Innocenti Working Papers

After two decades of transition the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States face an increasingly diverse mix of old and new policy challenges to improving child well-being and realizing children‟s rights. While attempts have been made to reflect these challenges and diversities by constructing indices of child wellbeing, which measure and rank overall performance by individual countries, this paper proposes a simplified approach which examines five different dimensions of child wellbeing separately, using several indicators for each dimension which allow cross-country comparison. The dimensions included in the analysis are income, health, education, housing and deprivation of parental up-bringing. The results highlight a divergence of child well-being priorities in the selected dimensions for the different countries and for different age groups of children. The analysis shows that in the 2000-2008 period the situation of children improved in absolute terms in almost all dimensions in all countries, but that government interventions still face difficulties in reaching all children, and that across the region there are increasing differences in the character of problems facing the more vulnerable sections of the child population. The discussion shows that it is difficult to rank countries according to an overall level of child well-being, since performance varies significantly according to the choice of dimension or indicator considered. An overall index cannot therefore capture the open challenges, and indeed may distract policy attention away from them. The approach used in this paper shows that each country faces challenges which can be tackled only if they are monitored and fully understood with clear and meaningful indicators, analyzed individually and in their interaction.

There were 1.5 million documented foreigners living in Switzerland in 2000. This represented 20 per cent of the resident population, which is one of the highest shares of foreign residents within any country in Europe. Switzerland may be described as a country of immigrants because of significant inflows: of the resident population aged 15 and above, 23 per cent are foreign born. At the 2000 census, of the 1,442,000 children 0 to 17 years of age living in families in Switzerland, approximately 39 per cent (559,000) were members of families of foreign origin with at least one foreign-born parent. The countries of origin of 52 per cent of these families were outside the European Union. The 2000 census enumerated 350,000 children resident in Switzerland who were foreign citizens.

According to 2001 Census data more than 900,000 children aged 0–17, 10 per cent of all children in Italy, were born abroad or had at least one parent who was born abroad. One or both of the parents of about 500,000 children in immigrant families were born in less developed countries. Children now account for almost 23 per cent of the foreign population. In this report, we have analysed household composition and wellbeing of children in immigrant families with 2001 Italian Census data and 2006 survey data. Inclusion and other social issues are reviewed through the most recent literature.

In 2005, 4.9 million immigrants were residing in metropolitan France. This was 8.1 per cent of the population. Children of immigrants represent close to one fifth of all children. Children with at least one parent from Algeria, Morocco, or Tunisia make up almost 40 per cent of these children, and children of sub-Saharan African origin make up one eighth. Of the 3.5 million foreigners living in France in 2004, 450,000 were children 0–17 whose parents were foreign born.

This paper adds a perspective to existing research on child protection by engaging in a debate on intersectional discrimination and its relationship to child protection. The paper has a twofold objective, (1) to further establish intersectionality as a concept to address discrimination against children, and (2) to illustrate the importance of addressing intersectionality within rights-based programmes of child protection. First, the paper applies the concept of intersectionality within a children‟s context. Intersectionality and intersectional discrimination are concepts used to describe the situation where multiple grounds of discrimination operate at the same time, for example when Romani girls experience harassment and abuse on the basis of their gender and ethnic origin in combination. Using the example of Romani children, the paper sheds light on the complex ways in which children are denied the equal enjoyment of their rights and freedoms because of discrimination against them on the basis of their age in combination with gender, ethnicity, disability, national status, economic status and other grounds. The analysis illustrates how intersectional discrimination takes various forms, such as discrimination within laws and policies or by state authorities (structural intersectionality), and discrimination in political and public forums for participation (political and representational intersectionality). These forms of discrimination can be intentional or unintentional in character, the latter resulting when an apparently neutral provision or practice is discriminatory in its effects. The analysis further distinguishes between the external sphere (state and society) and the internal sphere (family and community) where children experience interrelated forms of discrimination, and shows how this increases the disempowerment of the child. It is argued that in order to protect the human dignity of all children on an equal footing, existing human rights law must be interpreted and assessed in a way that cuts across traditionally separated legal categories. Furthermore, in order to fully address violations against the rights of the child, legal provisions are necessary that directly target intersectional discrimination. Secondly, a concrete illustration is presented of addressing intersectionality within programmes for child protection, using the example of rights-based programming to prevent and respond to child trafficking. Through a focus on the impact that discrimination has on children‟s rights, the importance is underlined of giving systematic and comprehensive attention to children‟s vulnerability to intersectional discrimination within anti-trafficking programming. The analysis shows that Romani children, and many other children who experience discrimination on interrelated grounds, have difficulties in accessing their entitlements to a broad range of human rights. These include legal guarantees and procedural rights, information, education, participation, health and social assistance, and identity rights. Consequently these children‟s access to anti-trafficking measures is affected, since the prevention of child trafficking, and protection and empowerment of children, essentially depend upon the enacting of these key child rights. Furthermore, when anti-trafficking measures do not take issues of intersectionality into account they may unintentionally reproduce the exclusion of those children who are vulnerable to intersectional discrimination. On this basis, the paper highlights areas where intersectional discrimination can be addressed within programming against child-trafficking in order to ensure the full and equal protection of all children. The recommendations hold relevance for child protection programming more widely. The main recommendation is to adopt holistic intersectional approaches within the international field of human rights. This requires comprehensive research and the systematic collection of data on which children are vulnerable to such forms of discrimination and in which sectors it occurs. Research should be conducted with children to get a nuanced insight into these issues, and to better understand children‟s reality. A holistic intersectional approach also includes identification of good practices and capacity building of professionals and institutions involved in child protection on diversity and discrimination issues. This includes establishing forums for dialogue to target discriminatory practices in society, including among children themselves, so that children do not reproduce discriminatory attitudes dominant in society. At the same time, children and adolescents who experience discrimination on interrelated grounds, namely intersectional discrimination, should be consulted and involved in developing policies and programmes that address discrimination It is important to interpret traditionally separated areas of human rights law in closer relation to each other, as well as to develop new legal provisions and political commitments that directly target intersectional discrimination. The concepts of structural, political and representational intersectionality and internal/external intersectionalities serve in this paper to distinguish between the different forms of discrimination affecting children and thus to identify the particular measures needed to address these issues.

The paper provides an overview and analysis of the initial steps for the establishment process of a separate children‟s ombudsman in Turkey. It examines the legal, political and social reasons why an ombudsman for children would be needed in the country. Specifically, it analyses Turkey‟s legal framework and international obligations, concluding that lack of implementation of the law and monitoring of children‟s rights are the main challenges. Children have disproportionately high rates of poverty, and are often victims of various forms of violence, in particular girls. The political structure of the country is affected by significant tensions, especially with regard to the place of religion in the public sphere. Moreover, civil society is quite weak. A law for a general ombudsman has been adopted by the Turkish Grand National Assembly but recently cancelled by the Constitutional Court. The paper analyses the possible reasons for the stalemate and looks at the text of the law from a child rights perspective. Drawing lessons from the foregoing, the study assesses the goals, risks and opportunities of the establishment process. It focuses on the need to build consensus on the objectives of the institution, ensure its independence, and implement the establishment process with the participation of key actors, including children. The study concludes with a set of recommendations.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child has been one of the main instigators for the development of independent human rights institutions for the promotion and protection of children‟s rights. Relying on article 4 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, it adopted a general comment on this issue in 2002, and now consistently encourages State parties to establish or strengthen such institutions in its concluding observations. Efforts have been made recently with human rights treaty bodies to enhance the involvement of independent institutions at each stage of the reporting process. For independent institutions specifically in charge of monitoring children‟s rights, this implies an important contribution to the work of the Committee. Their status of independence from their government in the reporting process has been emphasized and some institutions submit a separate report to the Committee. Importantly, institutions have a critical role to play in the follow-up and monitoring of the implementation of the concluding observations of the Committee. Finally, there are other instances where independent institutions can interact with the Committee, beyond the reporting process. These include days of general discussion, the drafting of general comments, and support to campaigns such as the campaign for a CRC complaints mechanism. In conclusion, both the Committee and independent institutions can significantly build on each other to strengthen their capacity to promote the realization of children‟s rights.

This paper identifies and evaluates qualitative methods appropriate for use in conducting policy-relevant research on the experiences, motivations, agency and life histories of autonomous and semi-autonomous children and adolescents, including those who migrate independently of parents and adult guardians. First, the paper presents an overview of qualitative research practice and the potential for qualitative research to extend and deepen knowledge of children’s varied and independently negotiated life circumstances. It is argued that qualitative approaches are necessary to understand and meaningfully respond to the experiences of diverse physical, social and cultural environments. Research ethics are discussed from several points of view, highlighting both the importance of maintaining, and difficulty of defining, ethical engagement with subjects whose vulnerabilities and capabilities are manifest in ways that unsettle many traditional conceptions of children. The second, longer section of the paper presents illustrative examples of qualitative research techniques. An illustrated inventory of research tools is presented with seven categories: surveys; interviews and focus groups; observation and participant observation; life histories and biographical methods; visual and textual methods; performance, play and arts-based methods; and virtual and computer-aided methods. Particular attention is given to practical details of field research, including subject recruitment/sampling, research setting, facilitation of interaction with subjects through intermediary contacts and organizations, and the specific steps taken to collect qualitative data. The concluding section synthesizes the information presented and provides guidance on how to incorporate qualitative methods, and qualitative methodologies, into research on children who live independently of parents and adult guardians or who exercise autonomy in more limited contexts.

At the first World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (Stockholm, 1996), governments of 119 countries, together with UN agencies, NGOs and other organizations and individuals, adopted a Declaration and Agenda for Action that committed them to: a) Promote the participation of children, including child victims, young people, their families, peers and others who are potential helpers of children so that they are able to express their views and to take action to prevent and protect children from commercial sexual exploitation and to assist child victims to be reintegrated into society; and b) I dentify or establish and support networks of children and young people as advocates of child rights, and include children, according to their evolving capacity, in developing and implementing government and other programmes concerning them. The 2nd World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (Yokohama, 2001) followed up on efforts to strengthen the commitments made in Stockholm. It also included regional commitments, statements and declarations. World Congress III against Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents takes place in Rio de Janeiro from 25 to 28 November 2008, and it aims to promote a broader agenda on children’s civil rights and children’s active role as citizens. Child protection is a focus of research, policy and programming in UNICEF as well as other UN agencies, NGOs and governments. Results of this work have helped a range of partners identify and reach the most vulnerable children and protect all children from abuse and exploitation. Together with partners, UNICEF has promoted children’s participation in a number of ways. Examples include the UN Secretary-General’s Study on Violence against Children in 2006 and its follow up, as well as UNICEF’s engagement with the Committee on the Rights of the Child in its deliberations over the decision to develop a General Comment on article 12, which will address the right to be heard. A ‘Day of General Discussion on the Rights of the Child to be Heard’ was held by the Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2006. These efforts support government decisions and actions to be informed by children’s and adolescents’ realities and recommendations. This paper presents an overview of government commitments to strengthen participation by children and adolescents to protect them from sexual abuse and exploitation. It also considers concrete recommendations for strengthening young people’s involvement in their own protection, based on their recommendations about what is needed to realize the Stockholm Declaration and Agenda for Action. Other useful inputs include case studies that offer new perspectives on children’s and adolescents’ participation to combat sexual exploitation and abuse. The paper provides recommendations for further research, policy development and programming intended to support advocacy and practice developments with and by children and adolescents. These are aimed at furthering achievement of their protection and participation rights during and after World Congress III. The paper calls for governments, UN agencies and NGOs to promote children’s civil rights and recognize their agency and the diversity of childhood experiences. It highlights the importance of strengthening child protection systems, developing and strengthening child-led groups and networks, and creating processes and mechanisms for children to access information, express their views, participate in practice and policy matters concerning them and gain feedback. It further highlights the need for better implementation of international standards that recognize and promote children’s participation and encourage special efforts to address discrimination and involve the most marginalized girls and boys.

One of the core requirements of the Convention on the Rights of the Child is that States Parties should undertake all necessary and appropriate measures to implement the rights recognized therein. However, the implementation of economic, social and cultural rights is a particular challenge for the discretionary power of the State Party because it has to determine what the available resources are. The Committee encourages “other competent bodies” and NGOs to have an active role in effective implementation of the Convention. This opens the way for independent monitoring bodies such as IHRICs, to provide expert advice on implementation. This paper discusses the need for such bodies, their role, possible mandate and powers, guiding principles, as well as the problems of financing and independence. A fundamental feature of the activities of IHRICs is the participation of civil society and children themselves.

In comparison to the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) systems of many other advanced economies the German system can be characterised as relative uniform, when looking at programmes and providers. But in other ways, there are considerable variations. There are considerate regional differences in governance, funding, and attendance rates, in particular with respect to certain socio-economic groups. This paper describes and evaluates these differences, mainly from an economic perspective and also taking child well-being into account. In Germany (a federal republic of 16 states) the federal government has legislative and organizational authority over the area of child and youth welfare, including ECEC services. Nevertheless, the provision and financing of programmes are a state and municipality responsibility, for which the later must plan and ensure the provision of ECEC services. Within this framework the federal government recently set the political goal of increasing the supply of ECEC places for children below the age of three to 35 per cent by 2013. This is the first time ever that the federal government has made a concrete commitment to allocate federal funds to the sector, given the federal framework special means had to be found to do so.

The aim of this text is to provide a review of the literature and current policies of early childhood education and care in the economically most advanced countries of the world. The introductory chapter 1 provides some basic definitions: what is meant by ‘early childhood services’ both in the narrow sense of care and education services for young children (family day care, childcare centres, pre-primary educational services, integrated services, etc.) and in the wider sense of services supporting the holistic development of young children. Beyond early care and education, other services that support the broad development of young children are policies that sustain parents and parenting, parental leave, family-friendly policies, infant health services and policies that reduce child and family poverty. Explanations are also provided about the age notation used in this paper, and the meaning of the term ‘rich countries’. The section ends with five charts that provide the reader with a rapid overview of key elements of early childhood systems in the rich countries: investment by the countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in early childhood services; maternity, paternity and parental leave entitlements; effective parental leave provision across OECD countries; the main institutional forms of early childhood services in the participating countries, and entitlements by age to early childhood services across selected OECD countries. Chapter 2 addresses the question of the rights and well-being of young children. Information is drawn from five main texts: the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989); General Comment No. 7 issued by the Committee on the Rights of the Child (2006); Innocenti Report Card 4, ‘A League Table of Educational Disadvantage in Rich Nations (2002); Innocenti Report Card 6, ‘Child Poverty in Rich Countries’ (2005); and Innocenti Report Card 7, ‘Child Poverty in Perspective: An Overview of Child Well-being in Rich Countries’ (2007). A strong message coming from these reports is how greatly government social policies and income transfers can alleviate family poverty and lessen its impact on the health, well-being and educational outcomes of young children. Chapter 3 explores the economic and social context of children’s services, and seek to explain the contemporary focus on the upbringing and education of young children. Three profound changes are challenging traditional views of childhood and child-rearing: the changing socio-economic role of women; the changing demography and population diversity of rich countries; and third, the new education ideology with its focus on social equity and preparation for school. The chapter discusses different approaches adopted by countries towards the new challenges posed by these changes, and outlines some of the impacts of upstream socio-economic policies on families and young children. It points also to a certain ‘path dependency’ adopted by different groups of countries in their manner of conceptualizing and organizing early childhood services, stemming from their traditional politicoeconomic structures. Chapter 4 provides a rationale for substantial state investment in early childhood services. It lists and briefly describes some 16 research analyses from 10 different countries showing the benefits generated by early childhood programmes. The research studies are grouped under two headings: analyses showing economic and labour market returns from investment and analyses showing educational returns from investment. The section summary concludes that strong social, economic and education rationales exist in favour of establishing and maintaining national networks of early childhood services, on the condition that these systems aim for and achieve high quality. Some doubts remain, however, concerning the appropriate age at which young children should begin day-long, out-of-home care, and for how long children should stay in out-of-home care during the day. Chapter 5 recalls briefly the promise that participation in high-quality early childhood services holds for the individual child and at a wider level, for society as a whole. Such high-quality services provide significant support to education systems, social policy, gender equality and economies as a whole. The ability to boost the female employment rate from a level of 61.5 per cent (the OECD average) to a participation rate of 76.2 per cent (the case of Denmark) is a powerful stimulus both to the economy and to household budgets. In parallel, the contribution of early childhood services to later achievement in education is of major importance. The chapter goes on to summarize how countries have responded to this promise. In particular, the following themes are examined: the greatly improved access to services for children 3-6 years in almost all countries; the steadily improving regulation and support for quality, and the merits and demerits of establishing targeted programmes for children at risk. Finally, a discussion on the funding of early childhood services is engaged; it evaluates the level of the financial commitments made by countries to early childhood services and the modes of financing that they employ. A short conclusion proposes a dynamic social market model that brings together the dynamism and choice that market approaches can present with the strong investment, effective control and equity in access that public systems have traditionally offered in several countries. Further research is needed on how to create effective social markets, that is, networks of mixed provision in which choice and innovation exist, while maintaining equity and a sense of national and community responsibility for essential services. Widely different levels of purchasing power may be acceptable in the case of commodities or personal convenience, but in the fields of public health and education, they can undermine equity and social solidarity. The UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre and the OECD Social Policy Division have reviewed the initial draft of the analysis. Several early childhood experts and senior early childhood administrators from OECD countries also made helpful comments, and their assistance is gratefully acknowledged. The paper is complemented by Bennett, J. (2008), ‘Benchmarks for Early Childhood Services in OECD Countries’, Innocenti Working Paper No. 2008-02.

This paper presents a summary of the findings of the national and subnational surveys on child injury in this series and discusses implications of the results for child health policy and programmes. The principal finding is that injury has been largely 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 that the types of injury vary with the age group of the child. Similar convincing evidence shows that injury is a leading cause of serious morbidity and permanent disability in children and that the types of injury with these outcomes also vary with the age of the child. The implications discussed are (1) an effective measure of child mortality needs to be developed to include 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) since drowning is the single injury cause responsible for about half of all injury deaths, targeting it for reduction would be an efficient strategy; and (5) there are efficient strategies for targeting other subtypes of child injury as well.

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 used in making the previous estimates of 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 for non-technical readers.

An accumulation of research across hundreds of studies shows the benefits of quality early childhood care and education for children’s later learning, school success and social development. In recognition of the value of providing early learning opportunities, many nations have expanded early childhood care and education in recent years. Mexico provides an interesting case in which expansion of early childhood care and education has occurred in the past 5 years, as have initiatives to improve quality and revise the national curriculum for preschoolers. This paper examines three policy initiatives that occurred in Mexico between 2000 and 2006 – preschool expansion, quality improvement and curricular reform. The preschool expansion included a mandate for all parents in Mexico to send their preschool-aged children (3, 4 and 5 years old) to preschool, with target dates of 2004, 2005 and 2008 for 100 per cent coverage of 5-year-olds, 4-yeaolds and 3-year-olds, respectively. The quality improvement initiative was part of a larger programme providing supplemental funds to select preschools and schools in Mexico’s public education system. Finally, the curricular reform instituted a new preschool curriculum to be implemented nationwide for all programmes across the 3- to 5-year-old age range. We utilize a combination of national data and synthesis of existing studies to review each policy according to the three dimensions of coverage, quality and equity. We find that the preschool mandate resulted in rapid increases in enrolment. In 2005, 98 per cent of 5-year-olds, 81 per cent of 4-year-olds and 25 per cent of 3-year-olds were enrolled in preschool. The greatest increases occurred among 4- year-olds. A consequence of the rapid increase for 4-year-olds was that coverage for 3-year-olds actually declined in approximately half of the Mexican states. The slow progress in enrolment of 3- year-olds is seen to be affected also by reluctance on the part of parents. We draw attention to the international discussion on how best to respond to the development needs of children around the age of three and suggest alternatives to centre, education-based systems. Although national averages of class size did not increase significantly, the proportion of preschools with average student-adult ratio of 30 or more did rise significantly in the general, CENDI, indigenous and CONAFE systems. In the general system (the largest system), the increase in proportion of preschools with average ratio of 30 or more from 12 per cent in 2001 to 18 per cent in 2005. The average increase in these structural indicators of quality was relatively small due to increases in numbers of preschools, particularly in urban areas. The impact of the mandate on other aspects of quality is unclear. The quality improvement initiative affected a relatively small number of preschools. In addition, the preschools that received quality improvement funds in the first 2 years of the programme were relatively larger and had more resources to begin with than other preschools. The national curricular reform was created after a comprehensive process of obtaining input from teachers, directors and early education officials from across all the Mexican states. This process resulted in the implementation of an open curriculum based on comprehensive notions of the multiple domains of competencies in early childhood development. The curriculum requires high levels of teacher initiative and reflective practice. We provide information regarding how teachers, principals and other educators have responded to this demanding and challenging curriculum. The paper concludes with policy options in each of the areas of preschool expansion, quality improvement and curricular reform. More funding is needed particularly targeted to ECCE services in poor and vulnerable communities, to support teachers achieve their licenciatura, to address the needs of preschools with very large student:teacher ratios and to develop strong systems of monitoring and research for the continuous adaptation of the system, particularly with respect to equity in access to quality services.

The paper reflects on the potential of the OECD DAC creditor reporting system to systematically capture flows of official development assistance (ODA) in support of realising children’s rights. The growth in modalities for delivering aid, including sector programmes, SWAP’s, dedicated funds which encompass public-private partnerships such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, as well as the OECD-DAC commitment to promote harmonization and simplification in provision of ODA and promote government ownership through general budget support raises challenges to assessing ODA for children. The question also needs asking whether singling out and measuring direct assistance to children is meaningful. The paper goes on to analyse ODA trends for basic social services. It shows that ODA to basic social services as a proportion of total ODA has been on an upward trend during the 1995-2004 period, particularly since 2000, the year in which the Millennium Summit set out the Millennium Agenda including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and further boosted by the Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development. It shows that ODA to combat HIV and address AIDS infections has increased rapidly since 2000, but does not alone explain the overall increased aid share for basic social services. The analysis further confirms that social sector programmes and sector wide approaches (SWAP’s) are on the rise but still account only form a small portion of total ODA to basic social services although a number of such programmes are targeted specifically to basic services.

This paper is produced alongside Innocenti Report Card 7 Child Well-being in Rich Countries. It provides more detail on how the indicators were chosen for the Report Card, and how they were combined into components and then into dimensions. It also provides additional analysis to complement the Report Card. We started working on this topic in reaction to the cautious approach to indicator development of the Indicators Sub Committee of the European Union Social Protection Committee. The so-called Laeken Primary and Secondary Indicators are not well adjusted to capture children’s well-being and currently only contain child breakdowns for a relative poverty measure and jobless households. Although in the report by Professor Tony Atkinson and colleagues prepared for the Luxembourg Presidency (Atkinson et al., 2005) there was a proposal that children should be ‘mainstreamed’, it was suggested (by the Head of Eurostat) that only one child-related indicator should be added to the Laeken Primary Indicators – on educational achievement. Our aspiration was to demonstrate that much more was possible using already available data. So during the UK Presidency of the EU we set about building an index of child well-being that will be published in Social Indicators Research (Bradshaw, Hoelscher and Richardson, 2006). The EU index is different to the analysis developed in this paper mainly because it exploits European data sources not available for OECD countries. This paper begins in Section 1 with a background review of previous conceptualisations of child wellbeing. Then in Section 2 we develop a framework for the analysis drawing on a rights-based approach; notions of creating of well-being; and ideas about children’s interaction with their environment. Section 3 reviews the methods employed in developing the dimensions. Section 4 presents the results for each dimension. Section 5 is a concluding discussion. There is an appendix containing the raw data.

This paper examines poverty in recent years among children in the countries of South Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States. The indicator used to measure poverty – current household consumption tested against an absolute poverty threshold of US $2.15 converted at Purchasing Power Parity exchange rates – is found to be robust to sensitivity testing, and to correlate well with non-income indicators of well-being among children. The absolute poverty rate among children is highest where national income is lowest, and where the density of children in the population is highest. The paper analyses two dimensions of child poverty – according to household composition, and according to its urban, rural and regional dimensions. The most important findings from a policy point of view are the strong rural character of child poverty, and the relationship between child population density (at the level of the country, the sub-national region, and the household) and child poverty: where child population shares are higher, child poverty rates are also higher. This relationship, moreover, may have strengthened over time. Child population density needs to be seen more as a trigger to redistribution. In addition, the analysis finds that in some countries, poverty among children of single parents is reduced by their particular patterns of migration and remittance’s flows. However, parental migration to economically support children raises important questions about material wellbeing in relation to other aspects of child well-being. These warrant further analysis.

We compare three EU countries that have recently experienced substantial but very different reforms of their systems to support families with children: Austria, Spain and the United Kingdom. The structure of these systems is different: Austria gives emphasis to universal benefits, Spain to tax concessions and the United Kingdom to means-tested benefits. As a first step the paper compares the distributional implications of these three approaches. The recent reforms have reinforced these existing structures while increasing the amount of public resources directed towards children. The second step is to address the question whether the chosen strategies are the best for each country. What would have happened if instead of reinforcing the existing types of policies these countries had completely transformed the architecture of their systems in either of the other two directions? We use EUROMOD - the European tax-benefit microsimulation model that is designed for making cross-country comparisons and for answering ‘what if’ questions such as these – to explore the effects of alternative budget-neutral reforms. In particular, in addition to assessing the effects of countries’ actual child related reforms from 1998 to 2003, we simulate the substitution (‘swap’) of child related benefits and tax concessions from one country to another. The changes in household disposable income resulting from these reforms are used to assess their impact on the position of children in the income distribution as a whole, the proportions gaining and losing and the effects on child poverty. The analysis of the 1998 and 2003 systems reveal that, in real terms, the average spending per child increased by 31 per cent in Austria (from €169 to €220 per month), 150 per cent in Spain (from €13 to €34), and 71 per cent in the UK (€102 to €174). In Austria and the UK the increase in spending per child is relatively evenly spread over the income distribution, with a slightly lower increase at the top. In Spain the rise in per child spending in the two bottom deciles is negligible, whereas children in the top quintile receive on average more than ten times as much under the 2003 rules as under the 1998 rules. Child poverty rates fall in all countries, but the reductions are particularly significant in the UK (from 32% to 20%) and Austria (12% to 9%). The swap of 2003 child policies allows us to draw some conclusions about the three systems regardless of the country in which they are implemented. On vertical equity grounds, UK policies are the most successful at reducing child poverty in all three countries and using a range of proportions of the median as poverty thresholds. In terms of horizontal equity, the Austrian system generates the highest redistribution from childless individuals to families with children and guarantees, in all countries, the right to a similar level of protection for all children regardless their parent’s income position. On the other hand, with a low expenditure level and a pro-rich distribution, the Spanish policies can hardly meet any equity objective. While there are some important aspects that have not been considered in this study, for example the effect of the alternative systems on parental work incentives and on benefit take-up rates, and the role of in-kind benefits, this study demonstrates the potential of comparing systems of support by ‘swapping’ them between countries. This method using microsimulation allows us to distinguish between the effects of level of spending, the relative importance of policy structure and design, and the differential impacts of policies in particular national contexts.

This paper considers three groups of children affected by international migration: (i) children left behind by international labour migrants from the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand; (ii) children of Thai nationals in Japan; and (iii) children brought along by irregular migrants in Malaysia and Thailand. Based on the limited data available from published sources, the paper constructs preliminary estimates of numbers of children involved. It then synthesizes available evidence on problems and opportunities faced by the children, and on policies towards them. There are, however, important gaps in the available evidence. The paper identifies these gaps, and suggests ways in which they might be filled. The paper also makes policy recommendations. The growth of international migration in Southeast Asia has affected significant numbers of children. Some necessarily crude calculations suggest that 3-6 million children have been left behind by Filipino parents working overseas; the equivalent figure for Indonesia is something like one million, and for Thailand half a million. These numbers imply that roughly 10-20 per cent of Filipino children, and 2-3 per cent of Indonesian and Thai children, have a parent overseas. Based on good evidence from the Philippines, and scattered evidence from Indonesia and Thailand, it appears that (i) migration of parents improves the material conditions of the children left behind, which probably flows through to children’s health and schooling, and (ii) the social costs are strongly mitigated by the involvement of the extended family. In the Philippines, but less so in Indonesia and Thailand, governmental and non-governmental organizations already provide a range of services for children and migrants. Meanwhile, in Thailand, there are over 100,000 children of undocumented migrants from Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos. There are tens or perhaps hundreds of thousands of children of Indonesian migrants in Malaysia. Scattered evidence suggests that these children face much greater difficulties than the children left at home by Filipino, Indonesia, and Thai workers. The children brought along to Thailand and Malaysia appear to be significantly poorer than other children in their host countries, and to have limited access to social services. In Thailand, however, current efforts to register foreign workers and their dependants may lead to improved access, at least in the short term. A number of practical, low-cost policies to address the problems of children left behind by labour migrants from Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines have been suggested or implemented. If further research were to show that particular subgroups, such as those with both parents overseas, suffered special disadvantages, then high-cost interventions for these subgroups might be justified. However, more general high-cost interventions covering all children left behind by labour migrants are not justified on current evidence, since this evidence suggests that children do not appear, on average, to face greater difficulties than other children in the same societies. Attention should instead be focused on children brought along by undocumented migrants. Thailand’s current registration campaigns represent a major policy experiment, and the effects on children need to be carefully monitored. Regulations governing the entry and exit of migrants strongly influence family migration strategies and the ability of parents to maintain contact with their children. These affects need to be taken into account when regulations are designed. For policy purposes, the most important gaps in current knowledge about children left behind by labour migrants probably concern differences among children. For instance, there is still no conclusive evidence on whether children with absent mothers suffer more problems than children with absent fathers. A sensible first stage in filling this gap would be to exploit existing household survey data. Most published research dealing with children of undocumented migrants in Thailand consists of small-scale studies of highly disadvantaged groups such as sex workers. There have been few studies looking at mainstream migrants, or comparing migrants with the surrounding population. The best way to begin such research would be to exploit existing data from the Kanchanaburi Field Station. In Malaysia, a promising source on children of Indonesian migrants is ethnographic work carried out by Malaysian students. More generally, there is a need for research on how immigration regulations affect family migration strategies and the well-being of the children.

This paper offers a descriptive portrait of income poverty among children in Germany between the early 1980s and 2001, with a focus on developments since unification in 1991. Data from the German Socio-Economic Panel are used to estimate poverty rates, rates of entry to and exit from poverty, and the duration of time spent in and out of poverty. The analysis focuses upon comparisons between East and West Germany, by family structure, and citizenship status. Child poverty rates have drifted upward since 1991, and have been increasing more than the rates for the overall population since the mid-1990s. In part these changes are due to increasing poverty among children from households headed by noncitizens. Children in single parent households are by all measures at considerable risk of living in poverty. There are also substantial differences in the incidence of child poverty and its dynamics between East and West Germany.

This paper documents levels and changes in child poverty rates in 12 OECD countries using data from the Luxembourg Income Study project, and focusing upon an analysis of the reasons for changes over the 1990s. The objective is to uncover the relative role of income transfers from the state in determining the magnitude and direction of change in child poverty rates, holding other demographic and labour market factors constant. As such the paper offers a cross-country overview of child poverty, changes in child poverty and the impact of public policy in North America and Europe. The paper offers a set of country specific results, and also attempts to draw general lessons. First, family and demographic forces play only a limited role in determining changes in child poverty rates. These forces change only gradually and are limited in their ability to cushion children from detrimental shocks originating in the labour market or in the government sector, which are the sources of the major forces determining the direction of change in child poverty. Second, in countries facing severe economic crises it does not appear that the amount of social transfers available were increased in a way to cushion children from these changes and put a backstop on their risk of low income. Indeed, just the opposite appears to have occurred in countries experiencing the largest increases in child poverty. Third, there is no single road to lower child poverty rates. Changes in income transfers need to be thought through in conjunction with the nature of labour markets. Reforms intended to increase the labour supply and labour market engagement of adults may or may not end up lowering child poverty rates. At the same time increases in the level of support have also been shown to be a central ingredient in lowering the child poverty rate both when it is very high and when it is already quite low. In the majority of the countries analyzed there has been little progress in reducing child poverty rates. Child poverty unambiguously fell in only three of the twelve countries under study, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Norway. In the remaining seven countries child poverty rates were essentially unchanged since 1990 or rose significantly. The analytical approach does not aim to consider the behavioural interactions between the various variables on incomes. Nonetheless the analysis might be seen as a starting point for discussions of the extent to which children in some relatively rich countries have experienced changes in the risk of living in low income given the standards prevailing during the late 1980s and early 1990s.