Social Policy and Child Rights Monitoring
UNICEF is working to increase the availability of reliable data on the position of children and women in Serbia, especially on violence prevention and inclusive education, to help uncover possible risk factors and inequities
- Available in:
- Srpski
- English
What we do?
- We support the national system reform processes and monitor the implementation of laws and policies aimed at children and establishing an accountability system. We analyse data trends and advise on how these data can be used strategically in developing and implementing inclusive national policies, laws and programmes, as well as mechanisms for monitoring and addressing violations of child rights.
- UNICEF supports national governmental and independent bodies, as well as local self-governments, on child rights and child-centred, evidence-based policy-making, budgeting and monitoring. We support child rights monitoring by civil society and independent monitoring institutions, the Ministry for Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue, and others.
- We support parliaments at the national, provincial and local levels in building the capacity of their members to oversee the planning, implementation and budgeting of policies related to children.
- UNICEF supports the Government of the Republic of Serbia to efficiently utilize existing public financing and leverage new resources so that children and adolescents, particularly those who are the most marginalized, progressively benefit from inclusive policies and programmes, public finance and public spending.
Supporting the national and local government in creating policies to help implement child- and adolescent-relevant Sustainable Development Goals
Advocating for the use of credible data in formulating, implementing and monitoring child-focused policies, programmes and budgets
Challenges
Data shows there are large disparities in the status of certain groups of children, depending on whether they live in urban or rural areas, and on their parents’ level of education and their socio-economic status.
Inequalities in childhood can have lifelong consequences, and disadvantages at an early age often result in poorer outcomes for children across health, education and social protection. Children who do not reach their full potential cannot contribute fully to social, political and economic growth, and those who grow up in poverty are more likely to be poor when they are older, perpetuating a cycle of poverty and disadvantage.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child called on the Government of Serbia to strengthen overall data and information management systems at both national and local levels and that the data should be used to inform policies, programmes and support the monitoring of these.
- Disaggregated administrative data are needed for monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to ensure no child is left behind.
- Children and young people have limited opportunities to participate in decisions that shape their lives and to monitor the status of their rights.
- Children are at greater risk of poverty than the adult population.
Results
UNICEF uses evidence to achieve results for children. Together with our partners, we have recently completed major studies, including:
- Serbia Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2019
- Socio-economic Impact of COVID-19 on Families with Children in Serbia
- Climate Landscape Analysis for Children
- Public Expenditure Review in the Human Development sectors (in partnership with the World Bank).
A total of 25 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators are now available through data produced by the Serbia Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2019, disaggregated by sex, urban/rural settlements, region, wealth quintile etc. The survey provides a vast resource of data to inform rights-based policy-making and results monitoring.
Beside that:
- The Ombudsman, Commissioner for the Protection of Equality, the Parliament and other institutions have been supported and strengthened for improved monitoring of child rights.
- Training on child rights for civil servants in local self-governments has been accredited and is ready for further roll-out to strengthen their child rights sensitive planning and programming.
- Indicators to monitor the implementation of recommendations by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child have been formulated and are being used by civil society organizations with UNICEF’s support to strengthen the fulfilment of child rights in Serbia.
