Child Wellbeing in Uzbekistan: Developing a Common Vision

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Child Wellbeing in UzbekistanDeveloping a
Common Vision

• Preliminary results of the country study in
  Uzbekistan

2-4 April 2008 Tashkent, Uzbekistan
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Living Standards in Uzbekistan (1)

• Measuring approaches
• Income-based poverty (low limit of wages)
• Community-based self-assessment poverty (system
  of social protection through makhalla)
• Consumption-based poverty (the calorie-based
  2100 k/cal)

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Living Standards in Uzbekistan (2)

• Public policy and measures
• Social orientation of transition period
  (doctrine)
• Full coverage of social policy to avoid sharp
  fall in living standards (in early years of
  transition)
• The highest level of social policy expenditures
  among CIS countries and other transition
  economies
• Targeted measures of public policy against
  individual groups of population
• Narrowing of coverage, strengthening of
  targetness, increasing of volumes

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Living Standards in Uzbekistan (3)

• WIS a comprehensive approach at the national
  level
• Transition from socially-oriented policy to
  pro-poor macroeconomic and institutional
  reforms
• Consolidation of all macroeconomic, sectoral and
  regional (territorial) programs into a single
  strategy to provide comprehensivity (complexity)
  and synergies
• Attempting to reconsider macroeconomic policy
  from export-led growth to investment-led
  growth

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Living Standards in Uzbekistan (4)

• Regionalization and localization of WIS
• Localization of national priorities a unified
  instrument for WIS implementation
• Developing of regional development strategies
  strengthening of local capacities, complexity,
  priorities
• Strengthening of local (regional) capacities to
  ensure targetness of fiscal, monetary and social
  policies for improving living standards,
  especially vulnerable population groups
• Examples Republic of Karakalpakstan, Namangan,
  Fergana and Kashkadaraya Viloyats (provinces)

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Child Wellbeing Profile in Uzbekistan (1)

• The most sensitive categories
• C1 Children from big families
• C2 Children from rural families, living in
  mountain and other remote regions
• C3 Children from families with single parent
• C4 Children with disabilities
• C5 Children from families with no temporary or
  permanent registration
• C6 Children in public care
• C7 Street children
• C8 Children of migrants
• C9 Children whose parents are unemployed

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Child Wellbeing Profile in Uzbekistan (2)

• Analysis of Child Wellbeing through 3 segments
• S1 Household income and expenditure patterns
  analysis of household priorities and their impact
  on child wellbeing
• S2 Access to public services and resources
  analysis of accessibility and quality of
  guaranteed public services and its implications
  for child wellbeing
• S3 Welfare implications of government polices
  decision-making and policy-making processes
  institutional-legal framework

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Child Wellbeing Profile in Uzbekistan (3)

• Measurement and indicators
• Availability and accessibility of statistical
  information, in particular, the key indicators of
  child wellbeing (e.g., the level and
  concentration of child wellbeing / poverty)
• Data incompatibilities due differing definitions,
  data collection and processing methods (e.g., a
  lack of commonly accepted definition of child
  wellbeing / poverty)
• Frequency, timeliness and disaggregation level of
  available data on child wellbeing / poverty

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Child Wellbeing Profile in Uzbekistan (4)
Note Most of indicators mentioned above, mainly
in Global Study, either not available or the
quality is under question. Therefore there is a
need for further study, including conducting a
specialized survey.
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Policy Environment and Institutions policy
priorities (1)

• Priorities of social and economic policies
  reflects the main components of human development
  doctrine
• Employment and income generation
• Targeted employment programs
• Private sector development
• Elasticity of employment with respect to economic
  growth is low. For every one percentage point
  change in the economic growth rate, there is, on
  average, a 0.3-0.4 percentage point increase in
  formal-sector employment. At the same time
  employment does not always protect from poverty.
• Strong focus on guaranteeing protection for the
  vulnerable groups
• Pensions, allowances and other transfers plays
  important role in supporting vulnerable groups,
  including poor families with children
• Some allowances are allocated specifically for
  families with children
• Despite wide coverage (1) targeting is good but
  can be improved, not all elements of social
  protection achieve the goal (2) the amount paid
  to a household can be inadequate to protect the
  family, (3) there are no guarantees that money
  paid to the family will be used in the best
  interest of the child.

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Policy Environment and Institutions policy
priorities (2)

• Focus on development of education
• Considerable investments in infrastructure
• Almost universal access to primary and secondary
  education, high rates of literacy
• Focus on development of professional education
• At the same time the quality of services does it
  not meet the requirements of labor market. It
  limits the opportunities for productive
  employment.
• Focus on development of healthcare system
• Development of primary healthcare, particularly
  in rural areas
• Specific attention to the focus on reproductive
  and maternal health, and child health
• Balanced nutrition, access to drinking water and
  sanitation focus on root causes, not on
  consequences.
• But, (1) accessibility and quality of health care
  services can be improved, (2) more efforts are
  needed to improve living conditions and health of
  the population.

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Policy Environment and Institutions strategy
and policy measures

• No child poverty profile
• At the same time
• In accordance with WIS and other strategic
  documents essential structural reforms will be
  continued to maintain long-term sustainability of
  the economy
• This implies trade-offs for particular groups of
  population
• Social policy will play an important role
  compensating those trade-offs, including
  protection of children
• Effective institutions are needed to improve
  social policy (situation analysis, policy
  formulation, implementation and revision)

• policy measures no not address the needs of
  vulnerables
• insufficient coverage of vulnerable groups
• low efficiency of poverty reduction measures

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Policy Environment and Institutions
implementation mechanisms

• Policy formulation
• Lack of bottom-up signals and inadequate policies
  and inadequate policy measures
• Lack of capacities to assess policy implications
  on child wellbeing during policy formulation
• Inability to program clear outcomes
• Policy implementation
• Insufficient and untimely financing
• Lack of institutional and human capacities on the
  local level
• Unclear distribution of powers and
  responsibilities
• Inability to localize policies and ensure that
  outcomes are achieved
• Program and strategy monitoring and assessment
• Weakness/absence of monitoring systems
• Lack of flexibility in policy formulation and
  implementation, particularly on local level

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Partnership in preparation of Country Study

• Consensus building and coordination of efforts
• Optimization of policies and measures,
  strengthening of monitoring and evaluation system
  
• Local capacity building