Foreign experts on the welfare of children

ERI Virtual Round Table

"The Children's Well-Being is the Key to the Country's Prosperity"

Foreign experts' presentations

The Children's Well-Being is the Key to the Country's Prosperity Virtual Round Table was held on June 25, 2021, at 15:00.organized by Economic Research Institute JSC (ERI). The event is dedicated to the 30th anniversary of Kazakhstan's Independence and to the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the ERI foundation.

The discussion was attended by representatives of state bodies, NGOs of Kazakhstan, Kazakh and foreign experts.

The speakers presented the experience of individual countries in assessing the quality of life of children and its impact on the socio-economic stability of the country.

Th.organizers of the event note that the Round Table is an opportunity to exchange experience and opinions with international experts on monitoring tools and policies in the field of children's prosperity.

The Economic Research Institute presented a draft Kazakhstan Child Well-Being Index methodology, which is being developed by ERI under the leadership of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Technical support for the draft is provided by the United Nations Children's Fund in Kazakhstan (UNICEF).

The Round Table was held in the online format on the Zoom platform. The event was broadcast in real time on the Youtube channel of the Economic Research Institute of Kazakhstan and on the Facebook channel @economic.research.kz.

At the panel session "Children's well-being on the political agenda of foreign countries", speakers spoke about monitoring tools and policies in the field of children's well-being used in Italy, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan.

Gwyther Rees, an international expert in the field of socio-economic policy, the author of many studies and the developer of a methodology for the well-being of children from Italy, shared a comparative analysis of child well-being indices from different countries based on the report of the UNICEF-Innocenti Research Center.

The expert noted that not so many countries around the world have managed to successfully implement the index of child well-being. And Kazakhstan's work in this direction certainly brings the country to state-of-the-art level.

  «Interest in measuring the level of child well-being began in the 1970s. This is related to GDP, to the well-being of the country as a whole. The approach to measuring child well-being was introduced relatively recently, in the last decade, " said Gwyther Rees.

Speaking about the development of a model for measuring children's happiness in the Innocenti report, the speaker said that they apply an ecological model of the theory of the ecological system, in which the child and his interests are in the center of attention. The model takes into account: "The world as a whole", "The world around the child" and "The world of the child" in the indicators used. 

"The model was developed for the Covid-19 pandemic, which allowed us to compare the impact of the pandemic on the well – being of children, in particular, the impact of factors such as increased unemployment, the economic crisis, school closures, problems with access to medicine, and others," the expert concluded.

Elvira Garifulina (expert of the Coordinating Council under the Government for the implementation of the Decade of Childhood, member of the Coordinating Council of the Intersectoral Professional Association in the field of evaluation of projects and programs in the field of Childhood), Dmitry Rogozin told about the development of the index of children's well-being in Russia (Director of the Field Research Center, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration), Galina Semya (Doctor of Psychological Sciences, Co-chair of the Expert Council of the State Duma Committee on Family, Women and Children).

Elvira Garifulina said that in 2019, work was initiated to develop the Russian index of child well-being. The methodology is based on the UNICEF model, is based on statistical and survey data and considers six key groups of children's well-being. Within some domains, there are focus indicators that take into account national and territorial features.

 In 2021, a pilot study on children's well-being was launched in five regions.

"The index took into account the opinions of children (through surveys) and statistical data for all regions. It was important for us that the Index became an effective tool that measures the real situation of children, " she emphasizedElvira Garifulina.

According to the speaker, several rounds of discussions were held throughout the country, including regions and municipalities. More than 25 thousand people took part in surveys aimed at children aged 10-17 years. Currently, the received data, which will be completed by the autumn, is being processed.

Galina Semya added that the development of the Index in the Russian Federation is carried out within the framework of the decade of childhood in the country (the period from 2018 to 2027 was declared the "Decade of Childhood" in Russia by Decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin).

The speaker spoke about the methodology of the subjective well-being of orphans, which determines the child's satisfaction with the system of their relationships: to themselves, to others, to their chronotope (future prospects). Within the framework of this study, the subjective well-being of almost five thousand orphans (of which 551 children are in foster care) was studied for three years. In 2021, it is planned to study the subjective well-being of socially vulnerable groups of children.

Yryskan Kalymbetova, representative of the National Statistical Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic, told about the development of a methodology for assessing the Index of Child Poverty and deprivation and the Index of Multidimensional Poverty of Children in Kyrgyzstan.

Yryskan Kalymbetova, representative of the National Statistical Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic, told about the development of a methodology for assessing the Index of Child Poverty and deprivation and the Index of Multidimensional Poverty of Children in Kyrgyzstan.

According to the speaker, the methodology of the Child Poverty and Deprivation Index is based on the Index of Economic Freedom according to the Heritage fund methodology and was developed and applied in Kyrgyzstan in 2009. The groups of indicators used include: material child poverty, the state and prevention of children's health, child mortality rates, and a number of others.

Yryskan Kalymbetova shared the results of measuring the Multidimensional Poverty Index in the country, the methodology of which is based on the Alkir – Foster method. The indicators constructed using this method allow us to identify the relationships between types of deprivation and can be used in the development of social policy priorities.

The expert spoke about the challenges that had to be faced when calculating the index, such as different needs for different groups of children, limited data, limited sampling, and others.

"According to the results of the study, the prevalence of multidimensional poverty in the Kyrgyz Republic in 2018 was 53.9%, the depth-47.5%," the speaker summed up.

Vladimir Valetko spoke about the Multidimensional Poverty Index in Belarus, an international expert on the welfare of children.

According to him, work on the development of the Index methodology for measuring multidimensional child poverty began in Belarus in 2018.  It uses 6 key indicators. The methodology is based on the UNICEF Innocenti approach to measuring multidimensional child poverty.

"As a result of the analysis of the results of the Index, it was revealed that 9.1% of children in Belarus live below the national poverty line. It is determined that monetary and multidimensional poverty in the country diverge. Multidimensional poverty was higher (the highest indicator is for large families — 29.5%). The task has been set to reduce the level of child poverty in the country by half by 2030," the speaker noted.

The expert gave examples of practical application of the Index results.

"The data obtained, for example, allowed us to model various approaches to determining the amount of child benefits, which allowed us to determine the necessary amount of their increase (by 5%, from 43% to 48%). The measurement of deprivation in relation to housing conditions allowed us to adjust the policy regarding the improvement of social conditions for use by the relevant local executive bodies, " Vladimir Valetko said.

"We continue validation of research, testing with focus groups, we plan testing in the context of cities and other work in this direction," the speaker concluded.

Natalia Privalova, Candidate of Economics, associate Professor, representative of the State Scientific Institution "Research Economic Institute" of the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Belarus spoke about the socio-economic situation of children in Belarus.

"Improving the situation of children in the country is a priority in the republic," Natalia Privalova stressed.

In her message for the solution to tasks for the improvement of the situation of children, the protection of their rights oriented activities in the framework of the state program for 2021-2025 years: "people's Health and demographic security of the Republic of Belarus"; "the labour Market and promoting employment"; "Education and youth policy" and the National action plan on improving the situation of children and protection of their rights for the years 2017-2021.

Yulduz Khairullina (Doctor of Social Sciences, Professor, representative of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan) andElmira Nurullina (PhD, Associate Professor, representative of the Scientific and Expert Council of the state program "Talent Management in the Republic of Tatarstan").

"Measures to support families with gifted children include financial support for families with talented and gifted children, the creation of key child development centers and centers for identifying and supporting gifted children, the implementation of author's programs for the development of children, their education and training," Yulduz Khairullina noted.

Elmira Nurullina spoke about the Kazan Open University 2.0, which is engaged in the development of talents in all directions, and about the author's projects of non-profi.organizations aimed at supporting gifted children, including information support and advising young families on state support measures for talented children.organizing conferences, training for parents and mentors, creating a transport map of talents and much more.

Arzu Safarova, Representative of the Research Institute of Economic Research at the Azerbaijan State University of Economics: "First of all, the well-being of children is to ensure their safety. According to the WHO, road accidents that cause injuries and death of children and young people under 18 years of age occupy the first place." This is due to ignorance of the rules of road and pedestrian traffic."

The speaker noted that Azerbaijan ranks 66th in the world in the ranking of parenting and 4th in the CIS.

            Maxim Otkidach, an expert in the field of implementing an online platform in Ukrainian cities, shared the problems that experts faced when conducting surveys to form a methodology for calculating the Index of Child Well-being in Ukraine.

He said that of the 49 indicators included in the Index, 2/3 are based on surveys conducted online.

The expert noted such problems when conducting online surveys as the fact that about 50% of respondents did not pass the survey to the end, the servers could not withstand a large influx of respondents, respondents skipped some of the questions, and so on.

            At the end of the event, the moderatorBauyrzhan Muqan thanked all the participants and said that every child is a part of the planet in which everything is interconnected.

"In a short period of time, we managed to exchange the experience and knowledge of participants from different countries in the field of research on the well-being of children," said the moderator of the Round Table on the topic "The well — being of children is the key to the prosperity of the country".

The Institute of Economic Research (ERI) under the Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan is a leading state institute studying the problems of integrated development of the economy of Kazakhstan. It was founded in 1961.

            ERI develops scientific support for the implementation of the country's economic strategy, analyzes the state of the economy and the forecast of its development for the future, promotes sustainable economic growth, improving the level and quality of life of the population.

            Kazakhstan Economic Research Institute took the sixth place among 58 analytical centers of the Central Asian region.

ERI contributes to the sustainable development of the economy, being the Secretariat of the Coordinating Council for Sustainable Development Goals under the Government of Kazakhstan, the working body of the Committee for Monitoring the Achievements of the Sustainable Development Goals.