Child well-being papers and reports

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Recently released child well-being papers and reports

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2013

Written to inform the post 2015 inequalities consultation, this paper synthesizes evidence on the nature of inequalities and how these affect children. It draws on evidence from the four-country Young Lives longitudinal study of childhood poverty and suggests 8 messages for how inequalities affect children.

Wikichild’s core mission is to build a global information tool supported by a world-wide partnership of groups and individuals wishing to participate in the collection, analysis and dissemination of information on child well-being. With the use of web 2.0, Wikichild is bringing together news, events, publications, case-studies and data from around the world while facilitating collaboration and networking opportunities in the area of child well-being.

Given the centrality of the family to child and adult well-being and the changing dynamics and structure of families today, Child Trends, in partnership with a number of foundations, including the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Focus Global, and the Social Trends Institute, have written this report outlining trends in family life across the globe, with a special focus on the consequences of these trends for children.

The Millennium Development Goals – one of the most resonant and unifying agreements in political history – reach a turning point in 2015, the deadline for their realisation. Ending Poverty in Our Generation sets out Save the Children’s vision for a new development framework – consisting of ten key goals – that will support the creation of a world where all people everywhere realise their human rights within a generation. We do not present this as a final position. Rather, it as an indicator of our priorities and – we hope – a contribution to the process of crystallising the eventual solution.

WASHINGTON, DC – United States Agency for International Development (USAID) today announced the release of USAID’s Policy on Youth in Development, the first Agency-wide guidance to recognize young people as a driving force in global development and promote youth participation as partners and leaders. The policy’s guiding principles support USAID’s efforts to mainstream youth in development, carry out effective programs, and elevate youth participation throughout the world. With more than half of the global population under the age of 30 and a majority residing in developing countries, USAID’s release of the policy reinforces that young people must be a central focus when developing country strategies and recognizes the need to support, prepare, engage and protect youth today as well as harness the energy and creativity of young people for positive change. “These efforts will not only advance youth development and empowerment but can also help nations accelerate economic growth and capture a demographic dividend. Harnessing this demographic opportunity is not inevitable. It will require strategic, results‐oriented investments in youth today,” Administrator Rajiv Shah said about the new policy. Through the Youth in Development Policy, the Agency will improve the capacities of youth and enable their aspirations so they can contribute to and benefit from more stable and prosperous communities. The Policy on Youth in Development identifies, supports and promotes research and innovation by, with and for youth. Agency policies, country strategies and partnerships will be inclusive of youth and will actively leverage the skills, priorities and ideas of young people. The policy joins a series of recent USAID policies that guide Agency focus in the strategic planning process on important issues such as gender equality, climate change and violent extremism.

As Syria’s civil war continues unabated, thousands of children have fled across the border, terrified and desperate for safe refuge from the spiralling violence. These children have not found the protection and assistance they need – because winter is coming and thousands remain without appropriate shelter, out in the cold. This report aims to make the voices of these children and their desperate parents heard, and listened to before it’s too late.

2012

In Born Equal Save the Children powerfully demonstrates the cost of inequality to children. The report reveals the growing gaps between the richest and the poorest children, and the costs that this has on children’s health and development.

This 10th edition of the EFA Global Monitoring Report could not be better timed. The third goal of Education for All is to ensure that all young people have the opportunity to acquire skills. The urgency of reaching this goal has sharpened acutely since 2000. The global economic downturn is impacting on unemployment. One young person in eight across the world is looking for work. Youth populations are large and growing. The wellbeing and prosperity of young people depend more than ever on the skills that education and training can provide. Failing to meet this need is a waste of human potential and economic power. Youth skills have never been so vital.

The UN Study on Violence against Children urged states to prohibit by law all forms of violence against children, including harmful practices. This recommendation is a key priority for the mandate of the Special representative of the Secretary General on Violence against Children as well as for Plan International. To advance progress in the implementation of this recommendation, they co-organized an expert consultation, in June 2012. This thematic report was informed by those important discussions.

Save the Children spoke with children in refugee camps on the borders of Syria who have experienced and witnessed crimes, and collected their stories in an effort to highlight how children continue to suffer in Syria.

At the end of the 2000s, progress in the Asia-Pacific region towards achieving the EFA goals and targets was assessed. This publication compiles the results for the Asia-Pacific End of Decade Notes on Education for All. It notes progress, persisting issues and remaining challenges in achieving each EFA goal.

A pictorial view of evidence on the growth and development of children in the six Olympic boroughs. It brings together 17 sets of profiles published by the Public Health Observatories in England and London Health Programmes during 2011/12 to investigate what is happening from the antenatal period through to adolescence in some of London’s most deprived boroughs.

The final years of the twentieth century and first decade of the twenty-first century saw unparalleled global interest in the survival and development of children. This interest reflects commitments made under the terms of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to support and protect all young people below the age of 18, as well as efforts in line with the Millennium Development Goals to reduce child mortality, eradicate poverty and hunger, and attain universal primary education and gender equity.

This document sets out research and recommendations for a school-based approach to promote emotional wellbeing amongst children and young people in Buckinghamshire. It focuses on supporting schools and local agencies to promote mental health interventions to boost mental wellbeing of children and young people and reduce the likelihood of poor mental health outcomes.

Australia has much higher rates of income poverty and inequalities among children than Sweden and the other main Nordic nations. The aim of this publication is to identify what Australia can learn from the Nordic nations’ policies to reduce inequalities, and increase wellbeing, among children.

The report highlights shifts in child well-being indicators and metrics. These include measurements on child poverty, health, care arrangements.

This report presents up-to-date evidence, good practices and guidelines for the designing of innovative social programmes and strategies to fight hunger and malnutrition in order to reach the target of addressing this persistent challenge.

Developed by member organisations working with children in poverty and their families, this document by Caritas Europa calls on the EU and its Member States to implement ten recommendations to address child poverty in the region.

This paper considers the progress that ILO member States are making in the application of ILO Conventions and Recommendations. It draws on two reports considered by the 2012 International Labour Conference: 'Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work: From commitment to action' and 'Giving globalization a human face'.

The Global Monitoring Report 2012 examines what the impact of further food price spikes have had on developing countries' ability to make progress toward the Millennium Development Goals. It summarizes the impacts of food prices on several MDGs; reviews policy responses; and outlines future prospects.

This publication reports that by 2015 more than 2 million child deaths could be averted if national coverage of cost effective interventions for the two leading killers of children under 5 - pneumonia and diarrhoea - were increased to match those of the richest 20 per cent in the highest mortality countries. These diseases account for 29 per cent of deaths among children under age 5 worldwide – or more than 2 million lives lost each year. Close to 90% of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. This UNICEF report argues that due to the close association of these diseases with poverty, an equity approach is necessary and could save more than 2 million lives by 2015. To access the complete report see here.

The Good Childhood Report 2012, reveals that half a million children across the UK are unhappy with their lives. It outlines six key priorities needed for a happy childhood, after interviewing more than 30,000 children aged eight to 16. Children who have low levels of happiness are much less likely to enjoy being at home with their family, feel safe when with their friends, like the way they look and feel positive about their future. Children unhappy in this way are also more likely to be victimised, have eating disorders or be depressed.

Substantial declines in infant and under-5 mortality have taken place in recent years in many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Kenya the infant mortality rate has fallen by 7.6 percent per year, the fastest rate of decline among the 20 countries in the region for which recent Demographic and Health Survey data is available. Kenya’s rate of postneonatal deaths per 1,000 live births fell by more than half over a five-year period, dropping from 47 to 22, as measured using data from the 2003 and 2008-09 Demographic and Health Surveys. Among the possible causes of the decline are various targeted new public health initiatives and improved access to water and sanitation.

Neuroscience is increasingly being used to support assertions about the effects of early experiences on children’s development. This volume in the Early Childhood in Focus series seeks to give an overview of the most significant areas of research, commencing with a basic explanation of the brain and how it functions for the research to be understood by those with limited knowledge of the field. The following section gives an overview of the developmental processes involved as the child’s brain grows and matures in constant interaction with the environment, from conception through to adulthood. The final section focuses on the important effects of early physical and social environments.

This report examines the results of a comprehensive composite state-level index of child well-being modeled after the Foundation for Child Development‘s (FCD) Child Well-Being Index (CWI). The study uses data from 2007 and established that child well-being is related to state and local tax rates, level of TANF benefits, per-pupil expenditures on elementary and secondary education, and access to public medical insurance programs.

Progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), both in aggregate and for the most vulnerable populations, is argued to be at risk by this publication if the right policies are not in place. UNICEF’s social and economic policy work is a key driver for the achievement of the MDG agenda due to its focus on strengthening national policy formulation and implementation, reducing child poverty and disparities, advocating for equitable budgetary allocations and channeling resources where they are most needed through social protection – in support of social sector outcomes. Scaling up this work will benefit from improved knowledge sharing around child-focused social and economic policy. To achieve this, UNICEF is increasingly focusing on documenting and sharing country experiences. Some of this recent work includes two volumes of the compendium on child-focused social and economic policy released in 2011. In continuation of this work, this publication features ten additional innovations and lessons learned from UNICEF initiatives.

Widespread inequalities mean that many young people in the WHO European Region and North America are not as healthy as they could be, according to a new report on the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study, published by the WHO Regional Office for Europe.

Preterm birth has multiple causes; therefore, solutions will not come through a single discovery but rather from an array of discoveries addressing multiple biological, clinical, and social-behavioral risk factors. Born Too Soon is yet another timely answer by partners that showcases how a multi-stakeholder approach can use evidence-based solutions to ensure the survival, health and well-being of some of the human family’s most defenceless members. Produced by a global team of leading international organizations, academic institutions and United Nations agencies, highlights scientifically proven solutions to save preterm lives, provide care for preterm babies and reduce the high rates of death and disability.

The world is off-track on the MDGs to reduce mortality rates of children under five and mothers, as a result, these goals will not be met in any developing region by 2015. Progress on reducing infant and child mortality is similarly dismal, with only 50 per cent of the targeted decline achieved. The report highlights the need for helping developing countries to deal with the effects of food price spikes, which have affected progress across the MDGs. “High and volatile food prices do not bode well for attainment of many MDGs... Dealing with food price volatility must be a high priority, especially as nutrition has been one of the forgotten MDGs,” he added.

The policy brief highlights the paucity of mental health funding, services and attention devoted to 0-12 year olds in Australia. The document notes the importance of preventative strategies in addressing childhood behavioural and emotional outcomes.

Youth offenders can be complex and challenging for policymakers and practitioners alike and face higher risk of long-term disadvantage and social marginalisation. In many cases, this marginalisation from the mainstream begins in early life, particularly in the classroom, where they have difficulty both with language/literacy tasks and with the interpersonal demands of the classroom.

While poverty reduction has become a central feature of the international development agenda, the 21st century starts with vast asymmetries in terms of income, access to food, water, health, education, housing, or employment for families. Half of the world’s children are below the international poverty line of $2 a day and suffer from multiple deprivations and violations to basic human rights. More than eight million children die each year (some 22,000 per day), and most of their deaths are preventable. Hunger, malnutrition and lack of safe drinking water contribute to at least half of child mortality. The urgency to address these inequalities cannot be more stressed.

In recognition of a child's social and emotional wellbeing as being an integral element to their overall health, development and wellbeing, this report describes the process of developing a Children's Headline Indicator to measure social and emotional wellbeing. It presents research evidence on the links between social and emotional wellbeing and children's health, development and wellbeing outcomes; assesses potential indicators and data sources; and recommends an indicator of social and emotional wellbeing for Australian children.

The Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development is produced by the Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Development and the Strategic Knowledge Cluster on Early Childhood Development. It is intended for policy-makers, service planners and service providers and for parents.

The recent UNICEF report “Children in Greece 2012” describes the consequences of the financial crisis for Greek children as extremely disappointing. The released data shows that children living below the poverty level amounts to 439,000, and the child poverty rate is estimated at 23%.

The late twentieth century has seen significant changes to our understanding of childhood. Today, there is recognition of the critical role of the child’s perspective to any valid and effective policy, program, community, educational or legislative endeavour that affects their lives. New and developing ideologies such as consumerism and the need to include service user perspectives in the development of social policy and programs have influenced this. However, the greatest influence comes from a deliberate philosophical shift in the conceptualisation of the integrity and position of the child in society, changes in the children’s rights agenda and new approaches within social science and policy.

The report measures the happinness of the world's population and finds that income is one of many factors which explains variation. Income explains approximately one-eighth of variation across countries with other important factors being categorised as social and personal, such as mental health. The report also states that although genes and childhood experiences influence propensity to mental illness, healthcare interventions in childhood as well as later on in life can reverse the course of individuals lives.

A new book by academics at the University of Bristol brings together contributions from leading researchers on international child poverty with the aim of changing policy, action and research to address marginalisation and inequality. The book takes a global view and includes national and regional case studies revealing the extent and nature of child poverty in countries as diverse as Bangladesh, the US, the Congo Brazzaville, Haiti, the UK, Iran, Morocco, South Africa, Tanzania and Vietnam as well as the EU. The book also includes initial findings from UNICEF’s Global Study on Child Poverty and Disparities, currently being conducted in over 50 countries around the world

Armed conflict is robbing 28 million children of an education by exposing them to widespread rape and other sexual violence, targeted attacks on schools and other human rights abuses, UNESCO’s 2011 Global Monitoring Report warns. The Report examines the consequences of conflict for the Education for All goals and sets the agenda for protecting the right to education during conflict, strengthening provision for children, youth and adults affected by conflict, and rebuilding education systems in countries emerging from conflict.

UNESCO commissioned a group of experts to conduct reviews of indicators related to early childhood development, spanning five areas critical to early childhood development health and nutrition, social protection, child development and education, legal protection, and policy and planning. Now published, these reviews provide an inventory of these indicators, as well as recommendations for the content of the Holistic Early Childhood Development Index and will help improve Member States' capacity to monitor progress towards quality early childhood care and education (ECCE).

The profiles draw together information to present a picture of health in each local area in a user-friendly format. They provide a snapshot of child health and well-being for each local authority in England using key health indicators which enables comparison locally, regionally and nationally

The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) is a civil society coalition which calls on governments to act immediately to deliver the right of every girl, boy, woman and man to a free quality public education. In 2011 GCE produced a report based on a global survey of gender in schools which revealed some startling results including that more than one fifth of girls in secondary schools are unhappy with their gender and and nearly two fifths have been made fun of at school for being a girl.

Developed by UNICEF, the UN Global Compact and Save the Children – the Children’s Rights and Business Principles (the Principles) are the first comprehensive set of principles to guide companies on the full range of actions they can take in the workplace, marketplace and community to respect and support children’s rights. While the business and human rights agenda has evolved significantly in recent years, a child rights perspective has not yet been explicitly addressed.

This multimedia resource seeks to support the work of national statistics offices and other actors concerned about the situation of children and adolescents in the region. The tool is an amended version of the 'Bristol indicators' a methodology for measuring child poverty developed in 2003 by UNICEF, the University of Bristol and the London School of Economics and takes a direct, multidimensional measurement of child poverty with a human rights approach in Latin American and Caribbean countries. It complements these results with the measurement of absolute poverty according to household income where the children and adolescents live.

Young children’s development depends critically upon their experiences in the earliest years of life. Children's experiences in the first five years of life can have a dramatic, long-term effect on their lifelong functioning, influencing their readiness for school, the quality of their relationships with others and their ability to grow up to be effective citizens. This has implications for the children and their families as well as the social and economic health of respective countries. This package offers analysis of a range of ECCD projects in Asia Pacific. It seeks to systematically document and evaluate programmes, to share knowledge and disseminate information through evidence based data for the benefit of policy makers, programme developers, parents, education carers, researchers and other interested people involved in developing ECCD programmes.

2011

"There is limited empirical evidence on whether unrestricted cash social assistance to poor pregnant women improves children’s birth outcomes... We conclude that, by improving child health, unrestricted unconditional cash transfers may help break the cycle of intergenerational poverty."

In this paper we analyze the impact an emergency social assistance program, PANES, on school attendance and child labour. The program was carried out in Uruguay from April 2005 to December 2007. Specifically, we analyze the effects of the cash transfer component of the plan (Ingreso Ciudadano), and explore potential explanatory channels such as labour market outcomes, income and awareness of conditionalities.

A new report commissioned by UNICEF and Save the Children UK, and prepared in collaboration with the Overseas Development Institute, brings encouraging news: There has been remarkable progress in children’s well-being throughout the world over the past few decades, and there is a path to extendingthese gains.

In 2011, UNICEF, with support from Reed Elsevier Publishing, commissioned field research in Indonesia, Kiribati, Mongolia, Philippines and Vanuatu to see if there were noticeable patterns and trends of climate change and disaster impacts on children. The studies also included interviews with children and youth to assess their perspectives on climate change. The regional report Children’s Vulnerability to Climate Change and Disaster Impacts in East Asia and the Pacific summarizes key findings from the studies as well as brings together published evidence, along with the perspectives of children, on the potential impact of climate change on children over the course of this century.

The report published by the UN gives estimates of child mortality in all countries in 2010. The Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (IGME) constitutes representatives of the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization, the World Bank and the United Nations Population Division.

According to new data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), 67 million children were out of school globally during the school year ending in 2009 (see Figure 1) . This figure has been falling, especially since 2000, when the international community reinforced commitments to achieve universal primary education [but]“It is increasingly difficult to reach those children who remain excluded from education,” states Kevin Watkins, Director of the Education for All Global Monitoring Report. “Governments must commit not just to achieving national goals, but to seriously tackling disparities based on wealth, location, ethnicity, gender and other markers for disadvantage.

A new study released by Feeding America, found that as many as 17 million children in the US are struggling with food insecurity which is approximate one in four children “living without consistent access to enough nutritious food to live a healthy life.” The study provides an interactive map showing the rates of food insecurity by region.

This Data Snapshot highlights newly available data on the KIDS COUNT Data Center marking the progress made by many states to increase the rates of children in foster care who are living with families and decrease the rates of those placed in institutions or group homes. The data also show that the type of foster care placement varies depending on the age of the child as well as the state of residence.

Official estimates of global poverty (based on levels of consumption) are compiled by the World Bank and stretch back 30 years. The Bank’s most recent estimate is for the year 2005, when 1.37 billion people were believed to be living under the international poverty line of $1.25 a day.

This report examines 80 poor countries in terms of the gains they have made in girls’ education. The report states that the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, India, Iraq, Nigeria and Pakistan are among those countries failing to respect the rights of girls to an education. In sub-Saharan Africa, girls have less than a 50% chance of finishing primary school. In some Asian countries girls also struggle: 41% of girls in Pakistan and 30% in India fail to finish primary school.

The proportion of children enrolled in school has increased at a faster rate in Africa than in any other region of the world. This progress is largely credited to African governments, with support from the international community. However, leadership from the highest levels in African countries is required both to make sufficient resources available for school-system improvements and to ensure that key transition points in the educational process are addressed: early childhood education; foundational skill development in primary school; and employment-relevant schooling thereafter. Leadership is also needed from external partners, including in the aid community, to shift attention to learning, and not just enrolment, for all.

2010

2009

2008

2000-2005

Journals in Childhood Research

Call for Papers

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