Ugly Facts and Fancy Theories: Children and youth during the transition

Ugly Facts and Fancy Theories: Children and youth during the transition

AUTHOR(S)
Giovanni Andrea Cornia

Cite this publication | No. of pages: 52 | Thematic area: Countries in Transition | Tags: child related policies, economic transition | Publisher: UNICEF ICDC, Florence
Child Well-being in Japan: The high cost of economic success

Child Well-being in Japan: The high cost of economic success

AUTHOR(S)
Martha N. Ozawa; Shigemi Kono

This Innocenti Occasional Paper examines the counter-intuitive relationship between Japan’s continuing economic achievement and the good of its child population. Although child physical health and school attainment statistics have never looked better, changes in the structure of the family are having a worrying impact upon the collective psychological well-being of young Japanese. Adults and the elderly are harvesting the greater share of the benefits of economic success; the country’s children are missing out.
Cite this publication | No. of pages: 56 | Thematic area: Industrialized Countries | Tags: child welfare, family structure, health statistics, school attendance | Publisher: UNICEF ICDC, Florence
A Child Belongs to Everyone: Law, family and the construction of the best interests of the child in Zimbabwe

A Child Belongs to Everyone: Law, family and the construction of the best interests of the child in Zimbabwe

AUTHOR(S)
Alice Armstrong

Cite this publication | No. of pages: 40 | Thematic area: Rights of the Child | Tags: best interests of the child, children's rights | Publisher: UNICEF ICDC, Florence
Deprivation and Discrimination

Deprivation and Discrimination

AUTHOR(S)
Paolo Basurto

Published: 1995 Innocenti Insights
The children of an ethnic group, race or religious denomination represent its continuity - they embody a potential for future diversity. This has resulted throughout history in their extreme vulnerability in times of conflict among or involving such groups: they are perceived as the enemies of the future and made prime targets of genocide. Children are also the main victims of less obvious manifestations of ‘everyday’, peacetime discrimination, as infant mortality, infant morbidity and educational attainment data from every part of the world has shown. To investigate ways in which to address these issues, the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre organised a meeting on ‘Discrimination Against Children of Minority Groups and Indigenous Peoples’ in 1994. This publication brings together abridged versions of its main discussion papers.
Mortality as an Indicator of Economic Success and Failure

Mortality as an Indicator of Economic Success and Failure

AUTHOR(S)
Amartya Sen

Published: 1995 Innocenti Lectures
Amartya Sen, the Nobel economist, explains why mortality should, or could, be an indicator of economic success. While mortality is not in itself an economic phenomenon, the influences that increase or reduce mortality often have distinctly economic causes. Consequently there is a prima facie reason for not dismissing mortality as a test of economic performance. He argues that mortality information can throw light on the nature of social inequalities, including gender bias and racial disparities; biases in economic arrangements are often most clearly seen through differential mortality information. He advises that we look beyond the standard statistics of incomes and earnings into the real information on deprivation and hardship.
Cite this publication | No. of pages: 32 | Thematic area: Economic Development | Tags: developing countries, economic development, economic indicators, mortality rate | Publisher: UNICEF ICDC, Florence
The Children Here: Current trends in the decentralization of National Programmes of Action

The Children Here: Current trends in the decentralization of National Programmes of Action

AUTHOR(S)
Carlos Castillo Cardona; Richard Dunbar

Published: 1995 Innocenti Publications
The 1990 World Summit for Children brought together 71 Heads of State and Government to discuss ways in which to improve the lives of the world's children. The international ‘Plan of Action’ adopted at the summit recognised the importance of grass roots initiatives at the local level. Individual countries have responded to this call for decentralisation in the development and implementation of their ‘National Programmes of Action’. The Children Here represents a part of the research undertaken by UNICEF into different countries’ experience of this process. The aim of this research is an improved understanding of how decentralisation can help countries achieve the Summit’s 29 goals for child protection and development.
Cite this publication | No. of pages: 92 | Thematic area: National Development Programmes | Tags: child protection, decentralization, National Programme of Action | Publisher: UNICEF ICDC, Florence
Poverty, Children and Policy: Responses for a brighter future (Russian version)

Poverty, Children and Policy: Responses for a brighter future (Russian version)

Published: 1995 Regional Monitoring Report
Despite improved economic performance in Central and Eastern Europe in 1994 and 1995, there was still no clear and comprehensive evidence that the welfare crisis was ending. This third Regional Monitoring Report confirms the social trends observed since 1989, showing in particular that children have suffered disproportionately in the fields of child care, education, adolescent protection and poverty. The Report maintains that untimely, partial, or clearly erroneous policies have contributed to this deterioration in child welfare and proposes a series of policy guidelines for a "transition with a human face". These include the promotion of an employment and self-employment based anti-poverty strategy and some important measures in the fields of health, education and child care.
Cite this publication | No. of pages: 164 | Thematic area: Countries in Transition | Tags: economic development, economic transition, poverty | Publisher: ICDC
Child Labour and Basic Education in Latin America and the Caribbean

Child Labour and Basic Education in Latin America and the Caribbean

AUTHOR(S)
James R. Himes; Vicky Colbert de Arboleda; Emilio Garcia Mendez

Published: 1994 Innocenti Essay
The high primary school enrolment rates in Latin America and the Caribbean mask poor performance in terms of the quality, relevance and cost-effectiveness of formal schooling in the region. What happens to the millions of children who repeat school years, underperform in their first years of schooling and eventually drop out? The vast majority are working children of one sort or another, but their work is likely to lead nowhere in terms of expanded opportunities or eventually to a decent standard of living for them and their future families.
Cite this publication | No. of pages: 30 | Thematic area: Child Work and Labour | Tags: basic education, child workers, minimum age, right to education | Publisher: UNICEF ICDC, Florence
The Relationship between Education and Child Work

The Relationship between Education and Child Work

AUTHOR(S)
Jo Boyden

Millions of children throughout the developing world work. Not all child work should be cause for concern. Some work activities develop practical knowledge and skills and reinforce children's sense of self-esteem and unity with their families. It is children's work that is exploitative and dangerous ('child labour') that poses a major human rights and socio-economic challenge. Universal primary education may be the single most effective instrument for meeting this challenge, but because of research inadequacies and the multiplicity of factors involved, a neat causal relationship cannot be established. Drawing on case studies from different countries and exploring the many different ways child work and education are interconnected, this paper seeks to pinpoint concerns that need to be addressed in order to eliminate child labour.
Cite this publication | No. of pages: 44 | Thematic area: Child Work and Labour | Tags: child workers, education, right to education | Publisher: UNICEF ICDC, Florence
Crisis in Mortality, Health and Nutrition

Crisis in Mortality, Health and Nutrition

Published: 1994 Regional Monitoring Report
After the collapse of the communist system in 1989, most Eastern European countries experienced a mortality and health crisis. However, this did not hit the traditionally most vulnerable groups - children, adolescents, women and the elderly - but male adults in the 20-59 age group. The Report indicates that the surge is largely dependent on three transition-related factors: widespread impoverishment, erosion of preventive health services, sanitary and medical services and social stress. Although infants, children and young adolescents have not been greatly or directly affected by the mortality crisis, the Report points out that their situation has been severely threatened by more frequent sickness and greater nutritional imbalances, while the upturn in adult deaths is leading to a considerably heightened risk of poverty, abandonment or orphanhood.
Cite this publication | No. of pages: 110 | Thematic area: Countries in Transition | Tags: child health, child mortality, child nutrition, economic transition, social services, vulnerable groups | Publisher: UNICEF ICDC, Florence
Death in Transition: The rise in the death rate in Russia since 1992

Death in Transition: The rise in the death rate in Russia since 1992

AUTHOR(S)
Kitty Stewart; Jacob Nell

From January 1992 to the first half of 1994 the death rate in Russia rose by over 30 per cent, a rise of a magnitude never before seen in an industrialized country without a war or famine. In 1993 alone the life expectancy of a Russian man fell from 62 to 59. This paper examines the nature and causes of this unprecedented and disastrous increase.
Cite this publication | No. of pages: 72 | Thematic area: Countries in Transition | Tags: demography, economic transition, mortality rate | Publisher: UNICEF ICDC, Florence
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