On December 8, 2020, an online meeting was held on development of the Kazakhstan Child Happiness Index.
Negotiations
were attended by: Committee for children rights protection of the MES
RK, UNICEF representatives, international company Innocenti (Italy),
independent experts as well as experts of the Economic Research
Institute: Vice Chairman of the Board Zhakupova Shakharbanu Shormanovna,
Director of the Secretariat for SDGs Bakytgul Khambar and Deputy
Directors of the Secretariat for SDGs Utebayeva Altyngul and Karimov
Yerlan.
During the meeting, representatives of Committee
for children rights protection of the Ministry of Education and Science
reported on problem of developing Child Well-Being Index in 2018.
Development process could not be completed due to the fact that the
indicators presented could not fully reflect the well-being of children
in Kazakhstan, as well as due to the difficulty of comparing indicators
with other international indices. Therefore, implementation of the
project had to be postponed.
Deputy Chairman of the ERI Board
Shakharbanu Zhakupova briefed participants on the activities of the
Institute and Secretariat for Sustainable Development Goals, told about
the work already done by the Institute in development of the Kazakhstan
Child Happiness Index.
In turn, Yerlan Karimov, Deputy Director
of the Secretariat for SDGs, presented the Institute's further vision
for development of the Kazakhstan Child Happiness Index, which reflects
the results of advanced international research and Kazakhstan-specific
indicators of child well-being.
Representative of UNICEF in
Kazakhstan, Arthur van Diesen, expressed his sincere interest in solving
problems of child well-being in Kazakhstan, and readiness to provide
full support to the Secretariat for SDGs and Committee for children
rights protection of the Ministry of Education and Science of Kazakhstan
in developing the Kazakhstan Child Happiness Index.
Reference:
At
the fourth session of the National Council of Public Trust, President
of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev stated the need to develop and
implement a national monitoring mechanism – Child Well-Being Index from
2022. This index will allow to track the effectiveness of national
policies to improve the situation of children in different areas and by
region.
State program for the
development of education and science of the Republic of Kazakhstan for
2020-2025 provides for measures to test and implement the Child
Well-Being Index.
Child well-being is
measured in most countries of the world: the United States, the United
Kingdom, Australia, the OECD and the CIS. Kazakhstan will join these
countries in the near future. Goal of this Index is to ensure the
well-being of children from birth to adulthood, and to improve situation
of children in various fields. Index will help determine overall
well-being of children in country and in certain areas, as well as will
make it possible to track the effectiveness of national policies in
various areas, broken down by region.
