Children’s rights in the digital age

The digital divide exacerbates inequalities in access to information and knowledge, making it more difficult to socialize with peers and limiting awareness of and the ability to use basic tools for life in society. Reducing this gap sets in motion virtuous synergies of social and cultural inclusion for children and adolescents, facilitating skills development and generating lifelong opportunities. Although the younger generations are connected digital natives, inequalities persist among socioeconomic groups, though these have been tempered by connectivity programmes in public schools in the region. The main article of this edition of Challenges uses current information to examine the progress made and the gaps that remain in this area. Providing children and adolescents with access is merely a first step. They then need to be protected from the risks associated with information and communications technologies (ICTs), which must be harnessed for purposes of meaningful learning, promoting uses that are more in line with the educational curriculum. Lastly, the article posits that connectivity policies must be linked to the fulfilment of children’s rights in the framework of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. As is customary, this issue also contains information on meetings and conferences held in the region during the year and recent publications in this field. Mention is also made of good practices from Peru in reducing gender gaps and a joint initiative between mobile operators and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to protect children in the digital age. Viewpoints includes expert opinion on the potential of ICTs as tools that can facilitate the exercise of the rights of children and adolescents, but also lead to violations of these rights.

Social Panorama of Latin America 1994

This third edition of the Social Panorama of Latin America is an expression of the ECLAC secretariat's continuing effort to incorporate the social dimension into the Commission's annual appraisals of regional development. The analysis presented in this edition emphasizes core issues concerning children and the familiy, as a result of the secretariat's joint activities with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), in order to provide up-to-date information on opportunities for access to well-being from childhodd onwards. This report is prepared periodically by Statistics Development Division of ECLAC, which collaborated with the Economic Development Division in producing the present edition. The information analysed yields an ilustrative profile of trends in the early 1990s in important facets of social development such as poverty, income distribution, employment, social expenditure, children, the family, education, pay levels and a social agenda of the main issues in this field that have captured public attention in the countries of the region during the past year.

Promotion et protection sociale de l’enfance et de l’adolescence en Haïti

Comment l'État haïtien organise-t-il aujourd'hui la protection et la promotion sociale des enfants et des adolescents? L’objectif central de ce rapport est de répondre à cette question, dans l'espoir que les éléments apportés puissent éclairer sur une autre interrogation: comment la caractérisation des politiques publiques de protection et de promotion sociale ciblées sur les enfants et les adolescents permet-elle de compléter le profil du système haïtien de protection sociale?

Preliminary report on the implementation of the ECLAC work programme subregional activities for the Caribbean. 2008-2009 biennium (Covering the period 1 Janurary 2008- 31 August 2009)

Eighteen months into the implementation of the 2008-2009 biennial strategic work programme, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Subregional Headquarters for the Caribbean continues to focus on strengthening the delivery of activities through regular internal meetings with programme and research staff and consultations with member countries and other partner institutions. The scaling up of efforts advocating for more evidence-based development policy-making is being advanced utilizing the resources provided through the implementation of an additional seven extrabudgetary-funded projects. This effort is being undertaken in collaboration and in consultation with our major international and regional development partners – United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), Association of Caribbean States (ACS), Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), World Bank, Department for International Development (DFID), Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC). and others. In

Socio-demographic analysis of youth in the Caribbean- a three country case study

Many Caribbean youth are doing reasonably well. They live in loving and caring families, attend school and are involved in various social activities in their communities. The health and well-being of the children and youth1 in the Caribbean is, and has been, the centre of attention of many studies, meetings and policy directives set at the regional, subregional and national levels. Programmes have been put in place to address the basic needs of young children in the areas of health and education and to provide guidance and directives to youth and adolescents in the area of professional formation and transition to adulthood. Critical issues such as reproductive health and family planning combined with access to education and information on these topics have been promoted to some extent. And finally, the Caribbean is known for rather high school enrolment rates in primary education that hardly show any gender disparities. While the situation is still good for some, growing numbers of children and youth cannot cope anymore with the challenges experienced quite early in their lives. Absent parents, instable care-taking arrangements, violence and aggression subjected to at home, in schools and among their friends, lack of a perspective in schools and the labour-market, early sexual initiation and teenage pregnancies are some of those issues faced by a rising number of young persons in this part of the world. Emotional instability, psychological stress and increased violence are one of the key triggers for increased violence and involvement in crime exhibited by ever younger youth and children. Further, the region is grappling with rising drop-out rates in secondary education, declining quality schooling in the classrooms and increasing numbers of students who leave school without formal certification. Youth unemployment in the formal labour market is high and improving the quality of professional formation along with the provision of adequate employment opportunities would be critical to enable youth to complete consistently and effectively the transition into adulthood and to take advantage of the opportunities to develop and use their human capital in the process. On a rather general note, the region does not suffer from a shortage of policies and programmes to address the very specific needs of children and youth, but the prominent and severe lack of systematic analysis and monitoring of the situation of children, youth and young families in the Caribbean does not allow for targeted and efficient interventions that promise successful outcomes on the long term. In an effort to assist interested governments to fill this analytical gap, various initiatives are underway to enhance data collection and their systematic analysis2. Population and household censuses are conducted every decade and a variety of household surveys, such as surveys of living conditions, labour force surveys and special surveys focusing on particular sub-groups of the population are conducted, dependent on the resources available, to a varying degree in the countries of the region. One such example is the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)-funded Multi-Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) that assess the situation of children and youth in a country. Over the past years and at present, UNICEF has launched a series of surveys in a number of countries in the Caribbean3. But more needs to be done to ensure that the data available is analyzed to provide the empirical background information for evidence-based policy formulation and monitoring of the efficiency and effectiveness of the efforts undertaken.

Pobreza y privaciones múltiples en la infancia en Uruguay

El estudio multidimensional de la pobreza ha ganado espacio en diversos ámbitos en la última década. Por un lado, en el ámbito académico han evolucionado los desarrollos conceptuales sobre el bienestar de los individuos y sus dimensiones, y, de la mano de ello, la construcción de mediciones que las toman en cuenta. Por otro lado, algunos países han avanzado en las mediciones multidimensionales como medidas oficiales de pobreza, o están avanzando en consensos para llevarlas a cabo con el objetivo de orientar las políticas públicas. Además, en diversos países se utiliza el enfoque multidimensional en diferentes estudios elaborados por los gobiernos, aun cuando no tengan el estatus de mediciones oficiales. En Uruguay, si bien la medida oficial de pobreza es la monetaria, cada vez existen más estimaciones complementarias, elaboradas tanto en la academia como en el Estado, que incorporan otras dimensiones (Arim y Vigorito, 2007; mides, 2013; Castillo y Colombo, 2014). De hecho, la reducción de la pobreza monetaria tornó más importantes estas medidas multidimensionales en el diseño de las políticas sociales, porque dan cuenta de privaciones específicas en determinados grupos de población y dimensiones, lo que permite mejorar la focalización.

Niñas y adolescentes en América Latina y el Caribe: deudas de igualdad

El presente estudio entrega un panorama sobre las desigualdades que experimentan las niñas y las adolescentes de la región y pretende aportar a la discusión sobre políticas que busquen eliminar todas las formas de discriminación que les afecten. Para ello, se adopta una perspectiva enfocada en las vulnerabilidades específicas que niñas y adolescentes enfrentan, reconociendo la diversidad de sus identidades e identificando las barreras que es necesario derribar. Esto es un imperativo, por una parte, para su ejercicio de derechos, la adquisición de activos y acceso a oportunidades y la construcción de su autonomía y ciudadanía, y por otra parte, para el desarrollo social y económico de los países en el presente y futuro, comprendiendo que las desigualdades que se padecen desde la infancia, además de ser fuente de injusticia en esta etapa de la vida, se proyectan y amplifican hasta la edad adulta. La información que se presenta busca aportar al diseño de políticas públicas pertinentes y eficaces que permitan garantizarles la realización de sus derechos con miras a cimentar en la región un desarrollo con igualdad, más aún en el contexto de la recientemente aprobada Agenda 2030 para el Desarrollo Sostenible (ONU, 2015).