Key questions on Child-poverty – answers from Kärt Mere ...



Key questions on Child-poverty – answers from Kärt Mere, Estonia

What is Child Poverty?  What are the causes and main factors?

Today, in the EU, at risk of poverty lives more than 20 million children. Estonian population is 1.3 million and in poverty lives every fifth child - 63,000 children. The proportion of children living in poverty is even greater than the proportion of adults living in poverty (20% and 16%), which has increased in times of the economic crisis. Poverty among children living in the EU is very important issue. There are evidences that they lack the most important basic rights. Child poverty and well-being is a multidimensional problem. Several reports show that the problem is caused by many factors, including material shortages and lack of access to basic health care, decent housing and education. These factors are interrelated and interdependent, and the solutions should reflect this.

Child poverty and deprivation due to absence of millions of children the best start for life and has a role in preventing their own development. Very often the child's early-intervention has a positive impact on the rest of their lives. It is extremely important to develop appropriate policies to ensure that everyone, especially the most marginalized groups in society, children, need to achieve their full potential and thereby contribute positively to the future.

What is the link between child poverty and child well-being?

Child well-being discussions are held mainly from income-focused perspective, we need a more comprehensive understanding of the multiple factors influencing children’s life situations. National approaches to developing and monitoring indicators of child well-being are different and confusing, the common understanding is still missing. What matters most are governmental priorities in different countries. While children’s rights are the same for every child some groups of children face structural disadvantages in many countries, like children from ethnic minorities, children with disabilities, children living in institutions or temporary housing and refugee children. Many of these children remain invisible, not least because they tend to be not included in child surveys. Children are dependent on their families, schools, communities etc.

Children’s participation in understanding and measuring their well-being is still rare, though children and young people are best able to give insights into their daily lives and their views on what makes them and other children be well. We need to create a more comprehensive picture of children’s life situations.

Impacts of poverty on health and cognitive development are the stronger the younger the children are and the longer the spells of poverty last. In regard to children’s psychosocial well-being however impacts on young children are mainly mediated by family relations, whereas direct consequences of poverty gain importance in later childhood as girls and boys have to deal directly with the experience of having less money than others. The conditions children find at home and in their neighbourhood have a strong impact on their development and well-being. As children get older, school becomes another major factor in children’s life.

Children’s educational outcomes are interdependent with the conditions they find in the education system, reflecting disadvantages and processes of exclusion that children face. In many countries the educational chances of children are still linked to their social background.

 

Can child poverty be transmitted from generation to generation?

A key factor we should consider addressing income poverty, is the duration, the period, how long the children are living below the poverty line. Poverty and social exclusion threat that children face, is much more serious if their income falls low for many years. Although substantial, duaration figure is insufficient because it does not cover everything. What children need is a good start for life. Children may live in substandard conditions, or even be homeless, they may live in abandoned neighborhoods, to experience a high crime rate, poorer health, monotonous diet, increased accidents and injuries, more physical abuse and harassment, reduced access to child care services, limited access to social and family services , from educational disadvantage and low quality educational opportunities, they may have limited access to playgrounds, sports and recreation opportunities or cultural events or non-existent. Some children are confronted with more than one adverse conditions and their impact together reinforce one another and deepen the sense of child poverty and social exclusion and increase the intergenerational transmission of poverty and exclusion.

Children suffer from extreme poverty from one generation to another. To interrupt the transmission of poverty and social exclusion, we need well-designed social policies to ensure equal opportunities and increase efforts to ensure that.

What should be the main solutions?

-Ensure that EU and national targets and the EU agreed on a set of indicators to be more effective progress towards rigorous and regular monitoring of these are to be reported;

- Organizing peer reviews to ensure that monitoring results are discussed in order to encourage policy learning among Member States and the Commission;

- To introduce a much more rigorous approach to monitoring and assessment, paying greater attention to performance, and ensure progress towards achievement of the objectives of the regular independent critical analysis. Key elements could include the following:

- Common indicators are more systematic involvement of Member States' national monitoring and analytical frameworks in order to improve mutual learning;

- Statistical capacity building of the EU, national and regional levels, and in particular to ensure the timely production of social statistics (including data on child poverty and well-being, allowing the financial and economic crisis on the EU to better monitor);

- The requirement that all Member States to establish formal procedures for civil society organizations and independent experts, to include continuous monitoring process and evaluation of policies for social inclusion.

Kärt

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