Publications

Special Series on Child Injury no. 1.

This paper presents an overview of the IRC Child Injury Series, a working paper series on child injury that has its first focus on injury in developing countries. The series summarizes the findings of 6 national and sub-national surveys in Asia, in Bangladesh, China, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Undertaken using a new methodology resembling a census, the surveys found that injury is the leading cause of death after infancy in children through 17 years of age in all five countries reviewed. The methodology involved creating a very large, representative sample of households in each national/sub-national survey and directly counting all mortality events in the previous three years and all morbidity events that required missing work, school, or being hospitalized from injury in the previous year. The results show that current estimates of child mortality miss most injury deaths in early childhood. Current estimates do not include children five years and over. As a result, injury, which is a leading cause of death in children under five, and the leading cause of death in children five years and over, is currently invisible to policymakers and is not included in child health programmes.

Special Series on Child Injury no.2

This paper presents a more detailed description of the survey methodology for technical specialists interested in understanding the major differences between the surveys and the methods previously used to estimate child deaths. A detailed description is provided for survey governance, sampling design, survey instruments, the classification scheme for mortality and morbidity measured in the surveys, the fieldwork procedure, the analytic framework, weighting and adjustments, and survey costs. Following this, a number of methodological lessons are addressed, such as: the need to count all children and not only those under five years of age; the need to count all clearly identifiable causes of death in those same groups; the need to count morbidity as well as mortality; and the need to count the deaths in the community where they occur to avoid the various biases associated with facility-based counting. A number of examples from the surveys are shown to illuminate the issues so that they are clear to non-technical readers.

Special Series on Child Injury no.3

This paper presents a detailed description of the survey results which were introduced in the Overview Paper. Detailed results are presented first for proportional mortality in children by age group for a population-weighted composite of the surveys, and then for the individual surveys. Following this, detailed results are presented for fatal injury by national or sub-national area, region (urban/rural), and gender for the 0-17 age group. After this the types of fatal injury that occur in the different stages of childhood are presented. The second part of the paper presents both fatal and nonfatal injury by type of injury for the composite of the surveys as well as the individual surveys themselves. The results show that the leading causes of nonfatal injury differ from those of fatal injury, and the greatest burden is caused by the more serious categories of nonfatal injury. Finally, the ratio of the two leading causes of fatal injury in children, drowning and road accidents, are presented for each of the surveys. Drowning is shown to be the leading cause of fatal childhood injury in each survey. The paper concludes with a discussion of the major issues highlighted by the results of the surveys.

Special Series on Child Injury no.4

This paper presents a summary of the findings of the national and sub-national surveys and discusses the implications of the results on child health policy and programmes.The principal finding is that injury has generally been unrecognized as a leading cause of child death. This is largely because the previous estimates of child mortality causality were unable to include injury due to technical issues. The surveys provide convincing evidence that injury is a leading cause of child death after infancy and the types of injury vary with the age group of the child. Similar convincing evidence shows that it is a leading cause of serious morbidity and permanent disability in children The implications discussed are 1) the need to develop an effective measure of child mortality that includes all ages of childhood; 2) prevention of mortality and serious morbidity from injury in children will require a life-cycle approach; 3) continued progress on child survival programming in children under five years of age will require injury reductions; 4) that drowning is the single injury cause responsible for about half of all injury deaths and targeting it for reduction would be an efficient strategy; and 5) there are efficient strategies for targeting other sub-types of child injury as well.

This study addresses one of the greatest challenges of our time: the damage caused by HIV and AIDS to the well-being of children and families. With 38.6 million people affected by HIV in 2006, with HIV prevalence at antenatal clinics exceeding 40 per cent in areas of Botswana and KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa), with nationwide adult prevalence in excess of the critical threshold of 20 per cent in several countries, and with the prospect of a rapid spread of the disease in large swathes of India, China and the Russian Federation, the future of child well-being is seriously threatened. Certainly, in the 50 or so countries affected by the disease, the Millennium Development Goals in the field of child survival, education, poverty and basic rights will be missed, often by a large margin.

Within and across borders in Europe, children are trafficked into a variety of exploitative situations, violating their human rights and threatening their survival and development. This report assesses the legal, policy and implementation frameworks in place to address child trafficking in the region. Covering more than 50 countries/entities, the report investigates the complexity of the trafficking phenomenon, and maps trafficking patterns and targeted legal and policy responses. Child trafficking is addressed in the framework of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, with a focus on prevention, protection and empowerment.

Within and across borders in Europe, children are trafficked into a variety of exploitative situations, violating their human rights and threatening their survival and development. This report assesses the legal, policy and implementation frameworks in place to address child trafficking in the region. Covering more than 50 countries/entities, the report investigates the complexity of the trafficking phenomenon, and maps trafficking patterns and targeted legal and policy responses. Child trafficking is addressed in the framework of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, with a focus on prevention, protection and empowerment.

En todo el mundo, tanto en las áreas rurales como en las urbanas, los niños indígenas a menudo constituyen uno de los grupos más desventajados y sus derechos (el derecho a la sobrevivencia y al desarrollo, al mejor nivel posible de salud, a una educación que respete su identidad cultural, y a la protección contra los abusos, la violencia y la exploitación) se ven frecuentemente comprometidos. Al mismo tiempo, sin embargo, los niños indígenas poseen recursos muy especiales: son los custodios de una multitud de culturas, idiomas, sistemas de valores y conocimientos, cada uno de los cuales es un precioso elemento de nuestro patrimonio colectivo. Como explica el presente Digest las inicitivas más eficaces para promover los derechos de los niños indígenas se basan precisamente en dichos elementos. Tales iniciativas reconocen la fuerza intrínseca de las comunidades, familias y niños indígenas, respetan su dignidad y les conceden la palabra en todas las cuestiones que los afectan.

Around the world, in rural and urban areas alike, indigenous chilldren frequently constitute one of the most disadvantaged groups, and their rights - including those to survival and development, to the highest standards of health, to education that respects their cultural identity, and to protection from abuse, violence and exploitation - are often compromised. At the same time, however, indigenous children possess very special resources: they are the custodians of a multitude of cultures, languages, beliefs and knowledge systems, each of which is a precious element of our collective heritage. As this Digest discusses, the most effective initiatives to promote the rights of indigenous children build upon these very elements. Such initiatives recognize the inherent strength of indigenous communities, families and children, respect their dignity and give them full voice in all matters that affect them.

Dans le monde, que ce soit dans les zones urbaines ou rurale, les enfants autochtones constituent fréquentement l'un de groupes le plus défavorisés, et leurs droits - notamment à la survie et au développement, jusqu'au niveau le plus élevé de santé, à l'éducation qui respecte leur identité culturelle, et à la protection contre les mauvais traitements, la violence et l'exploitation - sont souvent bafoués. Parallèlement, toutefois, les enfants autochtones possèdent des resources très particulières : ils sont les gardiens d'une multitude de cultures, de langues, de croyances et de systèmes de connaissances, qui répresentent une partie précieuse de notre patrimoine collectif. Comme l'illustre le Digest, les initiatives les plus efficaces afin de promouvoir les droits des enfants atochtones se fondent justement sur ces éléments. Ces initiatives reconnaissent la force inhérente des communautés, des familles et des enfants autochtones, elles respectent leurs dignité et leur donnent pleinement la parole dans tous les domaines qui les concernent.

The trafficking of children is one of the gravest violations of human rights in the world today. Every year, hundreds of thousands of children are smuggled across borders and sold as mere commodities. Their survival and development are threatened, and their rights to education, to health, to grow up within a family, to protection from exploitation and abuse, are denied. The UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre has worked with the UNICEF Regional Office for West and Central Africa to identify effective policy solutions to this issue in eight countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Mali, Nigeria and Togo. This study focuses on a region that is badly affected by the phenomenon, aiming to increase understanding of this reality and maximize the effectiveness of measures to overcome it. It illustrates the importance of field-driven research and the essential role that research plays in policy formulation and the proper design of programmes.

There is a shortfall of up to $80 billion per year between what is spent and what should be spent to ensure universal access to basic social services such as primary health care, basic education and clean water. Drawing on case studies from over 30 developing countries, Basic Services for All? highlights the human cost of this shortfall in terms of lives lost, children out of school, the millions undernourished, and the billions without safe water and sanitation. The report concludes with a Ten Point Agenda for Action - urgently needed measures to close the $80 billion gap.