Children First, Winter 2007: Quality of Life Indicators

The Ministry of Interior (MOI) General Directorate of Provincial Administration with the support of the Turkish Statistical Institute (Turkstat) has produced a set of indicators to monitor the state of Turkey’s children. The development of the 25 Quality of Life Indicators (25QLI) with reference to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and EU social inclusion indicators on children is one of the most significant developments under the umbrella of the Children First project.

Much like the MDGs and EU models, the 25QLI are interrelated in that an improvement in one indicator will have the knock–on effect of improvements in others — and all data will be disaggregated by gender. A Turkish version of the UN DevInfo system, which is used to monitor progress on the MDGs, has been developed within Children First and this modified version of DevInfo will be used to monitor the 25QLI. Turkstat have also produced a manual setting out the exact definition, means of calculation and source of data for each indicator.

The first DevInfoTürk systems were introduced in Gaziantep and Antalya in November 2006 with an introductory workshop for deputy provincial governors and provincial planning directors. Participants had an opportunity to discuss concepts such as regional disparities, child poverty and gender equality. The system will be rolled out nationwide in the second quarter of 2007 with regional training sessions on its implementation and use.

The long term vision for the DevInfoTürk system is to strengthen data assimilation, monitoring, planning and advocacy on all matters concerning the health and well–being of children throughout Turkey and this was reflected in the views of those who attended the launch in Gaziantep.

Dr Ahmet Altıparmak, General Director of the MOI General Directorate of Provincial Administration, observed that:

We are going to resolve the long standing problem of data collection through this project and our measure of the success of the project will be the capacity to monitor progress in the development and general improvement in the quality of life or children.

Mr. Nevzat Korkmaz, Head of Department, MOI General Directorate of Provincial Administration, noted that:

Current government policy aims to eliminate the problems in basic service provision that these indicators will highlight. For years, concerned ministries and agencies have been seeking a solution to this problem and these indicators will provide a reliable source of data that we can analyse and develop into workable solutions.

Serap Ayhan, a Turkstat specialist working on the project said that:

The 25QLI will be an aid to development and as such they will contribute to a reduction in inequality across the country. Because we can follow the progress in development of each individual indicator province by province, we can aim to reduce disparities to acceptable levels.

Dr Hilal Bolat of the Ministry of Health remarked that:

These 25QLI are coming at just the right time for us — the first six indicators are at the heart of a programme which we are already running. Data derived from the DevInfoTürk system will be extremely valuable to us.

Lila Pieters, Programme Coordinator for UNICEF Turkey said that:

The 25QLI are an invaluable tool to help provincial authorities and central government leverage the necessary resources when budgeting for children and also to assess the effectiveness of provincial strategies to reduce child poverty. This means that better provision can be made for child protection in Turkey and that the implementation of children’s rights is properly monitored as outlined by the CRC and other instruments such as the European Convention on Human Rights.

DevInfoTürk is structured so that data derived from the 25QLI will be dynamic: where one indicator may be cross–referenced with another, so too will one province be able to compare data with another and of course the range of indicators means that the database will very quickly become an essential resource for every agency, organisation or institution concerned with development in Turkey.

So quality of data collected by each province will be of paramount importance to the project — not only in terms of accuracy but also input. To this end, the MOI has requested data from each province for the years 2004–2006 in order to kickstart the database. There are also plans to establish an Index of Child Well Being by the end of 2007.

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