Toolkit for Mainstreaming Child Rights into Strategic Planning for Official Statistics
About
Building on their joint commitment to enhance the effectiveness of national statistical systems, UNICEF and PARIS21 are proud to announce the development of a new toolkit for the mainstreaming of child-rights and child-related statistics within National Strategies for the Development of Statistics (NSDS). This initiative aims to seamlessly integrate a child rights lens into NSDS processes, making it an integral part of statistical discussions rather than an add-on component. It supports countries in strengthening official statistics and sustainable development overall via child rights lens.
The innovative approach to providing tools for all types of stakeholders in the NSDS process also offers new thinking for how to mainstream not only Child Rights but social inclusion issues in general and for assessing the maturity of statistical systems in these areas and across the statistical modernization agenda. To optimise its utility to non-experts, training material is also provided on the basics of the child rights agenda and how to understand and navigate strategic planning issues in official statistics.
UNICEF and PARIS21 have been collaborating for more strategic and efficient support to countries on strengthening national statistical systems for realizing children’s rights and leaving no one behind. The partnership aims to promote a coordinated support to National statistical systems and use of high quality, inclusive, timely and disaggregated data on the situation of children and their wellbeing to shape policies and programmes towards the progressive realization of all children’s rights.
Nearly every country in the world has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child to safeguard the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of all children. Yet children growing up in the world today are still facing multitude of challenges to develop to their full potential. These have been further exacerbated by the impacts of the overlapping crises from the lingering effects of COVID-19 pandemic, to conflict, climate change, dept crises and financial strain to name a few.
Data and statistics can drive efficient and effective development policies that can accelerate progress for children. When governments, agencies, societies, development partners and communities have the right data in the right format at the right time development policies and programmes can be much more effective and efficient – evidence shows that USD 1 invested in data systems can have returns between USD 7-72 depending on the sector.
While global availability and quality of data has been improving, critical challenges remain with the accessibility of demand-driven, quality and quantity data for driving results for children, including the systematic uptake and use across all relevant stakeholders, especially in low and lower middle-income countries and fragile states. Addressing these challenges is necessary for identifying effective and efficient policies, leave no one behind and drive the SDGs and 2030 Agenda.
PARIS21 partner report[1] (2023) showed the precarious situation of development support to national statistical systems. Overall funding trends have slightly increased in 2021 mainly driven by loans whereas grants kept declining for third consecutive year. Only around 25% of National Strategies for Development of statistics in Sub-Saharan Africa are adequately funded with still multilateral support being scarce for NSDS.
Towards this, UNICEF and PARIS21 partnered up to strengthen and coordinate coherent support to National Strategies for Development of Statistics (NSDS) that National statistical offices develop as a strategic roadmap to strengthen their national statistical systems. The guidelines for the development of NSDS[2] was developed by the Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21[3]) in 2004. This has since gone through several iterations considering lessons learned from decades of experience.
The creation of this toolkit was a collaborative effort, involving multi-partner and multi-country consultations at various levels—local, regional, and global. These extensive consultations ensured that the toolkit was shaped by a diverse range of perspectives and expert inputs. Moreover, the content and structure of the toolkit have been enriched by comments and insights from various stakeholders, reflecting a broad consensus on the importance of child-focused data in statistical planning.
In March, a validation workshop was conducted to review the contents and ensure the toolkit met the needs and expectations of all partners involved. This workshop was a critical step in the toolkit's development, providing a platform for final adjustments and refinements.
The current version of the toolkit, Version 1, is considered a starting point. It is expected to evolve as lessons are learned from its implementation and ongoing engagement with users. Future adjustments will be made to enhance its utility and effectiveness, ensuring that it continues to meet the changing demands of national statistical offices and their partners.
This toolkit represents a significant step forward in our collective effort to ensure that national statistical systems are effectively delivering for children, through driving policies and programmes that ensure every child develops to their full potential and leaves no one behind.
We are thankful for all have contributed to this endeavor and provided their insights.
[1] PARIS21 Partner report (2023) - https://www.paris21.org/knowledge-base/press-2023-paris21-partner-report-support-statistics-2023-changing-landscape
[2] Find the latest version of the guidelines here
[3] Established in 1999, by the United Nations, the European Commission, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank to promote the better use and production of statistics throughout the developing world.
