The UN agency for children today released a report underlining the importance of having data to make progress for children, and to highlight the unequal access to basic services and protection systems, something that damages the lives of so many children.
We talked about the "State of the World's Children 2014" by UNICEF, which highlights the need to innovate to address inequalities, and to reach all children'Every child counts' It is the motto of the report that this year acquires importance considering the upcoming commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Since 1989 the Convention on the Rights of the Child was signed, great progress has been made, as well as in the progress of the 2015 Millennium Development Goals. UNICEF's most important annual report reveals some encouraging data.
Some 90 million children would have died before their fifth birthday if child mortality rates had remained at 1990 levels, but they have survived. To a large extent, this is due to the Progress made in areas such as vaccination, health or water and sanitation services.
Improvements in nutrition levels since 1990 have produced a 37% reduction in the number of children with growth retardation. On the other hand, the enrollment of children in primary education has increased, even in less developed countries: while in 1990 only 53 out of every 100 children in those countries entered the school, in 2011 the figure was 81 out of 100.
There's still much to do
Some 6.6 million children under 5 died in 2012, the majority due to preventable causes, which violates their fundamental right to live and develop.
15% of the world's children They have to work, compromising their right to be protected from economic exploitation and violating their right to learn and play.
11% of girls marry before their 15th birthday, putting their rights to health, education and protection at risk.
The poorest children in the world they are almost three times (2.7) less likely than the richest to be born under the attention of qualified personnel, which leaves them and their mothers at high risk for complications related to childbirth.
The report highlights that 'having children makes them visible , and this act of recognition makes it possible to address their needs and advance their rights. ' He also points out that innovating in data collection, analysis and dissemination makes it possible to disaggregate data by factors such as location, wealth, sex, ethnicity or disability, to include children who have been excluded or ignored in more general statistics.
The report urges greater investment in innovation to correct the error of exclusion
The exclusion ends when inclusive data begins to be used. To improve the scope, availability and reliability of data on the deprivations faced by children and their families, the collection and analysis tools are constantly modified; and new ones are being developed.
Much of what is known about the situation of children comes from household surveys, in particular from Multiple Indicator Surveys (MICS). Designed and supported by UNICEF, the MICS are conducted by national statistical organizations and provide disaggregated data on a range of issues that affect children's survival, development, rights and life experience. So far, MICS have been carried out in more than 100 countries. In the last round, more than 650,000 households from 50 countries participated.
Data does not change the world by themselves. They make change possible, identifying needs, supporting awareness and measuring progress. The most important thing is that those who make decisions use the data to make a positive change, and that the data is available for children and communities to use as legal subjects.
Have passed 30 years since the publication of the State of the World's Children, which includes tables with standardized national and global statistics, which provide a detailed picture of the childhood situation.
