Viet Nam high-level conference: Translating child poverty research into concrete policy options - November 26-27, 2009

Viet Nam has made tremendous progress in reducing its poverty rate in a remarkably short time. With the Government now preparing its next Socio-Economic Development Strategy (2011-2020) and Socio-Economic Development Plan (2011-2015), it is now very timely for the Government to revise its poverty reduction approach in order to ensure it is relevant and appropriate to reducing/eliminating all forms of poverty, including multi-dimensional child poverty.

The Government of Viet Nam, under the leadership of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Planning and Investment, together with UNICEF will organize a high level conference entitled “Rethinking child poverty: what policy options for Viet Nam?” in Hanoi on November 26-27, 2009. This conference seeks to reach high-level consensus and support to integrate a multi-dimensional child poverty approach into the national policy response in Viet Nam, with a particular focus on socio-economic development plans, national poverty reduction policies and strategies in the country. It will bring together new evidence and analysis from Viet Nam and other countries and encourage focused discussion around key policy issues and options on how policies can most effectively eliminate child poverty and reduce disparities in an integrated and comprehensive manner, especially in the public policy process of planning, targeting, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation and analysis.

The conference expects to contribute to a common understanding among policy makers of the new multidimensional approach to and measurements of child poverty; better knowledge of opportunities and constraints/gaps for reducing child poverty and disparities within Viet Nam's existing policy initiatives relevant to poverty reduction; concrete ideas and recommendations to strengthen Viet Nam's efforts on reduction of child poverty. The conference program will first address the current State of the Art on conceptualising and measuring child poverty, globally and in Viet Nam. It will then examine the gaps in existing policies with a focus on socio-economic and poverty reduction policies in Viet Nam. The conference will also discuss relevant international experiences and good examples, which can assist Viet Nam in addressing remaining challenges in order to achieve the necessary policy changes to reduce child poverty. It will feature presentations and discussion by both international and national experts in various areas.

Focal Points: For more information on the conference, or to express your interest in participating, please contact Geeta Narayan at gnarayan@unicef.org or Paul Quarles van Ufford at pqvanufford@unicef.org

More countries joining the Global Study on Child Poverty and Disparities

The number of countries participating in the Global Study on Child Poverty and Disparities is growing, currently there are 49 countries that form part of this initiative. The latest countries to officially join are Vanuatu, Lesotho and the Indian Ocean Islands of Comoros, Seychelles, La Reunion and Mauritius which alongside Madagascar are under the guidance of the Indian Ocean Commission.

These new countries as well as the others are reminded of resources available to them, such as peer review of their reports, joining discussions on the Child Poverty Network and the common Global Study Visual Identity that can be applied to their reports and other communication material.

We welcome these new countries on board!

Focal Point: Sharmila Kurukulasuriya

Peter Townsend: April 6, 1928 - June 7, 2009

[From UNICEF's Press Center]

Professor Peter Townsend, a champion for children everywhere, passed away on 7 June 2009. Until his life’s end, Professor Townsend sustained his outrage at the inequalities in the world, inequalities that condemn millions of children to suffer deprivations that violate their basic rights to survival and development. He advocated fiercely and continuously for the right of every child, whether from a poor country or a rich country, to social security and an adequate standard of living. He used his considerable intellect to research innovative sources of financing for a universal child benefit—a grant for all children everywhere—and seized every opportunity to press the measure as both morally just and economically feasible.

In the course of his life, Professor Townsend influenced many people and institutions, but the research he led, with David Gordon of Bristol University, Child Poverty in the Developing World, (2003) transformed the way UNICEF and many of its partners both understood and measured the poverty suffered by children. This innovative method of measuring deprivations: the extent to which a child is unable to realize his or her fundamental rights to health, food, education, water, sanitation, shelter and information, has exposed policy-makers all over the world to a new understanding of child poverty and inequalities. As a consequence, children are more visible in poverty reduction policies and debates. UNICEF’s Global Study on Child Poverty and Disparities, has been inspired to a large extent by Professor Townsend’s work.

For more on Peter Townsend and his work:

•University of Bristol. List of Peter Townsend Publications 1948 - 2003
•D. Gordon, S. Nandy, C. Pantazis, S. Pemberton and P. Townsend (2003). Child Poverty in the Developing World. UK: The Policy Press
•UNDP in Focus (2004). Children and Poverty
•London School of Economics tribute to Peter Townsend
•The Guardian Obituary

Visual Identity for the Global Study on Child Poverty and Disparities

A common Visual Identity for the Global Study on Child Poverty and Disparities is now available to all countries participating in the Global Study. This 'visual identity' can be applied to the country/regional reports and analyses, as well as other communication materials that the Global Study teams would like to produce (policy briefs, brochures, etc).

For the Global Study Visual Identity please click here

Included on this site are the following:
•Guidelines: a power point with detailed instructions on application of this design
•'Logo': the global study logo in various sizes and formats
•Complete Report: a pdf which allows you to visualize what the entire report should resemble
•InDesign and Word: we have included files in both versions, depending on the software available to you
•Power Point Template: a template for your related presentations

The cover design was inspired by the Global Study on Child Poverty and Disparities, a multi-country initiative to leverage evidence, analysis, policy and partnerships in support of child rights. The overlapping, multi-coloured frames symbolize the national, regional and global contributions to the Global Study, which form the basis for exchanging experiences and sharing knowledge on child poverty.

The design encapsulates three central tenets of the Global Study: country ownership, multidimensionality and interconnectedness:
•Ownership: Although children’s rights are universal, every country participating in the study has its own history, culture and sense of responsibility for its citizens. The analyses aim to stimulate discussion and provide evidence on how best to realize child rights in each country.
•Multidimensionality: No single measure can fully reflect the poverty that children experience. A multidimensional approach is therefore imperative to effectively understand and measure children’s wellbeing and the various forms of poverty that they experience.
•Interconnectedness: Today’s world is increasingly interconnected through economic, social, technological, environmental, epidemiological, cultural and knowledge exchanges. These exchanges have important implications for child poverty – and can also help provide avenues for its reduction.

If you have any questions or issues with accessing the files, please contact/ email Sharmila Kurukulasuriya: skurukulasuriya@unicef.org

Morocco: 1st Social Policy & Child Rights Forum

The first Social Policy and Child Rights Forum in Morocco was held on May 25th. The forum received wide press coverage and was opened by the Prime Minister. The forum provided an opportunity to initiate a policy debate on Child Poverty, Social Budgeting and the Social Impact of migration/remittances on children.

The preliminary findings of the Morrocan Child Poverty Study were presented and the deprivation approach, which is a groundbreaking approach to measuring poverty in Morocco, was introduced. Consequently, a great deal of the discussions centered on the monetary approach, which is the official government approach to measuring poverty, and the deprivation approach. There was a general consensus at the forum that the two approaches are essential and complementary.

Social Budgeting presentations and discussions demonstrated promising opportunities in making the government budget more child sensitive in Morocco. An interesting debate took place during the forum regarding the social impact of migration and remittances, where it was identified that further policy research needs to be conducted in this field.

For presentations from this forum please click here

Focal Point: Hicham Ait Mansour - haitmansour@unicef.org

CEE/CIS regional workshop 21 - 23rd April

A third workshop in a series of Global Study regional workshops for the Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CEE/CIS) region was held in Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyz Republic last April. This workshop brought together the four Global Study country teams of researchers, including partners from government and UNICEF social and economic policy specialists from Kyrgyz Republic, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Kosovo, with participation from other country offices interested in learning about the preliminary study findings (i.e. Bulgaria, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Kazakhstan). This meeting also included presentations by senior economists from the Center for Social and Economic Research (CASE) on their ongoing collaboration with UNICEF on Public Financial Management (PFM) reforms in the region. Countries in the CEE-CIS region are likely to be among the worst hit by the global economic crisis, adding further impetus to this meeting. There was a strong focus on what the studies could contribute in terms of evidence-based and child-sensitive government responses to the crisis, offering a good platform for continued engagement by UNICEF with its government counterparts and other stakeholders at this critical time in the region.

For presentations from this workshop please click here

Focal point: Gordon Alexander

Peer Review Week March 4-9th - major emerging points

The Global Study team at UNICEF headquarters arranged for peer review of Global Study draft reports during the week of March 4-9th '09. During this week nineteen colleagues from various sections of UNICEF as well as outside researcher reviewed sections of six draft country reports. All the six country teams did an incredible job of providing rich info, both from the data and policy side. They provided wealth of data on child deprivation and the data presented was commonly properly disaggregated by sex/age, region, education, etc.

There were some important points that emerged from the peer review week that all participating countries need to bear in mind when developing their child poverty study reports:

1. Revisit the Global Study Guide
Revert to The Country Analysis chapter of the Global Study guide, in particular pages 24 – 25 that specify key questions that the analysis should answer in relation to policies, outcomes, causality and strategy.

2. Evidence based policy analysis
Throughout many reports there was some degree of disconnect between the statistical evidence and the key policy/strategy recommendations - the reports need to provide clear policy guidance based on evidence.

3. Clear storyline: making the case for emphasis on child poverty and the deprivation model
The key message/the main storyline derived from the analysis is of extreme importance and making a strong, convincing case for child-poverty linkages. Each report should provide:
1. A summary of the main deprivations affecting children in the country – here you need prioritize the challenges/needs
2. A summary of relevant current policies/programs, and assessment of how well they are oriented toward reducing deprivations
3. Recommendations for improving alignment between policies/programs and deprivation reduction

Please click here for the comprehensive outline of major points that countries need to consider when developing their reports.

Focal point: Solrun Engilbertsdottir, sengilbertsdottir@unicef.org