For every child, results
UNICEF is the world’s leading voice for – and with – children. Impartial and non-political, we are never silent about violations of children’s rights.
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An influential voice for children
UNICEF work on data for children is based on a simple premise: We believe that the use of data drives better results for children. When the right data are in the right hands at the right time, decisions can be better informed, more equitable, and more likely to protect children’s rights.
Monitoring and analyzing the situation of children is one of the core functions of UNICEF for the 24 country offices that covers 35 countries and territories of the Latin American and Caribbean region.
Supporting the monitoring of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets are accompanied by a set of indicators required to monitor countries’ progress towards the Goals. While there is no goal that exclusively addresses the needs of children, most SDGs have targets and indicators that are either directly or indirectly related to children
To achieve the eradication of child poverty and the other ambitious SDGs related to children well-being, countries need to have timely, accurate and disaggregated data.
Effective use of data can help us not just track results for children, but also shape those results with better insights about what’s working, what’s not, which children are thriving and which are being left behind.
UNICEF has a long history of supporting governments in measuring the situation of children in the LAC region, and it is determined to harness the SDGs momentum to continue enlarging the national commitment of governments in the region to collect data for children, strengthening national statistical capacities and provide opportunities to engage citizenry and promote adolescents and youth participation.
- Supporting to governments in conducting child-focused household surveys through the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) program. The MICS program provides technical assistance and material support to countries to generate disaggregated data on children using standardized and internationally comparable methodologies. These surveys are key to measuring progress in national and global child-related targets such as those set out in the Sustainable Development Goals. To date 34 MICS surveys have been completed in 18 countries in the region and seven are ongoing. For more information and access to final reports go to http://mics.unicef.org/
- Strengthening the quality and use of administrative data. UNICEF works with different line ministries in the region to promote better integration of administrative data systems and improve the coverage and timeliness of current systems in priority areas for children such as education, health, justice, social protection, disability or vital registration.
- Leading the efforts to promote more data collection and analysis of the situation of children with disability in LAC. Children with disabilities are often in a very disadvantaged position for a full participation in society. However, their situation tends to be invisible due to the lack of reliable statistics to account for the functional difficulties and participation restrictions that they are experiencing in their daily lives. Several countries such as Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Suriname are pioneering new survey tools to measure child disability.
- Providing new opportunities to engage citizenry and adolescents and youth participation- Perception data through participatory monitoring activities are an essential “reality check” and useful complement to official data and statistics. Perception data can provide essential insights and evidence for addressing barriers, bottlenecks and other challenges that prevent the SDGs from being achieved. In LAC, several countries are using U-report, a groundbreaking, text-message based innovation that amplifies the voices and views of young people in relevant topics.
Analysis of the situation of children
Beyond data generation, UNICEF offices also work to ensure the best use of existing data by performing analysis that allows to go deeper in the interpretation of existing statistics. Comprehensive Situation Analysis are conducted regularly at subnational, national and regional level to portray the gaps in access to fundamental rights, identify the most disadvantaged children and analyze the main drivers of exclusion and bottlenecks that impede the realization of children’s rights. Situation analyses are used as an advocacy tool to promote investments in children
Examples:
Argentina (2021)
Ecuador (2019)
Eastern Caribbean (2019)
México (2018)
Granada (2017)
Dominica (2017)