discussing monitoring and data challenges for the region, the report aims to help support and guide policy debate and decisions in a period of economic crisis. It is hoped to encourage policy makers to have a greater focus on child well-being, guided by human rights principles, to support those children most in need, to promote social inclusion and to give all children the opportunity to develop to their full potential.
Positive Indicators of Child Well-being: A conceptual framework, measures and methodological issues

Positive Indicators of Child Well-being: A conceptual framework, measures and methodological issues

AUTHOR(S)
Kristin Anderson Moore; Laura H. Lippman; Hugh McIntosh

Published: 2009 Innocenti Working Papers
This paper highlights a number of frameworks for positive indicator development which examine the positive well-being of children. Based upon this review, it suggests a new comprehensive framework which identifies constructs for positive well-being as well as potential indicators and extant measures that fit with those constructs. In addition, the paper reviews existing data sources for examples of positive measures that are found in the proposed framework as well as research studies that have been successful in measuring these indicators. The paper then notes the data and measurement gaps that exist in comprehensively measuring the positive in children and youth. Finally, it identifies a number of conceptual and methodological issues that need consideration as efforts to define and measure positive indicators of well-being and well-becoming go forward.
Cite this publication | No. of pages: 100 | Thematic area: Child Poverty | Tags: child development, child well-being, indicators
Child Well-being in Eastern Europe and Central Asia: A multidimensional approach

Child Well-being in Eastern Europe and Central Asia: A multidimensional approach

AUTHOR(S)
Leonardo Menchini; Luca Tiberti; Sheila Marnie

Published: 2009 Innocenti Working Papers
After two decades of transition the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States face an increasingly diverse mix of old and new policy challenges to improving child well-being and realizing children’s rights. While attempts have been made to reflect these challenges and diversities by constructing indices of child well-being which measure and rank overall performance by individual countries, this paper proposes a simplified approach which examines five different dimensions of child well-being separately, using several indicators for each dimension that allow cross-country comparison. The dimensions included in the analysis are income, health, education, housing and deprivation of parental up-bringing. The results highlight a divergence of child well-being priorities in the selected dimensions for the different countries and for different age groups of children. The analysis shows that in the 2000-2008 period the situation of children improved in absolute terms in almost all dimensions in all countries, but that government interventions still face difficulties in reaching all children, and that across the region there are increasing differences in the character of problems facing the more vulnerable sections of the child population. The discussion shows that it is difficult to rank countries according to an overall level of child well-being, since performance varies significantly according to the choice of dimension or indicator considered. An overall index cannot therefore capture the open challenges, and indeed may distract policy attention away from them.
Социальный мониторинг

Социальный мониторинг "Инноченти",2009 год:Благополучие ребенка:переломный момент.Динамика проблем в Центральной и Восточной Европе и СНГ

Published: 2009 Innocenti Social Monitor
По прошествии почти двух десятилетий переходного периода регион ЦВЕ/СНГ по-прежнему находится в состоянии перемен. После продолжительного периода устойчивого экономического роста и постепенного повышения среднего уровня жизни глобальный кризис угрожает обратить вспять некоторые из этих достижений и вернуть регион в период неопределенности в отношении обеспечения благо - получия семей и детей. В «Социальном мониторинге "Инноченти", 2009 год» имеющиеся данные используются в целях выявления переломных экономических и социальных тенденций и оценки воздействия соответствующих стратегий на положение детей в период экономического роста, кото - рый непосредственно предшествовал нынешнему кризису. В нем так - же рассматриваются изменения тех условий, в которых растут дети: характер экономического роста, углубляющееся неравенство, пора - зительные демографические тенденции, а также уровни и структура государственных расходов, – все это влияет на выбор политики, за- трагивающей интересы детей. Наряду с признанием значительных выгод, которые этот период принес детям в данном регионе, в докладе также уделяется особое внимание хроническому неравенству в распределении плодов эконо - мического роста и приводятся факты в подтверждение того, что в течение этого периода дети получили меньше благ, чем остальное население. Отчасти это объяснялось несостоятельностью политики в плане охвата тех групп детей, которые подвергаются наибольшему риску, и неспособностью обеспечить надлежащую политическую поддержку и ресурсы, необходимые для сокращения неравенства и риска социальной изоляции. Цель настоящего доклада, в котором содержится всесторонний обзор десятилетия вплоть до 2008 года, состоит в том, чтобы стать под - держкой и ориентиром в дискуссиях о политической программе и при принятии политических решений в период экономического кри - зиса, а также побудить политиков в большей степени учитывать интересы детей, уделять больше внимания выявлению и поддержке наиболее нуждающихся детей, содействовать социальной интегра - ции и обеспечивать каждому ребенку возможность в полной мере раз - вить свой потенциал.
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