unite for children

UNICEFOffice of Research

Gordon AlexanderDirector, UNICEF Office of Research, Florence

Conference on Measurement and Policy Approaches to equity for children, Rabat, 22-23 May 2012

Research priorities to ensure better equity for children

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Outline of today’s presentation

• why equity is important for children in this changing world

• look briefly at 4 complementary approaches to measuring equity for children

• why we need further research that is grounded in country realities and can inform policy

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Clarifying concepts

‘Inequity’ - associated with ‘fairness’ . A working consensus as ‘avoidable inequality’ . The degree of inequality that arises from ‘socially modifiable causes’.

‘Inequality’- a lack of equality, whether in opportunity, income, status or other items we choose to value. About disparities. Can be measured.

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Child Mortality – the fundamental right to survival Trends over time

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

1986 1991 1996 1999 2002 2007

Und

er 5

Mor

talit

y

Survey Year

Wealthiest Average Poorest

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

1988 1992 1995 2000 2003 2005 2008

Und

er 5

Mor

talit

y

Survey Year

Wealthiest Average Poorest

Domenican Republic Egypt

Source: DHS

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Children are particularly dependent on essential services Coverage of interventions for maternal & child health by wealth quintile

Source: Barros et al. 2012

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Revisiting the life-course approach ‘Trajectories’ and ‘Transitions’

Pregnancy & birth

Infancy

Childhood

School age

Adolescence &Youth

Adulthood

Old age

10 years

1 year

5 years

25 years

Nutrition & health packages

Parenting skills programs

Teacher training programs

Birth registration

Family planning programs

Cash transfers Child labour laws

Budget reform

Income generation initiatives

Daycare programs

Girls school enrollment subsidies

Urban safety interventions

Anti discrimination legal frameworks

Political and social movements

Vocation training schemes

Intergenerational allocation policies

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Towards a richer set of indicatorsBuilding from the past to … the future?$1/day monetary poverty measures Non-monetary measures that are

multidimensional

Absolute measures Absolute and Relative

Female participation Female agency

Educational enrollment Quality education and retention

Children and households measured A life course approach

U5 Mortality rate Child wellbeing

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Two Views of Child Poverty

RomaniaLatviaSpain

ItalyJapan

PolandLuxembourg

EstoniaSlovakiaHungary

MaltaGermany

SwitzerlandAustria

DenmarkNorwayCyprusIceland

0 5 10 15 20 25 3025.5

23.118.8

17.817.1

16.015.9

15.414.914.714.5

13.312.312.111.911.7

11.210.9

10.310.2

8.98.88.58.4

8.17.47.37.3

6.56.36.16.16.1

5.34.7

child poverty rate(% of children living in households with equivalent

income lower than 50% of national median)

RomaniaBulgariaHungary

LatviaPortugal

PolandLithuaniaSlovakiaGreece

ItalyEstoniaFrance

BelgiumMalta

GermanyCzech Republic

AustriaSlovenia

SpainCyprus

United KingdomIreland

LuxembourgNetherlands

DenmarkFinlandNorwaySwedenIceland

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

72.656.6

31.931.8

27.420.9

19.819.2

17.213.3

12.410.1

9.18.98.88.88.78.38.1

7.05.54.94.4

2.72.62.51.91.30.9

child deprivation(% of children lacking two or more items)

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Making the link to Policy

• cannot be too many indicators• analytical frame has to be robust• have to be simple (simple enough so that they are understood by

even finance ministers!)• ‘Something to catch hold of … by the policy and political community’

‘the level achieved, on any individual indicator, by the children of the poorest 20%’.

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For today and tomorrow’s discussion

• What do we need to understand better in terms of ‘pathways’ and ‘drivers’ of inequality?

• Can we set out a consistent model of monitoring child wellbeing across countries- a sufficiently rich set of indicators to capture the situation of children but not to get overwhelmed by complexity?

• For hard hitting policy change, we need to agree on a small set of telling indicators

• There are no trade-offs in reducing inequality for children

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Distal Proximate

Structural Determinants Macro environment

Micro environment

Individual Shocks

Economic statusHow to scale up pro-poor projects to national policies?

Human RightsHow to empower rights holders?

GovernanceHow can we strengthen governance mechanisms in a decentralizing environment?

Gender inequalityWhat are the linkages between gender equity programs and strategies focused on new norms and standards for children?

Examples of interventionsHow do we prioritize across effective interventions?

•Poverty alleviation strategies•Budget reform

•Employment guarantee schemes•Education policies to support girls

•Cash transfers•Birth registration•Family planning programs

•Humanitarian assistance programs

Poverty Urban/Rural migration

Catastrophic Health

Expenditures

Control over fertility

Drought

Conflict

Income Distribution

Corruption

Human Rights Institutions

Social norms and culture

- Empirical analysis

- Rooted in evidence

- Reflective & contextualised

Examples of drivers, questions and interventions are illustrative

Determinants analysis addressing core issues affecting child wellbeing