Every child counts: UNICEF and partners launch virtual platform on children’s data

UNICEF, together with the Council for the Welfare of Children, the National Economic and Development Authority, and the Philippine Statistics Authority, launched last October 21 at Marco Polo in Ortigas, Manila The Situation of Children of the Philippines, a portal showing a situation analysis on children to promote evidence-based decision making.

The virtual platform shows data analysis of six main dimensions and 25 subdimensions of children’s rights, which include health and nutrition, education, protection, safe and sustainable environment, child poverty and social protection, and civil and participation rights.

UNICEF Philippines Representative Oyunsaikhan Dendevnorov underscored the importance of understanding the situation of children in order to prioritize, design, and monitor policies and actions that will further support them.

“Every child counts. When the right data and evidence are in the right hands at the right time, decisions can be better informed, more equitable, and more likely to protect children’s rights,” he said.

Image source: UNICEF Philippines

UNICEF, the world’s leading source of data on children used by over three million people globally, is working to ensure every child in the Philippines is accounted for and their needs are understood through improved key administrative data systems, census, and surveys.

UNICEF Philippines is calling on the government to provide better strategic solutions and more investments for a more sustained development of data for children. This sense of urgency is rooted in the gaps and issues in the existing data when it comes to granularity, periodicity and timeliness, accessibility, reliability, and consistency.

For example, despite the Philippines being considered the global epicenter of online sexual abuse and exploitation and child exploitation materials, there is not enough data on this. Other key data gaps exist in areas such as climate change impacts on children, social protection and public financing for children, children with disabilities, and more.

With this platform, UNICEF hopes to engage stakeholders and discuss evolving evidence needs and gaps.

Image source: UNICEF Philippines

The data portal features over 80 key indicators and around 500 data visualizations based on data dating back to 1989 and up to 2023, with subnational breakdowns for certain indicators. For each sub-dimension, the site offers a comprehensive analysis and visualization of data, including key progress, indicators, child rights, equity and risk, legislation, policy, bottlenecks, and relevant publications.

A section covers cross-sectoral issues such as gender, disability, early childhood, and adolescents. It is periodically updated, allowing government agencies, development partners, and other child rights organizations to be responsive in their evidence-based policies and programming for children.

The portal also shows “The Longitudinal Cohort Study of Filipino Children,” which tracks the lives of a sample of 5,000 children, along with their households and communities.

Beginning in 2016 with the children at age 10, the study will continue until 2030 when they turn 24. This unique 15-year study is a partnership with the Philippine and Australian governments, the United Nations Population Fund or UNFPA, and UNICEF.

UNICEF said the portal can be further enriched by contributions from researchers and child rights advocates. The group is calling on the public to explore the platform, spread it, and use the available insights to advance the rights of children and make an impactful contribution. RDH

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Chris Layugan