The SDG Secretariat spoke at the August conference “Caring School: Children Wellbeing Index”

Participants discussed the issues on assessing children's well-being in Kazakhstan and psychological support for students in a mixed learning environment.

Director of the Secretariat for Sustainable Development Goals of Economic Research Institute JSC (ERI) Bakytgul Khambar presented a draft methodology for assessing the children well-being in Kazakhstan at the August conference of teachers of Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools AEO (NIS) within the section “Caring School: Children Wellbeing Index”. 

Participants of the section, including teachers-psychologists and additional education teachers of NIS, discussed the issues on assessing children's well-being in the Republic of Kazakhstan and psychological support for students in a mixed learning environment.

Salimbayeva Kulyash, Deputy Director of the Students Well-being Department at NIS, spoke about practice and prospects of psychological support for students in a mixed learning environment. She also shared practical activities that are carried out in the context of a pandemic.

Bakytgul Khambar presented the draft methodology of Index for calculating children's well-being in the Republic of Kazakhstan, which is being developed under leadership of Committee for Children Rights Protection of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan, with technical support of the United Nations Children's Fund in Kazakhstan (UNICEF).

She noted that the country regularly takes measures to improve well-being of the population, including children. However, as of today, the Republic of Kazakhstan has not yet carried out systematic monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of measures aimed at improving children's well-being.

Therefore, in 2020, the Head of State proposed to introduce the Children Wellbeing Index in Kazakhstan from 2022.

“This index may become an effective tool for timely identification of potential and problems for ensuring children's well-being in the context of regions and main directions”, Bakytgul Khambar stressed.

According to her, “Share of local budget expenditures aimed at the children needs” is one of the important indicators of the index, since financial resources play a significant role in ensuring children's well-being.

The speaker presented for discussion alternative options for forming a budget for children in the Republic of Kazakhstan, which are proposed by project group.

According to the first option, it is proposed to submit a budget for children as an annex to the republican and local budgets.

The second option involves considering the budget for children as a section of the civil budget.

Bakytgul Khambar also spoke about advantages and disadvantages of each proposed option.

Final decision on the methodology will be made after discussion by state, local executive bodies and all interested parties.

See also: The SDGs Secretariat presented the Kazakhstan Draft Methodology of budget formation for children