About the Special Session
End-decade Review Process
Extensive end-decade review and reporting processes
were established at national, regional and international
levels. As of January 2002, 156
reports had been received from Governments and 15
reports from United Nations agencies and others.
The number and high quality of the reports are encouraging
indicators of the commitment of Member States and members
of the United Nations system to the continued implementation
of the Summit Plan of Action,
and ensure the successful outcome of the special session
on children.
Top-level political commitment was seen in a number of national
review processes by direct involvement of the offices of heads of
State or Government. The reviews gained additional visibility through
linkages with high-level regional events. Participants in the reviews
included intersectoral government bodies, parliamentarians, national
and international NGOs and Civil Society Organizations, religious
groups, academic institutions, the media, United Nations agencies
and donors. This helped ensure broad ownership of review findings
and consensus on priorities for future action. Various efforts were
also made to encourage participation by children, notably through
children's and youth parliaments, forums and opinion polls. A number
of countries extended the review to subnational levels through local
surveys and consultations.
Wide range of data sources
A wide range of information sources were drawn upon, including
qualitative and quantitative studies, assessments and surveys, and
the results of other recent international reviews. Many countries
made specific reference to the close links between the end-decade
review process for the Summit and reporting to the Committee
on the Rights of the Child and other relevant United Nations
human rights treaty monitoring bodies. One of the most encouraging
aspects of many national reviews has been the extent to which they
have gone beyond a retrospective analysis to set priorities for
future policies on children. In a number of countries, this has
involved preparations for, or even completion of, a new generation
of National Programmes of Action for children.
As with the mid-decade review, a key
input for the national reviews of progress at end-decade has been
support for strengthened data collection and analysis. Drawing on
the results of a 1997 evaluation of Multiple
Indicator Cluster Surveys, a revised set of indicators was developed
by partners and included in new surveys in order to provide a broader
base from which to measure progress. Additional indicators have
been added to assess civil rights, the family environment and child
exploitation, as well as the Integrated Management of Childhood
Illness initiative, malaria and knowledge of HIV/AIDS.
In all, the end-decade second round of MICS - MICS2 - was designed
to obtain data for 63 end-decade indicators. With UNICEF support,
MICS2 was conducted in 66 countries, covering over half of the developing
world's population, representing the largest single data collection
effort in history for monitoring children's rights and well-being.
Demographic and Health Surveys have been conducted in another 35
countries, while other special surveys have covered most of the
remaining developing countries.
While many of the national end-decade review reports incorporated
data from MICS2, much of this data had not been received
by the time of preparation of the present report, which
is based on earlier data received through annual monitoring
processes and other sources. UNICEF is continuing to
develop a set of global databases for the end-decade
assessment which will provide, where possible, statistical
information for the current situation, as well as information
on progress over the decade for each of the end-decade
indicators. These databases will cover cross-sectoral
and/or trend data for more than 50 indicators. Some
of the databases were placed on the Internet on an experimental
basis in late 2000, and will be used in a statistical
annex to be distributed at the special session of the
General Assembly on children.
Access MICS and the statistics gathered during the
end-decade process at Childinfo.org
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