1. LEAVING NO CHILD BEHIND Data on Ethnicity, Nationality and Migration
2017 Network Meeting of National Statistical Offices In Europe and Central Asia
LEAVING NO CHILD BEHIND
Data on Ethnicity, Nationality and Migration
Athens, Greece
24/25 October 2017

2. AIM OF THE MEETING
To enhance the capacity of national statistical systems to generate quality data on key indicators of children’s well- being, in the spirit of the inclusive 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda.
This year’s meeting will have a specific focus on data on refugee, migrant and ethnic minority children and adolescents towards the robust monitoring of equity gaps.

3. Agenda Tuesday 24th Wednesday 25th Morning
SDG NATIONALIZATION AND DATA FOR CHILDREN
DATA ON ETHNIC MINORITY CHILDREN
Afternoon
DATA ON MIGRANT AND REFUGEE CHILDREN
WORKSHOP: CHILDREN, DATA AND ETHICS
Ask Karine to provide short administrative information food, Nele photos, Elstat hosted reception at 17:45 today (group photo just before), etc.

4. The SDGs address a full range of issues relating to children’s rights and welfare, spread across the goals and targets – and an explicit focus on reducing equity gaps …amounting to a much stronger expression of the Convention on the Rights of the Child than the MDGs.
The SDGs represent an important opportunity to further child rights in the ECA region.

5. Key Challenge for the SDGs – Leaving No One Behind
“As we embark on this great collective journey, we pledge that no one will be left behind… we wish to see the Goals and targets met for all nations and peoples and for all segments of society. And we will endeavour to reach the furthest behind first.” UN outcome Document 2015
At regional level we have been working to develop a regional overview of the situation of children – including and beyond the SDGs. The challenge, as most of you will know, has been in generating estimates for specific groups of vulnerable groups – children in rural areas, girl and sometimes boy children, children from poorer households. Some of the analysis can be found on the walls in the reception areas.
Many of the messages emerging will not be new to many of you. In 2015, the TransMonEE meeting focussed on new tools for identifying and measuring functional impairments and disability. Data presented at last year’s TransMonEE meeting on children in alternative care demonstrated clearly that while significant progress has been made in deinstitutionalization of children in residential care, in many countries today more than half of the remaining children are children with disabilities. I have left outside an article published by UNICEF earlier this year in XXX that shows that rates of institutionalization of children in eastern Europe and Central Asia are still 3-5 times higher than other regions.

6. Some Selected Priority SDG Indicators for Children in Europe and Central Asia…
4.2.1 ECD
4.2.2 Preschool attendance
4.4.1 ICT skills
5.3.1 Child marriage
Discrimination
Child discipline
Birth registration
Internet use
1.2.2 Multidimensional poverty (children) Social protection coverage Stunting (but also obesity) Neonatal mortality Adolescent birth rate 3.a.1 Current tobacco use (adolescents) 3.b.1 Full immunization
Overall monitoring the SDGs will be no easy task. We are all struggling to identify data sources that can provide reliable, comparable data. Of the 230 plus SDG indicators, 40 are relevant for children – of which some are particularly relevant for the ECA region.
Before handing over to the first panel, I would like to provide one illustrative example of the challenges.

7. Looking at data from the SDG global database for SDG 4. 2
Looking at data from the SDG global database for SDG 4.2.2, national averages look pretty good for a number of countries. However the SDG database currently offers limited disaggregation.

8. Using nationally available data, we often identify indicators that are close but not exactly the same as SDG indicators. The orange bar shows the proportion of 3-4 year olds that are in pre-school compared to the data provided in the first slide.

9. This nationally available data can be disaggregated
This nationally available data can be disaggregated. This graph shows the access of 3-4 year olds to early learning opportunities - from the richest and poorest families. The equity gaps are in some cases very large.

10. Finally, this data can also be disaggregated to look at the rate of pre-school attendance for ethnic minority children.
The overall message here is that some data may match well the SDG indicator definitions – but not allow for measuring dimensions of inequity… while other proxies may allow for nationally disaggregated estimates but with less potential for cross country comparisons. Every country I have visited is struggling with such trade-offs.

11. UNICEF Support for SDG Nationalization and Monitoring in ECA
Contributing to Mainstreaming, Acceleration, Policy Support (MAPS) processes.
Assisting NSOs in assessing data availability and in establishing baselines against priority indicators and targets.
Helping national Governments to fill data gaps through the use of new tools (early childhood development, water quality testing, child poverty, etc.)
Support for analysis/monitoring of progress and reporting (SDG, CRC).
Enabling cross learning/sharing across the region
UNICEF is working to strengthen national capacities to produce and analyse data on children – and helping Governments to translate evidence into policies and actions that reach the furthest behind first.
I would like to ask my colleague Eduard to introduce the first panel and I look forward to exchanging with you over the next two days.

12. LEAVING NO CHILD BEHIND Data on Refugee and Migrant Children and
2017 Network Meeting of National Statistical Offices In Europe and Central Asia
LEAVING NO CHILD BEHIND
Data on Refugee and Migrant Children and
On Children from Ethnic Minorities
Athens, Greece
24/25 October 2017