Social and Economic Policy

Introduction

© UNICEF/NYHQ2009-0231/Josh Estey

UNICEF focuses on the critical impact social and economic policy issues have on children. Our work is centered around child poverty and disparities, child-sensitive social protection, migration and social and gender-sensitive budgeting. This site explains how these issues affect children and the work UNICEF is doing to address them. The social and economic updates below highlight some important recent additions to the site.

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Social and Economic Policy Updates

Global economic crisis

The current global economic crisis threatens to undo many of the world’s recent gains in child survival and well-being. Learn more about:

• The impact of the crisis on children;
• Including children in the policy response;
• UNICEF's response to the crisis, and;
• Additional resources to learn more.

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© Overseas Development Institute

Meetings and events

The Pacific Conference on the Human Face of the Global Economic Crisis will take place 10-12 February in Port Vila, Vanuatu.  The meeting will bring together more than 200 high level delegates from 16 Pacific Island Countries to discuss the issues that the poor and vulnerable are facing in the Pacific. Participants will discuss ways to mitigate the impact of the crisis on various categories of vulnerable groups - including women and children. Drawing lessons from past crises, delegates will examine measures to strengthen resilience to the current and future crises.  Learn more.

UNICEF and ODI were pleased to host the conference 'The global economic crisis: Including children in the policy response', which took place in London. The conference was held November 9-10, 2009. For more information, please contact us at globalpolicy@unicef.org. Please visit our conference website to see all the conference logistics, e-proceedings, and paper presentions. 

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© UNICEF

Country spotlight: The global economic crisis and Tajikistan

In Tajikistan's isolated Rasht Valley, families rely almost entirely on remittances sent back from Russia, where Tajik men work in the construction industry - but the economic downturn means less work and fewer paychecks. Learn more about how the global economic crisis is effecting the country.

Country spotlight: Senegal child poverty and disparities report

Senegal child poverty and disparities report, 2009 (in French) is a recently published study that seeks to raise awareness of policies and programmes that support more effectively the rights of all children, boys and girls, in Senegal. The situation of children has been analyzed in multiple dimensions including monetary, education, health, water and sanitation and shelter but also comfort.

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© UNICEF

Joint Statement on Child-Sensitive Social Protection

UNICEF and a number of partners recently came together to consider and outline the importance of furthering social protection and ensuring it is child-sensitive.  The Joint Statement that was created aims to build greater consensus on the importance of child-sensitive social protection, particularly during this time of economic crisis.  It lays out the particular vulnerabilities that children and families face, the ways that social protection can impact children even when not focused on them, and outlines principles and approaches for undertaking child-sensitive social protection. In the future, we hope the statement will support further dialogue among stakeholders on the evolving policy and programming aspects of child-sensitive social protection. Download the Joint Statement.

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© UNICEF

Publications

UNICEF Publications

UNICEF's working papers and working briefs address crucial issues facing the world's children. Recent publications include:

• Working brief: How Economic Shocks Affect Poor Households and Children
• Working brief: Economic Update: Countries' Evolving Vulnerability from a Child's Perspective
• Working paper: Human Development in Crisis: Insights from the Literature, Emerging Accounts from the Field, and the Correlates of Growth Accelerations and Decelerations

External Publications

The Human Development Research Paper Series features recent research commissioned to inform the global Human Development Report and further research in the field of human development. The upcoming reports focus on the theme of human mobility and development.

Papers from the series include: Migration and the Asia-Pacific Region: Trends, Factors and Impacts; Current Trends in Migration in the Commonwealth of Independent States, and; Information and Communication Technologies and Migration. See a complete list of reports in the series here.