Historical Perspectives
Innocenti Digest
The Innocenti Digests provide clear summaries of current knowledge and debate on specific child rights issues. They are written in an accessible style for use by a wide range of audiences, including policy makers, researchers, UNICEF staff, journalists and members of the public. Each Digest includes a Links Section, guiding the reader to relevant organizations and information sources.
Innocenti Essay
Innocenti Global Seminar
Innocenti Insights
Insights take an intensive look at a specific child rights issue, expanding on a particular perspective or argument. Insights examine emerging, complex and sometime controversial issues that have a direct bearing on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Innocenti Lectures
Innocenti Occasional Papers, Child Rights Series
Innocenti Occasional Papers, Decentralization and Local Governance Series
Innocenti Occasional Papers, Economic Policy Series
The series Innocenti Occasional Papers, Economic and Social Policy (IOPs) has become Innocenti Working Papers as of no. 72. The numbering is consecutive. Papers 63 onwards are also available for download.
Innocenti Occasional Papers, Urban Child Series
Innocenti Publications
Innocenti Publications refer to other types of studies, often jointly produced with others, including case studies and policy reviews that are oriented to a wide audience.
Innocenti Social Monitor
The Centre's MONEE Project has been monitoring the impact of the social and economic changes in Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States since 1992, making a major contribution to the debate on public policies on children's issues in the region. The Social Monitor reports on trends in the welfare of children, young people and women in the CEE/CIS/Baltics region, and to serve as a basis for advocacy and policy debate in the region. It partially replaces the Regional Monitoring Report series (eight of which were produced between 1993 and 2001). It is published for a non-specialist audience, and widely distributed in both English and Russian versions to policymakers, international organisations, interest groups and the international media. As of 2009 the same MONEE project functions are shifting to the UNICEF CEE/CIS Regional Office.
Innocenti Studies
Methodological Briefs
Methodological Briefs cover the range of options and elements available in conducting sound research and delivering reliable results. They cover impact evaluation, strategies and causal attributions and different data collection and analysis methods.
Regional Monitoring Report
The Centre's MONEE Project has been monitoring the impact of the social and economic changes in Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States since 1992, making a major contribution to the debate on public policies on children's issues in the region. The Project includes the Regional Monitoring Report, published annually in English and Russian. The Report covers every country in the region, providing authoritative statistics on the situation of children, backed by detailed analysis.
Think Pieces
INNOCENTI PUBLICATIONS CATALOGUE
Social Benefits and the Feedback Effect of Child Poverty in European Countries
Innocenti Working Papers
2021 13 Apr 2021
This paper examines how social benefits contributed to reducing the scarring effects of monetary poverty among children in European countries in the years following the Great Recession. Based on the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions database, our findings highlight that social benefit functions differ in their ability to reduce the risk of monetary poverty for children with previous experience in poverty. While family/children’s benefits are crucial in reducing child poverty in general, they are not significant in terms of reducing the scarring effects of child poverty. Old age/ survivors’ benefits meanwhile appear to be a significant support for children with prior experience in poverty. Empirical evidence thus suggests the effectiveness of social transfers to combat occasional child poverty does not always coincide with their effectiveness in preventing children from remaining in poverty year after year.
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Reimagining Migration Responses: Learning from children and young people who move in the Horn of Africa
Innocenti Research Report
2021 24 Mar 2021
The number of international migrants under 18 is rising, accelerated by complex and fast-evolving economic, demographic, security and environmental drivers. Based on interviews carried out with 1,290 migrant children and young people in Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan, this report helps address the evidence gap on children and young people migrating in the Horn of Africa by providing a better understanding of their protective environments; their access to services and resources; and their perceptions of safety, well-being and trust in authorities and other providers.
It concludes by offering policy and programme recommendations to rethink child protection approaches for migrants in the region.
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COVID-19 and the Looming Debt Crisis: Protecting and Transforming Social Spending for Inclusive Recoveries
Innocenti Research Report
2021 23 Mar 2021
Compounding the COVID-19 pandemic is a looming debt crisis for low- and middle-income countries where a growing debt burden threatens to crowd out social spending for children.
This policy brief explores whether the current support from the international community is enough to maintain spending on basic services during COVID-19. It highlights countries that are most at risk due to high levels of poverty, as well as those less likely to benefit from the G20 Debt Standstill (DSSI). It concludes that a new international debt restructuring architecture, which encompasses the needs of poorer countries, is crucial to protecting children’s rights in the wake of COVID-19.
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Impact Evaluation of the Integrated Safety Net Programme in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia: Baseline Report
Innocenti Research Report
2021 23 Mar 2021
UNICEF supports the Government of Ethiopia to implement a pilot Integrated Safety Net Programme (ISNP) in the Amhara Region from 2019 to 2023. The objective of the programme is to harness the potential synergies that can be realized by integrating social protection policies and programmes. It seeks to test the efficacy of combining cash and services to improve nutrition and health outcomes for children and their households.
This report describes the conceptual framework and methodology for an impact evaluation of the ISNP intervention and presents findings from a baseline study. The baseline study confirms the low socio-economic status of PSNP households in the domains of housing conditions, sanitation, schooling, health seeking, food security, women’s agency, subjective wellbeing, sexual and reproductive health, access to social services, child nutrition and child protection. The PSNP clients are found to be generally worse off than the entirety of rural Amhara – confirming the targeting effectiveness of the PSNP. The study highlights the gaps that the ISNP interventions are meant to address and provides concrete action points for successful implementation.
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Lifting Barriers to Education During and After COVID-19: Improving education outcomes for migrant and refugee children in Latin America and the Caribbean
Innocenti Research Report
2021 15 Mar 2021
By the end of 2019, 4.8 million refugees and migrants had left Venezuela – making it the largest external displacement crisis in the region’s recent history. Of these, 1 in 4 was a child.
Across Latin America and the Caribbean, since November 2020, 137 million girls and boys are missing out on their education due to the prolonged closure of schools during COVID-19. The implications are troubling, especially for migrant and refugee children, for whom access to inclusive and equitable education remains a major challenge.
This study collates evidence from Latin America, the Caribbean and across the world to gain a better understanding of the multifaceted linkages between education and migration. It estimates gaps in educational outcomes; identifies structural barriers to education; and highlights promising practices to inform policy.
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Ujana Salama: Cash Plus Model on Youth Well-Being and Safe, Healthy Transitions – Round 3 Findings
Innocenti Research Briefs
2021 25 Feb 2021
“Ujana Salama” (‘Safe Youth’ in Swahili) is a cash plus programme targeting adolescents in households receiving the United Republic of Tanzania’s Productive Social Safety Net (PSSN). Implemented by the Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF), with technical assistance of the Tanzania Commission for AIDS (TACAIDS) and UNICEF Tanzania, the ‘plus’ component includes in-person training, mentoring, grants and health services. The impact evaluation studies the differential impact of the integrated programme (cash plus intervention targeting adolescents) with respect to the PSSN only. It is a mixed methods study, including baseline (2017), Round 2 (2018), Round 3 (2019) and Round 4 (2021) surveys. This brief summarizes findings from the Round 3 survey, which was conducted one year after the training, three months after the mentorship period, and one to two months after grant disbursement.
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A Cash Plus Model for Safe Transitions to a Healthy and Productive Adulthood Round 3 Report
Innocenti Research Report
2021 22 Feb 2021
“Ujana Salama” (‘Safe Youth’ in Swahili) is a cash plus programme targeting adolescents in households receiving the United Republic of Tanzania’s Productive Social Safety Net (PSSN). Implemented by the Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF), with technical assistance of the Tanzania Commission for AIDS (TACAIDS) and UNICEF Tanzania, the ‘plus’ component includes in-person training, mentoring, grants and health services. The impact evaluation studies the differential impact of the integrated programme (cash plus intervention targeting adolescents) with respect to the PSSN only. It is a mixed methods study, including baseline (2017), Round 2 (2018), Round 3 (2019) and Round 4 (2021) surveys. This report provides findings from the Round 3 survey, which was conducted one year after the training, three months after the mentorship period, and one to two months after grant disbursement. The previous report (Round 2) is available here.
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Evidence and Gap Map Research Brief UNICEF Strategic Plan 2018–2021: Covid-19 Special Evidence Brief
Innocenti Research Briefs
2021 18 Feb 2021
This research brief is an addition to a series of five briefs, which provide an overview of available evidence shown in the Campbell-UNICEF Mega-Map of the effectiveness of interventions to improve child well-being in low- and middle-income countries. These briefs summarize evidence as mapped against the five goal areas of UNICEF’s 2018–2021 Strategic Plan, although it is anticipated that they will also be useful for others working in the child well-being space.
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Impact Evaluation in Settings of Fragility and Humanitarian Emergency
Innocenti Discussion Papers
2021 16 Feb 2021
Despite the challenges involved in fragile and humanitarian settings, effective interventions demand rigorous impact evaluation and research. Such work in these settings is increasing, both in quality and quantity, and being used for programme implementation and decision-making.
This paper seeks to contribute to and catalyse efforts to implement rigorous impact evaluations and other rigorous empirical research in fragile and humanitarian settings. It describes what sets apart this type of research; identifies common challenges, opportunities, best practices, innovations and priorities; and shares some lessons that can improve practice, research implementation and uptake. Finally, it provides some reflections and recommendations on areas of agreement (and disagreement) between researchers and their commissioners and funding counterparts.
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Ujana Salama: Cash Plus Model on Youth Well-Being and Safe, Healthy Transitions – Midline Findings
Innocenti Research Briefs
2021 16 Feb 2021
This brief provides midline findings from the impact evaluation of a cash plus model targeting youth in households receiving the United Republic of Tanzania’s Productive Social Safety Net (PSSN). Implemented by the Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF), with technical assistance of the Tanzania Commission for AIDS (TACAIDS) and UNICEF Tanzania, the programme aims to improve livelihood opportunities and facilitate a safe transition to adulthood. The 'plus' component included training on livelihoods and sexual and reproductive health (SRH)-HIV, mentoring and productive grants, as well as linkages to youth-friendly health services. The impact evaluation is a longitudinal, mixed methods study. The midline analysis was conducted immediately after training (before mentoring, disbursement of productive grants and health facility strengthening).
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