Submitted by crinadmin on
[30 May 2013] - The data in this year's UN report on children throws up as many surprises as predictable patterns. In which country are children most likely to die before they reach the age of 5? Where are teenage girls most likely to believe wife-beating is justified? And which countries have improved the most for children since 1990? Statistics aren't always child's play, as this new release from the United Nations demonstrates today. The UN Children's Fund (Unicef) have published their annual State of the World's Children report and it makes for some complicated reading. Not least because the references in the report run into the hundreds and have varying degrees of reliability. That's partly because this Unicef report has made an admirable effort to look at national differences of a world-wide issue facing millions of children around the world: disability. We take a look at some of the disability concerns the report highlights, as well as other trends in everything from children's nutrition to education around the world.  Well that all depends on what you value, and who you are. You might not be happy to be an adolescent girl in Niger or the Central African Republic where 59% and 55% of your would-be counterparts respectively are married. What's more, since those numbers are 3% in Niger and 11% in the Central African Republic for adolescent boys, these numbers would suggest that young girls are marrying men far older than them. Unsurprisingly, countries where adolescents are most likely to be married are also the places where they're most likely to have a higher birth rate. The UK, where there are 25 births per 1,000 girls aged 15-19 pales in comparison to Niger where there are 199 births per 1,000. At the other extreme of the list you may find a few surprises - there are just 2 births per 1,000 girls in South Korea, and 4 per 1,000 in Libya and in Algeria. Attitudes differ enormously across the world, even amongst some of the youngest members of society. In Jordan, 91% of girls think wife-beating is justified - in Timor Leste, 81% of girls think the same, compared to 72% of boys. Girls that are least likely to hold a belief that if married they could justifiably be beaten are in Serbia (2%), Ukraine (3%) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (4%). Even more interestingly, this doesn't appear related to access to information. Girls in Jordan have some of the best access to mass media in the world with 97% using a newspaper, magazine, television or radio at least once a week. In Egypt, where the same proportion of girls have access to mass media, 50% believe that wife-beating is justified. Adolescents, defined as those aged between 10 and 19, are an inflated part of the demographic make up of Timor-Leste (where they're 26% of the population) and Zimbabwe, Swaziland and the State of Palestine (25% in each).  Choosing to focus on disability, though a critical aspect of well-being, is not the easiest point of analysis. A lack of understanding about disability, a lack of money or willingness to invest in measurement as well as continued stigmatisation around disability are among the reasons that internationally comparable data is difficult to find. Another issue is that of evolving definitions. In Turkey, when asked 'do you have a visible physical disability, mental disorder or psychological defect' 1% of respondents said yes. When reworded, and additional questions were asked, that rose to 12%. Similarly big jumps in the percentage of disabled children can be seen in case studies from Australia to Uganda. As a result, the report suggests that though millions of children undoubtedly live with a moderate or severe disability of some kind, the widely-circulated figure of 93 million (1 in 20 of those aged 14 or younger) is "essentially speculative". But even without being sure on the totals, the report highlights several key vulnerabilities that children with disability face. From a lower chance of receiving healthcare and education, to being more at risk of violence and abuse, the report finds that children with disabilities are often faced with exclusion from their societies. It also finds that girls are "doubly disabled": constrained not only by the inequalities and prejudice that disability often encounters, but also that of gender-discrimination. The research claims that girls with a disability are also less likely to receive food than their male counterparts - though food is a theme that runs throughout the report.  Nutrition is features heavily in this report, not least because it finds that there is a strong causal link between poor diet and disability. What's more it finds this link works in both directions - that malnutrition can increase the likelihood of developing a disability and that some conditions can make it more difficult for children to receive the nutrients they need. The number of children at risk isn't small. The report finds that 165 million children aged under five lack vital vitamins and minerals to such an extent that they are chronically malnourished. The Executive Director of Unicef, David Bull stated: "Sadly for children in some of the world's poorest countries lack of nutrition can have serious long term physical and mental effects" But that doesn't mean that the world isn't characterised by some big extremes. Just take the percentage of children that are moderately or severely underweight and compare it to those that are moderately or severely overweight. It's clear that the effect of income on nutrition isn't perfectly linear since the countries with the highest proportion of overweight children aren't the richest. Instead, it might be safe to assume that the most affluent countries, and those with the lowest levels of inequality such as those in Scandinavia are the least likely to suffer from these nutritional extremes. Some of the lowest literacy rates are to be found in Niger where less than 1 in 4 of girls aged 15 to 24 are able to read, though the number is slightly better for boys at 1 in 2. Receiving any form of education prior to primary school is a phenomenon that remains largely constrained to wealthy developed countries. In Yemen, just 1% of children have this luxury. A key statistic in understanding the fate of the world's children is the survival rate to the last grade of primary school. Though for many Eastern European countries such as Tajikistan, Armenia and Ukraine this figure is 100% the list of the ten worst countries is Africa-centric.  Urbanisation may be creating plenty of issues, but the push and pull factors remain powerful. In not one country that Unicef looked at was the chance that there would be a skilled attendant at birth higher in rural areas than urban ones. In Ethiopia, 4% of births in rural areas had a skilled healthcare attendant, while 51% of births in urban areas benefitted from this expertise. Similarly, children in urban areas across the world were far less likely to be underweight and were more likely to use improved sanitation facilities and receive treatment for diarrhoea.  It's not all bleak though. By looking at each country's under-5 mortality rate, and seeing how its position has changed over time, Unicef is also able to look at which countries have shown the most improvement. Topping the list are some of the world's smallest countries - Maldives, San Marino, Oman and Estonia - which have been able to reverse their fortunes from being some of the most deadliest countries to be aged under 5 to some of the safest. Other countries showing big improvements since 1990 are Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Peru and Egypt. Meanwhile, Barbados has shown a shocking 10% increase in its under 5 mortality rate, surpassed only by Swaziland where this has grown by 24%.  This is where this data could hold real value in terms of insight about improving children's lives (though we of course remember the golden data maxim: correlation doesn't prove causality). Because there are so many themes here, it's possible to test several different theories. Is greater use of violent discipline also found in places where there's more child labour? That would certainly appear to be the case in Yemen where 95% of children aged 2 to 14 receive physical punishment or psychological aggression and where almost 1 in 4 aged 5 to 14 are involved in economic activity.  Where is the best country to be a child?
Best country to be a teenager
Disability
Nutrition
Education
Urban/rural differences
Most progress
Correlation